'The situation is so bad here' says migrant on Greece's Lesbos

Record ID: 1357040

  • Title: 'The situation is so bad here' says migrant on Greece's Lesbos
  • Date: 19th September 2018
  • Summary: LESBOS, GREECE (SEPTEMBER 17, 2018) (REUTERS) WOMAN SQUATTING IN THE DIRT AND WASHING A PLATE IN A PLASTIC CONTAINER AMIDST TENTS PITCHED IN A FOREST NEXT TO MORIA'S OFFICIAL CAMP, PILES OF GARBAGE ON THE GROUND BEHIND HER WOMAN'S HANDS SCRUBBING SPOON IN SOAPY WATER WOMAN WASHING CUTLERY LESBOS, GREECE (SEPTEMBER 18, 2018) (REUTERS) TODDLER WALKING AMIDST TENTS FLAPPING A
  • Embargoed: 3rd October 2018 13:09
  • Keywords: Greece migrants Lesbos island overcrowding EU UNICEF refugees
  • Location: LESBOS AND ATHENS, GREECE
  • City: LESBOS AND ATHENS, GREECE
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: Asylum/Immigration/Refugees,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA0018YAMC07
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Migrants on the Greek island of Lesbos say they face a daily struggle as the government looks to ease overcrowding, and aid agencies raise alarm bells over living conditions.
    The official government-run Moria camp is operating at almost three times its capacity with about 9,000 migrants and refugees, forcing hundreds more to spill into the adjoining forest and pitch their tents amidst piles of garbage, without any proper sanitation, security, electricity and other facilities.
    Migrants living in the forest told Reuters on Tuesday (September 18) they fear for their safety, especially at night. Lavatories are far away and there are long lines, and they are afraid to venture out at night. Dirt-smeared children could be seen playing around the trash piles, while mothers washed clothes in buckets on the ground with water from makeshift taps. Others cut down tree branches to build shelters over their tents, while one man was connecting electricity from a pylon above.
    In Moria, acts of violence have sparked safety concerns while mental health and sanitary conditions have deteriorated. Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Monday (September 17) it had witnessed an unprecedented health crisis in Moria, where it found many teenagers had attempted to commit suicide or were harming themselves on a weekly basis.
    A local governor threatened to shut it down within 30 days unless authorities clean up uncontrollable amounts of waste.
    Last week, over a dozen human rights groups urged Greece to take action to render its island camps fit for human habitation.
    In August, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR urged Greece to speed up transfers of eligible asylum-seekers from Aegean islands to the mainland, noting that conditions at Moria were "reaching boiling point".
    The European Union's top official for migration, commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, arrived in Athens on Wednesday (September 19) to meet with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, after Greece said on Tuesday it would move 2,000 asylum-seekers from Lesbos to the mainland by the end of the month.
    Some 3,000 people were transferred from Moria to the mainland over the summer and another 700 people were moved last week, government officials said.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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