Today, RLS and Mobile Info Team have released a report on the conditions in camps for people seeking asylum in Greece.
The report is based on interviews with 30 people from nine camps across Greece.
“I can’t even let my children go to the toilet alone. I have to accompany them. I am scared all the time. We have one room for the four of us… This is like a very bad prison. My children are suffocating.”
Farida (not her real name), a young Kurdish woman living in Oinofyta camp.
The report details conditions that are often described as inhumane. People are forced to live in remote camps with no access to essential services and networks – this includes legal support, healthcare and social services.
These services are supposed to be provided in the camps. The report shows that this is rarely the case.
Respondents reported dysfunctional heating and air conditioning, broken showers and lighting, extensive mould, bed bug and cockroach infestations and large holes in the ceiling and floors that lead to flooding.
The Greek Ombudsman has stated that the conditions are in contravention of EU and national law on the reception conditions of asylum seekers.
Money is being poured into the camps as they’re turned into prison-like, highly-surveilled structures. Contracts seen by MIT and RLS between the Ministry of Migration and Asylum and the private company Space Hellas speak of updates including behavioural analysis surveillance systems to gain intelligence on and forecast ‘dangerous behaviours’, entry-exit systems and the use of drones to surveil residents.
Of the interviewees:
- 60% reported being housed in poorly maintained containers
- 72% didn’t have their basic healthcare needs met by camp medical teams
- 76% complained about food quality and/or quantity but didn’t have facilities to cook their own food
- 33% needed pyschosocial support but weren’t able to access this
The full report can be found below.
“When we arrived at Ritsona it was very cold. For the first night we didn’t have clothes, we didn’t have mattresses, blankets, bedsheets, nothing.”
A resident of the Ritsona camp highlighting the dire lack of basic necessities.
“Since I arrived here, I’ve been struggling with psychological issues, but I haven’t been able to access any services. As Yazidis, [given] what happened in Iraq, we came here under the assumption that there will be assistance and there will be support and we will have rights. We did not find that here, we did not have access to these rights.”
Fawzida (not real name), a Yazidi Iraqi woman living in Serres camp with her two daughters
Spokesperson for Further Information:
Lucy Alper, Project Coordinator at Refugee Legal Support, coordinator@refugeelegalsupport.org, +30 694 066 2583
Read the report summary:
Read the full report:
Read the translated report in:
Arabic
Farsi
Kurdish
Pashto
Urdu
French
