The “hotspots” experiment: removing human rights from the equation

In North Aegean, Lesvos continues to be the island with the highest number of arrivals (53% of the total number of refugee arrivals on all islands). During the first nine months of this year, nearly 4,000 more refugees reached the island’s shores in comparison to the same period last year. In September, the situation in Moria hotspot (camp) reached once more a crisis point as arrivals continued and over 8,500 lived in dire conditions inside and outside the officially designated camp.

At the end of September in an attempt to tackle the severe overcrowding and crisis in Moria, the Greek authorities intensified transfers to the mainland. Still, thousands including small babies remained in summer tents inside and outside Moria hotspot at a time when civil protection authorities issued multiple warnings over strong winds and rainfalls all over Greece. Recently announced plans to move refugees and migrants living in tents to other shelters in anticipation of the winter also show the repeated lack of preparedness by the authorities as far as winterization measures are concerned.

INHUMAN CONDITIONS

The majority of the people in Moria hotspot (camp) are able to move freely outside but unable to leave the island for many months as a result of the controversial geographical restriction policy.^[4] The island and the camp itself have become in essence an ‘open prison’. The name of Moria camp has been equated to living hell because of the inhuman living conditions such as extreme overcrowding; insecurity; violence including sexual violence and harassment; living in flimsy tents; exposure to the elements such as heat, strong winds, cold and rain; complete lack of hygiene; insufficient number of toilets and showers; lack or limited access to medical assistance; lack of electricity; limited or no hot water; everyday interruptions to the water supply; and long waiting lines during meal distribution! Among the thousands of refugees living in these conditions are many vulnerable such as victims of torture, persons with serious disabilities, pregnant women and newborn babies.

In mid-July, overcrowding was so bad that in the container accommodation sections, there were between 50 and 70 refugees sleeping in each of the containers and the rest in tents around the containers. Refugees told RSA about suffering from scabies, allergies and microbial skin infections as a result of the conditions in the tents. Meanwhile families shared the same tents with single men.

As daily arrivals continued to increase during August and September and transfers to the mainland were slow, the situation in the camp reached unique levels of crisis. In mid-September, daily arrivals exceeded 250 and the camp’s population was two and half times its official capacity. Outside the fences of the camp the neighbouring hill known as the “Olive Grove” is full of tents and has become in essence a second “camp” next to the Moria hotspot. In a damning statement, MSF said that Moria camp was in a state of emergency regarding the physical and mental health of refugees living there. ^[5] RIC staff reported the dire conditions and the dangers they posed for refugees and employees.^[6] Also, in a move that could be interpreted more as aiming to put pressure to the central government than to address the conditions, the North Aegean Regional Director announced that the camp would be closed if the problems would not be rectified. ^[7] In response to the dire situation, the Greek authorities accepted the difficulty of the situation and devised a plan for the transfer of 2,000 refugees to the mainland by the end of September. ^[8]

In the last week of September, RSA visited the “Olive Grove” where thousands of refugees including many vulnerable have set up tents or sleep rough. The tent camp was growing daily until strong winds reduced new arrivals. Many of the tents in the designated camp area and in the “Olive Grove” are flimsy summer tents that cannot protect the refugees from the weather elements such as strong winds, dropping temperatures or rain nor from snakes that exist in the area. Often refugees have to buy wooden pallets for 3 to 5 Euros each in order to build the base for their tents to protect them from the cold or rain. Refugees with very little money are forced to buy cables and risk their lives in order to install lights in their tents to avoid staying in complete dark during the night.

Over 8, 500 refugees living in the camp have to queue in long lines for everything: food, showers, toilettes, doctors.^[9] For sick people and people with disabilities, the difficulty to access the few available services in Moria is even greater as they also have to go up and down steep hills.

‘” I can hardly move up and down the hill, between olive trees, rocks and tents”, told us Asadi*, a male refugee from Afghanistan who has a serious physical disability. He has been living in a tent for the past two months and without electricity for one month. He described the impact of the bad weather conditions upon those living in the Grove: “Yesterday the storm destroyed my brother’s tent. He has been sleeping rough after that….”.

“I have had two operations after a severe injury in my belly. I suffer from Rheumatism. Sometimes I cannot walk at all, sometimes I walk with crutches. I cannot wait in the food line, but when I tell them I have strong pain they ask me for medical certificates to prove it. The other women shout at me that I am pretending to be sick to have easy access. Yesterday I came back from the food line without food. I was crying,” said Anousheh*, a young Afghan woman who is a victim of serious violence.

