LESBOS – After being burned out of the notorious Moria detention camp on the island of Lesbos, refugees and migrants moved into a tent city  for the winter found themselves flooded out by heavy rains.

The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR called on the New Democracy government to act fast to help people who had been left homeless and sleeping on streets and sidewalks for days after the fire, which officials said was set in protest over a quarantine to stop the spread of COVID-19 in the camp.

“Urgent action and improvements are needed to avoid further deterioration of living conditions for some 7,800 refugees and asylum-seekers currently sheltered in the emergency site in Kara Tepe,” the UNHCR said in a statement.

It said some “interim solutions” were found in the wake of the flooding caused by therainfall but warned that, “colder weather and the onset of winter will only bring more hardship for the people there,” reported Kathimerini.

Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis said that the majority of the facility had not been affected by the flooding and that those migrants whose tents were flooded were temporarily moved to “common areas,” disputing the report.