Refugees in Greece face deadlock as arrivals surge
SAMOS: Dozens of tents stud a hillside surrounded by olive trees, while children in flimsy sandals – the lucky ones wearing socks – play on mounds of garbage as the sun rises on the Greek island of Samos.
Almost two years since more than a million migrants and refugees crossed into Europe, thousands are still living in squalor after risking their lives crossing the Aegean sea.
Nearly 300 Afghans, Syrians, Iraqis and Africans live in this makeshift camp – just a small fraction of a recent surge in migrants arriving from Turkey.
According to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), 5,000 migrants arrived on Greek islands in September, an increase of 35% from the same period a year earlier, according to AFP calculations.
That is putting extra pressure on already overcrowded sites at a time when aid agencies are reducing their engagement on the ground.
The September figure compares to 13,320 arrivals from January to Aug 20, according to the International Organisation for Migration.
The resurgence of migrants making the journey to Europe comes despite the European Union deal with Turkey in March 2016, which drastically reduced the number of arrivals, and amid political tensions between Ankara and Brussels.
A hundred metres away from the makeshift camp, barbed wire surrounds the official reception centre of Samos. There are just 700 places for more than 2,500 migrants, and journalists are banned from entering without permission.
“No toilets, no water and the food is not good for the youngest,” said Saura, an Iraqi woman outside, pointing to her three shivering children, aged two to 10.
As well as Samos, 11,722 refugees are staying in reception centres on four other Greek islands (Lesbos, Kos, Chios and Leros), well beyond the total official capacity of 5,576.
“We are in deadlock. They have to move the refugees to the Greek mainland,” said Manos Logothetis, a medical coordinator at the Hellenic Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Keelpno).
On Monday, the Greek authorities started to transfer some of the most vulnerable categories of asylum seekers from Samos and other islands to camps or apartments on the mainland.
“The conditions are very hard for everyone,” said Erasmia Roumana, head of the UNHCR in Samos.
“It’s now up to the Greek state to manage the situation.” — AFP