Refugees living in the “Olive Grove” told RSA that the showers have just cold water and there are so many people waiting in the line. Mothers were forced to wash their babies in front of their tents instead of using a shower while their kids lacked warm winter clothing. RSA also saw overflowing garbage bins and waste water entering the tents.

“Today we found a snake in our tent. We don’t dare going back in so me and my children will stay outside tonight. There is no difference between sleeping in the tent or outside”, told us an Afghan female refugee who arrived with her family on Lesvos during the first week of September 2018.

“My child has diarrhea for the past three weeks and is now coughing. I fear he will die here. I don’t know where to find help. My child needs to go to hospital, but I have no money to take a taxi. In the camp, they would call the ambulance only if someone has been stabbed and is bleeding”, said Afsoon* from Afghanistan, who is among the latest arrivals in the “Olive Grove”.

LIMITED ACCESS TO MEDICAL ASSISTANCE

Many difficulties exist with access to medical assistance and initial vulnerability assessments as a result of the insufficient number of health care staff working in the hotspot such doctors and interpreters and the increasing population. In July, when the hotspot accommodated around 7,500 refugees and migrants the state agency responsible for the provision of primary health care and initial vulnerability assessment in the hotspot (KEELPNO) informed RSA that it had 43 staff deployed in the camp including 1 general doctor, 14 nursing staff, 5 psychologists, and three interpreters.^{[10] [11]} Refugees interviewed by RSA at that time described how they had to wait in lines for hours in order to see a doctor and that there were not always interpreters.

In September and at time when the camp’s population was at its peak, there was reportedly only one doctor and no interpreters to assist them in the camp. Refugees – especially mothers with children – spoke with despair about the very poor conditions and the challenges they face in accessing health care and necessary medicines.

“I arrived without my (asthma) medication. The worst thing is the smell (that is) everywhere. I cannot breathe. I queued for hours to get an asthma inhaler. …It’s like hell here”. Single mother from Afghanistan.

A CRUMBLING VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT SYSTEM

The camp population and doctors/ interpreters low ratio results in very vulnerable people waiting for many months to have their vulnerability assessed and identified. In September, RSA was informed by vulnerable refugees that they had to wait for up to four months for their initial vulnerability assessments by KEELPNO. Meanwhile, they continued living in summer tents in the “Olive Grove”.

Delays in appointments result in many vulnerable people living in inappropriate conditions that are not suitable for their needs and not receiving the appropriate medical and psychosocial care. Furthermore until their vulnerability is recognized they may not be exempted by the fast-track border procedures nor they can have their geographical restriction lifted so they can travel to the mainland.

RSA also believes the insufficient personnel and high number of vulnerable population in the camp results in lesser time being dedicated to qualified assessments. This means that vulnerabilities can escape from detection. Specifically, detection the persons with non-physical or ostensible vulnerabilities such as victims of SGBV or torture is very difficult in such conditions.

At the end of August, RSA met a Mohamed*. a refugee from Afghanistan who had been living with Fardi*, his severely disabled 14 year-old son from a first marriage, second wife, 18 year-old daughter and other minor son in Moria camp. Fardi* could not move his legs, hands, walk or speak. The family arrived in Moria in May this year but it took a month for Fardi’s vulnerability to be identified. Their asylum claims were registered at the end of June and their asylum interviews were scheduled 10 months after the initial registration. In mid-September, the family still lived in difficult conditions in Moria despite Fardi’s identified and severe disability and the impact that these conditions had upon his health. Mohamed* said: “In recent weeks my boy does not want to eat, does not sleep and I have repeatedly asked for him to be examined by a specialist doctor”. RSA intervened on their behalf to the Greek authorities and requested their transfer to the mainland and in appropriate accommodation. By the end of September, the family’s geographical restriction had been lifted but the Lesvos Asylum Office did not do the same for the 18-year-old daughter of the family. The family, who cannot be separated by the young adult girl is hosted in Kara Tepe and has been trying to find a solution so the family travels all together.

RSA also met with a young family from Afghanistan that lived in a tent in the “Olive Grove” with their newborn baby and small toddler. The family was registered by the RIC in mid-August 2018 and the date they were given for the registration of their asylum claim was the end of September. However, the scheduled date for their examination of their case and assessment of vulnerability by KEELPNO was the third week of November, i.e. nearly two months after the registration of their asylum claims and three months after their registration by RIC. As a result, the family including the three month-old baby and four year-old continue to live in a tent in dire conditions. The impact on the baby’s and mother’s health has been detrimental. RSA intervened on their behalf to the Greek authorities and requested their transfer to the mainland and in appropriate accommodation. By the end of September, the lift of their geographical restriction was still pending and the family remained in a summer tent on the “Olive Grove”. After strong winds and a wave of cold, the baby had to be transferred to hospital.

