AYS Weekend Digest 18–19/4/20
FEATURED
During this weekend a tragic incident happened at the Vial camp on Chios.
Please, read about it in our latest AYS Special, based on the statements and accounts by people on the ground at the time and residents of the camp.
AYS Special from Chios: Fire swallows up makeshift homes of thousands
The results of last night’s huge fires and damages in Vial camp are laid bare this morning. The protests happened after…
medium.com
There were big fires in a number of different areas. One was near the front of the camp where the shop, the police kiosk and at least two police cars were burned down. In the middle of the official camp the information & food distribution point were set ablaze, as well as the food stores. At the back of the camp, perhaps the most devastating fire occurred. At least three of the larger ‘Rubb Hall’ enclosures, which can accommodate well over 40 people, were burned down. People’s homes have been completely destroyed, almost all of their personal belongings aside from what they could salvage are gone.
Three asylum seekers were arrested under a suspicion they are responsible for the violent incidents that broke out on Saturday following the start of the fire. Reportedly, the police said that a large number of people are detained.
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
There are many people still scattered across the country’s towns and villages, without a proper reception facility, those who are outside the system due to the system’s capacities find their own way of going through every day. They sleep in abandoned houses, outside in the open, in train wagons, whatever is at hand in these difficult days when everyone sees another person as a possible life threat. The current situation in many places still seeks a proper, humane and realistic (in terms of capacities and conditions) coordinated approach in order to be sure it is assessed and approached in the best way. It is not about the international standards, at this point, it is still about people needing food, and their basic rights met and their dignity respected.
The first people were planned to be taken to the provisional tent settlement near Bihać, Lipa, built with the support and management of the international organisations, a project we wrote previously about and we will report about the plan being put into practice.
Although many see it as a step forward, we like to always remind that “international standards” stand for a MINIMUM level of standards when it comes to international aid and protection and it should serve as a warning of a line never to be reached, or even crossed, and not as a goal, as it seems to be interpreted more and more by those deciding and putting things into place.
▻https://medium.com/are-you-syrious/ays-weekend-digest-18-19-4-20-vial-fire-latest-in-line-to-confirm-that-evacu
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