There was a period of time when the news was dominated by the global migrant crisis. A photo of a Syrian child washed up dead on a beach left people throughout Europe and indeed the world horrified, demanding better treatment and processing of refugees. As long as the crisis remained topical, people were regularly reminded of the millions of people left to live in camps at Europe’s fringes. Years later, these refugees have been somewhat forgotten, both in the news and in the minds of many. Yet they are still here, and unfortunately, they still lack many of the basic human rights that were so loudly, though briefly, demanded for them.
I was given the opportunity to speak at length with Gráinne, a volunteer who has first-hand experience working in one of the largest and most overcrowded refugee camps in Europe: Moria, on the Greek island of Lesvos. Gráinne has been working as a volunteer for two years, and has worked at the Moria camp for the past six months. She was able to share with me her personal experience of the camps, which highlight the gross gaps in Europe’s asylum system.
Gráinne arrived at the camp at the end of the last summer, and from the beginning she witnessed firsthand the hardship that these refugees were forced to endure. The camp at Moria has an official capacity of just 3,000 refugees. In reality, it currently holds 20,000, many of whom are women and children. She explained to me that conditions in the camp are extremely dire, with the gross overcrowding resulting in a strain on resources. The refugees have to queue for three hours for meals, they do not have access to hot water in the winter, and providing adequate medical care with supply shortages is challenging. She added that while NGOs are doing the best they can to aid the refugees, the severity of the situation can often make this extremely difficult to do.
Moria, Lesvos, 2016. (c) Martin Leveneur via Flickr Commons
“It’s a really hard pill to swallow, when you see these camps,” Gráinne said, “because it changes how you see Europe. You see extreme levels of human suffering, but at the same time you see overwhelming human resilience, strength and kindness.”
Despite this, Gráinne described how the strain on the camp’s resources, the locals and NGOs eventually became too great. “For months, the locals, refugees and aid workers spoke about the situation on the island being at breaking point,” and then in the last few weeks it finally broke.” In the past few weeks, Moria has experienced a great deal of protests, violence and instability. Many volunteers have been forced to leave due to a series of attacks on NGO workers, journalists and refugees at Moria.
"Moria camp should not be a normalised feature in anyone’s life, not the life of the refugees nor the life of the locals living on the island. They have been left to stand alone and face Europe’s worst humanitarian crisis since WW2 alone”
When asked for the cause of the tensions in the camp, Gráinne explained that a myriad of factors were responsible. The primary reason, she said, was the fact that the camp, which has existed since 2015, was intended to be a temporary solution. The locals and NGOs welcomed the refugees and had very good relations with them, but nobody had anticipated the camp to remain five years on, grossly over capacity. “The locals of Lesvos have stood alone, they are exhausted,” she described. “Moria camp should not be a normalised feature in anyone’s life, not the life of the refugees nor the life of the locals living on the island. They have been left to stand alone and face Europe’s worst humanitarian crisis since WW2 alone.”
Another major factor that led to tensions on the island reaching a breaking point, she explained, was a newly proposed refugee policy. “The Greek government had proposed the creation of ‘pre-departure centres’ on the islands, which is where asylum seekers landing on the islands would be taken and Moria camp would be closed. The news of this structure didn’t settle well with the locals. Athens riot police were sent in to see the creation of these centres built on Lesvos. After two days of striking and clashes with the locals, the riot police retreated from the island.” The locals reacted negatively to the proposal of these centres due largely to their experience of Moria camp and concerns that these proposed sites would also be overcrowded and undersupplied, describing the centres as a “prison for souls”.
“What happened in the days following was not representative of the local population, but of a small minority of locals who took their anger to refugees and NGO workers,” Gráinne continued. “Reports and footage shows NGO cars smashed, burnt out, their houses targeted and refugees and volunteers beaten up in the streets. The atmosphere was extremely tense. As things escalated, other locals began to fight back against this senseless violence, including the local hospital. The anger of the few was completely misplaced, it’s not the NGOs, the refugees nor the locals who stand in solidarity who are to blame, rather its Europe’s hostile border policies. It’s also other EU leaders who have failed to provide any assistance to the locals on the Greek islands, and take their share of the burden.”
There need to be huge reforms in Europe’s refugee policy and equal distribution of refugees to other nation states - it is not only wrong to allow a few nations to bear the brunt of the issue, but it leads to extremely deprived and inhumane conditions
Gráinne left the camp in early March, but she noted that Moria is not unique in its problems. In her two years as a volunteer, she found that the same issues exist across the camps in Europe. “The sad thing is, so much of the focus has been on the attacks on volunteers and refugees, or the opening of the borders. But so little has been mentioned about why this situation exists and how it can be changed,” she said. In order to create this change, a shift in attitudes at a Europe-wide policy level and a focus towards providing protection and safety for vulnerable persons is necessary. Another important move, she noted, is the equal distribution of the refugee population across European states. “Our European leaders need to act now and take responsibility, people trapped at the Turkish border and on the Greek islands in severely overcrowded camps need to be transported to safety on the Greek mainland but also to other EU countries.”
The current situation at the camp is dire. In addition to the tense atmosphere and confusion of recent months, there have been numerous confirmed cases of COVID19 on the island - an outbreak such as this, in an area with such huge sanitary and overcrowding issues, is one the camp can ill afford. The UN has called for the immediate evacuation of the camp, but the future of the refugees living there is uncertain. What is clear from Gráinne’s experience is that there need to be huge reforms in Europe’s refugee policy and equal distribution of refugees to other nation states - it is not only wrong to allow a few nations to bear the brunt of the issue, but it leads to extremely deprived and inhumane conditions for the refugees as a result of inefficient resources and space.