Greece’s main opposition SYRIZA party has warned against a rise in anti-migrant sentiment over allegations that wildfires in the northern Evros region were started by some migrants.
The wildfires over the weekend have left 20 people dead over the last week.
Eighteen of those, including two boys aged between 10 and 15, are believed to be migrants. Their bodies were found near a shack in a burnt forest area near Alexandroupolis in northeastern Greece.
Sixty firefighters have been injured, fire department spokesman Ioannis Artopios said.
Noting that 18 people thought to be irregular migrants were killed in wildfires in the region, SYRIZA said that migrants have become scapegoats for the inability of the government to deal effectively with the fires.
The wildfire in the Alexandroupolis region, burning for a sixth day, combined with smaller fires to create a massive blaze that consumed homes and vast tracts of forest and triggered multiple evacuations of villages and of the city's hospital.
SYRIZA's statement on Thursday also accused the government of sending messages of hate cultivating the feeling of an external enemy.
“Prosecutors must intervene immediately against any call for pogroms by unsolicited militiamen in Evros,” it said, adding the country faces a danger of fascism which spreads violence “in the mountains of Evros, in the neighbourhoods of Athens, in the dark alleys.”
On Wednesday, Greece's Supreme Court Prosecutor Georgia Adeilini reacted to the disastrous wildfires in Alexandroupolis and a racist incident, which involved the locking of 25 migrants in a truck trailer.
The incident was broadcast live while people were chanting racist slogans.
Adeilini called for an inquiry into the causes of the deadly fire in the northeastern region of Evros and a detailed investigation into the detention incident.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people protested in the capital Athens against the government’s handling of the fires, which they called ineffective and insufficient.
On Friday evening, PAME, a major trade union, will also hold a rally to protest against the government over the wildfires.