“My wife went with our baby to the hospital. There was no space to keep them, so in the night they returned to us to the tent. I don’t know how to protect my family under these circumstances!” the tired father said.

LIVING IN FEAR

The very poor conditions combined with the lack of information about the progress of an individual’s legal situation and his/her future lead to almost every day tensions and violence among the refugees as well as the refugees and the police and on certain instances serious violence that can pose a threat to the lives and wellbeing of those living in the hotspot. Violence that erupted on 25 May 2018 led to around 900 Kurdish and Yazidi refugees abandoning the hotspot and tried to seek shelter in places such as Mytilene parks and PIKPA camp. ^[12] On 9 July, more serious violence erupted between different ethnic groups and resulted to at a reported 55 persons including women seeking medical assistance for injuries and destroyed tents. Refugees had to flee again for safety and a 16 year-old Syrian boy was shot and injured by a local farmer when the boy and his family sought shelter in the farmer’s yard.^[13]

In mid-July, refugees told RSA that they experienced a great sense of insecurity as a result of the clashes and violence in the hotspot and felt unable to sleep. RSA has also been informed of cases of LGBTI persons being subjected twice to homophobic attacks while staying in the camp and women feeling fear, and insecurity and being exposed to SGBV.^[14]

By the end of September refugees in and outside of Moria perceived violence a normal part of their daily suffering in the camp.

DEPRIVING CHILDREN OF A FUTURE

While many school-age refugee children living in Kara-Tepe camp and other structures accommodation structures have access to formal education, children of the same age living in Moria camp are still waiting to access formal education this school year.^[15]

The situation of UAMs on the island also remains precarious as nearly 319 were in different places around the hotspot in mid-September. Different actors still detect unaccompanied children that have not been identified as minors by the authorities and referred to age assessment procedures. Delays are also reported in the conduct of age-assessment procedures and in the protection of minors once they are identified.

ASYLUM

The registration of the new arrivals’ asylum claims takes place a few weeks or about a month after arrival on the island. The European Asylum Support Office (EASO) is actively involved in national asylum procedures since the beginning of the EU-Turkey deal. Following another legislative amendment^[16] in September 2018, EASO’s initial mandate for participation in the border procedure was further extended to conducting asylum interviews in all types of asylum procedures in Greece. This change gave EASO a central role in the examination of asylum claims.

Most recently there has been a change in practice and EASO conducts exclusively all asylum interviews on the island even for people who have been identified by RIC staff as highly vulnerable. Then caseworkers of the Lesvos Regional Asylum Office (RAO) are called to issue a decision based on the interviews conducted by EASO personnel and their opinion without having ever met the applicants unless they (RAO) request for a complementary interview.

The time-frame for the examination of an asylum claim varies but generally asylum-seekers are faced with complicated procedures, long delays and lack of information about their asylum procedure.

At present, asylum interviews with EASO on the island may be scheduled for up to 9 months later, even for vulnerable cases. Syrian asylum-seekers classified as vulnerable are usually referred to the regular procedures in the mainland and face prolonged wait for their asylum interview. RSA has been informed of cases where appointments have been scheduled for the winter of 2021.

Most asylum seekers receive no legal aid during the registration of their claims and their interviews and authorities are still not able to ensure access of the applicants to legal aid during the examination of the appeals, as it is their obligation under national and EU law.

Currently on Lesvos there is no free legal aid scheme ^[17] for the second instance. There is no lawyer appointed by the State’s registry for legal aid . The sole lawyer of the State’s Registry  stopped undertaking cases since last May  and the organizations present on the island provide ad hoc legal assistance to a limited number of cases.

In September following the crisis situation in Moria and the outcry over the conditions, the authorities started transferring hundreds of vulnerable refugees to the mainland. However, they all have to return back to the island for their asylum interviews. It is unclear who will inform them about this fact in the camps they got transferred, so they won’t miss their interview and who will carry the cost of their return journeys to the island when the time for their interview comes. For families transferred recently to camps in Northern/Northeastern Greece such as Katsikas and Volvi, the journey back to Lesvos could cost them more than their monthly allowance.

XENOPHOBIA

As with other North Aegean islands such as Chios and Samos, during the year there have been increasing reactions by local residents from Moria village against the presence of the hotspot as well as xenophobic manifestations and racist attacks. In June, the representative of Moria Municipality Council went on hunger strike for several days in protest about the conditions in the hotspot and their impact upon the health and safety of village residents. ^[18]