Migrants suffer in a Greece struggling to cope with economic crisis

By Alain Rodriguez, Caritas Europa

Wars, conflicts and persecution worldwide are pushing millions of people to take to the road with the hope of finding a better life somewhere else. They come to Europe from Eritrea, Iraq, Syria, Burma, Afghanistan and many other places where life is more about survival than anything else.

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Tens of thousands of migrants and refugees keep arriving to the Greek islands of Kos, Lesvos and Chios. Struggling with a worsening economic crisis the Greek authorities can’t offer them adequate access to shelter and health. As a result, people are setting up improvised camps in parks and other public spaces with nothing more to do than wait and dream of a better future.

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Amir* is 35 year old and fled Syria after he received pressure to join the military. He escaped the country and says, “I walked over 1200km. I walked to Turkey and then to the coast where I joined a group of 14 people on a small boat to cross over to this island.”

According to the latest UNHCR Global Trends report, the world is witnessing a strong escalation in the number of people forced to flee their homes. In 2014, 59.5 million people were forced to leave their homes. They were 51.2 million a year earlier and 37,5 million ten years ago. Compared to 2013 this increase has been the highest ever recorded in a single year.

Many of them, like Amir, are arriving in Greece, a country whose economy is devastated and which has recently been obliged by the Eurozone members to go further down the path of austerity. This happened despite widespread opposition against these measures and many warnings from international organisations, including Caritas Europa, that austerity offers no solution and will just worsen the situation.

“The situation here is very bad. Greeks are so badly hit by the crisis that they are completely overwhelmed by their own problems and cannot cope with helping others,” says Maristella Tsamatropoulou, communications officer at Caritas Europa. “This applies to the state too. There are no resources, neither economic nor human, to offer any institutionalised, organised help to migrants and asylum seekers. Migrants and refugees are left to their own devices and just receive a little help from some concerned citizens and NGOs.”

Caritas in Athens has a refugee centre where there’s a soup kitchen and where migrants and refugees can seek material, language classes, psychological and legal help. A programme is planned for September which will give support to migrants on the islands of Chios, Lesvos and Kos.

More than 70,000 refugees have arrived in Greece in 2015. The Deputy Minister of Immigration, Tasia Christodoulopoulou, estimates that by the end of the year the number of refugees in Greece will reach up to 100,000. Maristella has witnessed the arrival of hundreds of people in a couple of days in the island of Kos. Along with Chios and Lesvos, Kos is one of the Greek islands where most migrants and refugees are arriving. Over 10,000 of them have arrived to Kos this year.

“The migrants arrive, go to the police to get identified and wait where they can,” said Maristella. The identification process is necessary for migrants and refugees to be allowed to travel further to Athens from where they potentially can get to any other country on the continent. This process takes at least 10 days.

Amir says, “I have been here for 10 days or so. I am waiting for the police to finalise the process of identifying me and give me the papers I need to move to Athens. From there, I want to continue to Germany or Sweden.”

In the meantime, he stays in an abandoned hotel with other refugees and migrants. They live in poor hygienic conditions with no electricity and no security. “It’s hard here. But I have very little money and have to spend it wisely. I still don’t know what will happen next so I have to be cautious,” says Amir. “I had a good life in Syria, before the war. I was working in a hospital as a medical assistant. I had a good salary. Wonderful friends and my family. Now I have nothing left.”

*Name changed to protect identity

A version of this blog first appeared on Caritas Europa’s website.

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