“They just want them to die there.” — NGOs Fight to Prepare Refugee Camps for Coronavirus as the Greek Government Fails to Act
By: Nathan Matsko
Bellefonte — As the Covid-19 Pandemic forces the world into a standstill, people all over the globe are doing everything they can to protect themselves and their loved ones from the virus. From social distancing to properly sanitizing, hoping that their efforts are enough to keep them healthy and prevent the further spread of the virus. While these efforts may seem trivial to some, refugees across the world are unable to take the same steps to protect themselves.
The refugees on the small island of Lesbos, primarily those in the Moria Camp, are especially at risk. As documented earlier this year by Via News, the camp, which hosts tens of thousands of refugees, is plagued with health risks and lacks many of the resources necessary to properly protect against illness in general, let alone a virus as infectious as Covid-19. This, coupled with a lackluster response and a seeming disdain for refugees by the Greek government, have primed the Moria Camp for disaster.
Additionally, the threat that this pandemic poses is turning fear into anger for many Greeks, and a number of them are directing their frustration towards refugees — and those helping them. There have been many cases of violence towards refugees, aid workers, doctors, and journalists in Lesbos, forcing individuals and NGOs to flee the country entirely.
It is not only angry mobs forcing people out of the country, however. In December of last year, the Greek government arrested and sought the deportation of Salam Aldeen, founder of the Danish organization Team Humanity, deeming him a national security threat due to his organization’s mission to aid refugees struggling in places such as the Moria Camp of Lesbos. After he was released, he was forced to leave the country. Though he is no longer in Greece, his work to help protect the residents of Moria Camp continues.
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Currently, in Germany, Salam is on his phone around the clock to help organize and direct volunteers of his organization, most of which are refugees themselves, to prepare for what’s to come. Via News managed to connect with Salam just as his day was ending—at 4 AM.
“I worked in Lesbos for nearly 5 years,” says Salam, “I was constantly dealing with harassment from the [Greek] government.”
One of the most prominent cases of this harassment occurred after a particularly harrowing rescue of a sinking boat of refugees. After the initial rescue, Salam received another distress call. Heading back out to sea, he and his team were eventually forced back to land by the Greek Coast Guard.
“When I got back, they tried to get me to sign a paper that was in Greek. I’m glad I followed my gut and didn’t sign it, because it turns out it was a written confession of human trafficking,” says Salam.
Another string of incidents, Salam alleges, saw continued harassment and threats of arrest after he opened a women and children’s center just outside of the Moria Camp. The facility was eventually closed for “hygiene problems”, which Salam vehemently denies.
Similar actions against NGOs and refugees by the Greek police and military help to substantiate Salam’s claims. Various videos that have gone viral, as well as several videos provided to Via News by Salam, show abuses of migrants both within the country’s borders and at sea. One video shows Greek Coast Guard vessels intercepting a boat carrying refugees, emptying its fuel tank, and leaving the vessel to float in the sea, until it was eventually rescued by a Turkish vessel.
Salam also asserts that the government allows violence against NGO personnel and migrants at the hands of xenophobic vigilantes.
“I’ve called the police to report violence, but they don’t care. They laugh and hang up the phone. This island is full of hate, though there are many good people on the island, there are also many fascists who the police enable and even support.”
With the Coronavirus posing more of a threat every day to the refugees on Lesbos, Salam doesn’t expect much to be done.
“The Government has no solution.” He says, “They have blocked refugees from going anywhere, no one can leave.”
“They just want them to die there,” he added.
Though he doesn’t have much faith in a potential Greek government plan to prevent an outbreak in Moria Camp, he and his volunteers have made their own moves to protect refugees. A video that spread across the internet in the past few days shows Salam’s team members crafting their own medical masks. Salam says that his team is able to produce a few thousand masks daily.
As much as Salam wants to return to Lesbos to help his team and work to prevent the spread of Covid-19, it would be a futile effort, as he is barred from re-entry. This hasn’t prevented him from proposing his own plans to counter the virus, however. He suggests confining refugee families to their own tents, encouraging them only to come out when they need to use the restroom. Instead, the current norm is refugees standing in crowded lines for hours waiting for food and services. He would have every meal delivered to the tents instead.
He also supports the idea that refugees should begin to be resettled in the mainland, a proposal that other NGOs and even the EU support, though the Greek government is pushing back. He would have a few dozen families quarantined at a time in his NGO’s warehouse and supervised by doctors until they are medically cleared to move to the mainland.
For now, the refugees in Moria Camp are in a state of limbo, as they have been for quite some time. Without substantial changes like those proposed by Salam and a change of heart by the Greek government, the Moria Camp will continue to be a hub in which Covid-19 will thrive. The best hope Moria’s residents have is the NGOs, foreign and Greek, as well as individuals like Salam Aldeen, who are working day and night to protect those most vulnerable to this pandemic, even if they are a continent away.