In Moria camp, I see the tragic human consequences of a political solidarity crisis
Ahead of World Refugee Day, Natalia-Rafaella Kafkoutsou shares her experience as an NGO worker in the desperately overcrowded Moria camp on the Greek island of Lesbos.
Late last year, the head of the EU’s fundamental human rights agency visited the EU-sponsored refugee camp of Moria on the Greek island of Lesbos. The conditions in the camp were “the single most worrying fundamental rights issue that we are confronting anywhere in the European Union,” he said after his visit. I live and work in Lesbos, and in Moria camp I see the tragic human consequences of a purely political crisis every day.
I work for the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR) as a lawyer. We help people who arrive to the island in search for safety and dignity. In an incredibly vulnerable moment in their lives, they are confronted with the highly complex process of seeking asylum in Greece.
Most of the people we work with are unfamiliar with the steps involved in the asylum-seeking process, their rights and obligations, or the importance of the asylum interview where they explain why they were forced to flee their homes. At GCR, we explain the process to people and help them with legal guidance to make sure nobody is sent back to a situation where their health or life are in danger.
Moria is an EU-made human rights crisis
I have worked with refugees since 2015, and this is not my first time working in a refugee camp. But when I first came to Moria, the previous experiences paled by comparison.
Upon entering I felt this terrible suffocating atmosphere drain my energy, and even small tasks would leave me exhausted. The emotional fatigue of being surrounded by such a bleak environment is unbelievable.
This is a crisis of European making, a direct consequence of the EU-Turkey deal of 2016.
Moria camp is dangerously overcrowded: currently, 18,000 people live in the camp — six times its official capacity.
Living conditions are extremely unsanitary. Thousands of people, including many children, live in flimsy tents and make-shift shelters, and they often don’t even have sufficient access to water or basic healthcare.
As a female NGO worker in Moria, I try not to draw attention to myself. The way the camp is built makes women particularly vulnerable to gender-based violence. Those who cannot access the female-only sections try and stay in their tents as much as possible.
These conditions make measures like social distancing, regular handwashing and self-isolation impossible, increasing the risk of a devastating COVID-19 outbreak.
NGOs and migrants face violence and limited resources
At the Greek Council for Refugees, we are a small office of three to four lawyers, four interpreters and a social worker.
We’re one of the oldest NGOs working on the ground with refugees, and one of the few places where people arriving can receive free legal aid. Like other NGOs, we too are stretched to maximum capacity to try and support as many people as possible.
Our work has become more and more difficult lately. Tensions on the island have been building for a long time. During the crisis of 2015 which prompted unprecedented numbers of people to flee to Europe for safety, the solidarity of the island of Lesbos was an example for the rest of the EU.
But now, many locals are frustrated by the lack of progress and the containment of asylum-seekers in the island due to the EU-Turkey deal. The construction of closed facilities on the Aegean islands to house some of the refugee population prompted xenophobic and violent protests by some of the local residents. Extremists attacked people: migrants, NGO workers, journalists. At GCR, we had to close our offices for three weeks — and had to try and reach our clients through the phone to explain why we were closed.
I see my own government turn their backs on people seeking safety
The situation deteriorated after the recent border row between Turkey and Greece, which left ordinary people, including many families, stranded in no man’s land. As a Greek citizen, it makes me immensely sad to see this situation add fuel to the racist anti-migrant rhetoric of the protestors on the islands.
Greece then suspended asylum applications for all arrivals in March and closed the offices of the asylum service during the coronavirus pandemic lockdown. When COVID-19 measures were introduced, authorities also forced people arriving on the island to live, eat and sleep on the beach for over a month, with no shelter and no aid.
The already-restricted access of NGOs was reduced further by lockdown measures, giving us little chance to help.
Moria residents show incredible strength in unbearable conditions
Everybody I have worked with has their own story to tell — the number of lives trapped in Moria is overwhelming. The people living in the camp amaze me with their strength and determination to pursue a better future after going through unimaginable suffering.
I am also inspired by their effort to actively improve their situation and advocate for what they need. Every week, representatives from different sections of the camp meet with the local authorities to represent their community.
People in the camp also want to work and contribute to the community. Moria residents put on events and participate in campaigns: some of them raise awareness on the coronavirus and recently created an awareness video on recommended hygiene and social distancing measures.
The European solidarity crisis
I would like to see similar determination from Europe: Greece and the 26 other EU member states should support these people seeking asylum so they can start rebuilding their lives. What we see in Europe is not a crisis of migration; it is a crisis in solidarity.
I want solidarity from my own government, to step up and provide the aid that is desperately needed. We also need an asylum system that treats people with dignity and respects their fundamental rights, not one that traps people in a miserable limbo.
The coronavirus pandemic has shown every one of us the importance of looking after our families, friends and neighbours, and of protecting the most vulnerable.
If there’s one thing we should learn from the pandemic, it’s that we are all together in this global crisis. We are all human: let us not lose our human side.
This entry posted on 17 June 2020, by Natalia-Rafaella Kafkoutsou, a lawyer at the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR).
Oxfam has been working with GCR since 2016. We are currently, among others, working in a joint advocacy project to raise awareness of human rights violations on the Greek islands and the impact of EU policies on people seeking asylum in Greece.
