A Greek resident of the island of Lesbos has filed a complaint after discovering illegal migrants had built a makeshift mosque on her property that is located near a notorious migrant camp.
Lesbos resident Maria Komninaki said the makeshift mosque was built on her land, a former olive grove. She expressed disbelief that the illegal migrants were allowed to build the structure on her property, which is located near the Moria migrant camp.
Ms Komninaki wrote about the mosque on Facebook, saying she examined it while accompanied by the police and a government official, Proto Thema reports.
“Access to the area was made under adverse conditions as we had to go through sewage, garbage, and all kinds of dirt. Arriving at the former olive grove and now a plot of land, I was surprised to find that the makeshift construction they had started three months ago — of which I had alerted town planning, the police, the district, the prosecutor, and the municipality — has now been completed,” she said.
She went on to question how no one in the area spoke up about the construction, saying: “Did they never hear the imam sing? Did they never see the building? Did anyone ever talk to them about all this?”
According to Proto Thema, illegal migrants have occupied parts of the olive grove since 2015. The Greek newspaper said that with the help of pro-migrant NGOs, all 300 olive trees on the woman’s property had been cut or burnt down, with at least 5,000 having been cut down in the area in total since the start of the migrant crisis.
Greek lawyer Panagiotis Koufelos stated that the structure was initially proposed by a pro-migrant NGO and was supposed to be a school, not a mosque. He said that he would be filing an indictment against those who participated in the construction of the mosque.
The Moria migrant camp, which has operated over capacity for some time, has become well-known for incidents of physical and sexual violence, along with riots that have led to serious fires at the camp.