The Moria camp burned down last week in fires that Greek authorities said were deliberately set over lockdown restrictions imposed after a coronavirus outbreak.

A smuggling boat sank off the southern Greek island of Crete on Monday, leaving three dead, while a large rescue operation managed to save 56 others from the sea, authorities said.

Francis recalled visiting the Moria camp during an emotional April 16, 2016 day trip to Lesbos that ended with Francis bringing 12 Syrian refugees back with him to Rome aboard the papal plane.

Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis said an estimated 1,000 forever residents of the Moria camp were expected to relocate to the tent city by late Sunday and that getting everyone housed at the new site would take several days.

Thousands of migrants fled a camp under COVID-19 lockdown after multiple fires gutted much of the site on the Greek island of Lesbos, authorities said early Wednesday.

The blaze at the refugee center came amid a tense standoff between Turkey and the European Union over who is responsible for the millions of migrants and refugees on Turkish territory and the thousands who have massed recently at the Greek border.

On Wednesday, one person was killed and five others were wounded after Greek police and border guards opened fired on the migrants making a push to cross the border, Turkish authorities said. The Greek government, however, rejected the assertion as “fake news.”

A resurgence in the number of migrants and refugees arriving by sea to Lesbos and other eastern Greek islands has caused severe overcrowding at refugee camps.

Dunja Mijatovic, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, said she had witnessed people queuing for food or to use a bathroom for more than three hours at refugee camps for asylum seekers on two Greek islands.

A speeding car carrying migrants collided with a truck in northern Greece on Saturday, killing 11 people, police said.