New walls divide Europe nowadays. Hungary is building a wall to stop migrants’ arrivals, Bulgaria sends armored vehicles to the border with Macedonia and the other EU states build barriers of soldiers and police is ready to repel people. EU leaders fight among each other because they are afraid of receiving migrants and losing consensus.
In the meantime Greece, already undermined from the economic crisis and political uncertainty, only in August reached record number of arrivals. In Lesvos 33 thousand migrants arrived since the beginning of the month until now. 90% of them, according to UNHCR data, are refugees who flee from conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Amnesty International warned already at the end of June about the difficult situation in Greece as reported by East.
Chaos and inhumane conditions for migrants in Greece
Greek authorities, because of lack of resources, cannot handle the increase in migrant arrivals, they rely on volunteers and activists of NGO and UNHCR. “This is not just a Greek tragedy, but a Europe-wide crisis. It is unfolding before the eyes of short-sighted European leaders who prioritize securing borders over helping survivors of conflict. The world is seeing the worst refugee crisis since the Second World War. What Europe’s borders need is not fences but safe entry points for refugees, and facilities to receive them with dignity.” said Gauri van Gulik, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Europe and Central Asia.
More than hundreds of migrants arrive every day to Lesvos, only during the night between the 10th and 11th of August 1,450 people arrived. Lesvos received more than 93 thousand migrants only since the beginning of 2015, seven times more than all arrivals in 2014, they were 12,187 in total. In general 160 thousand migrants arrived in Greece only during this year, while in 2014 they were 45,412. In Lesvos, in the detention centre for migrants Moria, migrants are received in squalid conditions: overcrowding, lack of sheets and blankets, filthy and old mattresses, toilets overflowing, and broken beds. Many people wait for available places in the camp, staying in tents or under the sun with temperature being 35 degrees and without any refuge.
While Syrian refugees are sent to the Kara Tepe camp, according to reports by Amnesty International, where they wait one or two days for documents allowing them to travel to Athens. This camp is unmanaged and it has been set up in a parking lot that should guest not more than 500 people, but there are more than 1,500 people at once every day. That’s why there are not enough toilets, showers and tents for all. Food and water are distributed by police and NGOs under a little coordination by the Greek authorities. The NGO Doctors Without Borders is in charge to maintain clean toilets and showers and manage the garbage, as written in Amnesty International report. Migrants who arrive in the Northern coast of the Island are forced to walk more than 70 km to arrive to the registration centre of Mytilene. There are only four buses to transport hundreds of migrants arriving every day, they are obviously not enough. Under the eyes of Amnesty International more than hundred Syrian and Afghan refugees, children and old people, walked and collapsed under 35 degrees and under complete absence of help by Greek authorities: tourists, locals and volunteers donate water and food. Once migrants arrive to Mytilene they have to queue behind more than 200 people every time under the sun. Interpreters and doctors volunteers are in short supply.
@IreneGiuntella
New walls divide Europe nowadays. Hungary is building a wall to stop migrants’ arrivals, Bulgaria sends armored vehicles to the border with Macedonia and the other EU states build barriers of soldiers and police is ready to repel people. EU leaders fight among each other because they are afraid of receiving migrants and losing consensus.
