Daily Record

Three years on from our hard-hitting report, victims of war still live in cramped, disease-ridden conditions

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medical care as they wait for transfer to the mainland and less temporary legal status.

In March 2016, the European Union and Turkey signed a controvers­ial deal to prevent refugees and migrants from reaching Europe.

Under the agreement, Greece forces asylum seekers to stay on the islands instead of being able to request asylum elsewhere in Europe.

In April alone, 1173 migrants reached the islands of Lesbos, Samos and Chios. There have been 5330 since the beginning of the year.

Some have been in the camp since the EU-Turkey deal was signed, trapping them in uncertaint­y and a monotonous routine of making do.

The refugees queue for everything – to use the handful of bathrooms, water for washing, to be issued with bland rations of rice and beans.

They can leave the camp but there is nowhere to go, with no money and a lukewarm welcome on a small island fatigued by bearing the brunt of the refugee crisis.

In November, Lesbos mayor Spyros Galinos warned the island and other border areas were turning into “concentrat­ion camps”.

In a recent report, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned refugees and asylum seekers were in the midst of a mental health emergency.

Many have lived through extreme violence and trauma, some fleeing wars in which the UK and Europe are most certainly culpable.

MSF say the conditions in Greece are compoundin­g their suffering.

The report showed 80 per cent of new mental health patients treated in their Lesbos clinic reported having experience­d violence. Just over a quarter had suffered torture and one in five sexual violence.

MSF medical coordinato­r Declan Barry said Moria is “both unsafe and wholly unhealthy”.

He added: “Every day we treat hygiene-related conditions such as vomiting and diarrhoea, skin infections and infectious diseases.

“We must then return these people to the same risky living conditions. It’s an unbearable vicious circle.”

Last year, bubbling tensions in Moria resulted in a riot, after which MSF had to treat 14 injured people.

Brawls are common as hope is usurped by anger.

When I returned from Moria, I called it our “collective shame”. Three years on, we are disappoint­ingly far from redemption.

 ??  ?? TEDIUM Refugees must queue for almost all the basics of life at Moria camp
TEDIUM Refugees must queue for almost all the basics of life at Moria camp

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