AYS Daily Digest 21/04/20
GREECE
ECtHR requests that Greece provide appropriate accommodation and medical treatment to refugees contained in Lesvos hotspot
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic highlights yet again the extreme risks facing refugees contained under squalid conditions on the Eastern Aegean islands. The Reception and Identification Centres (RIC) on Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Leros and Kos host over 35,000 persons, more than five times above their reception capacity. Severe overcrowding under abhorrent living conditions in the RIC is a persisting reality, in sharp contrast to social distancing measures enforced throughout Greece and to recent European Commission guidance to transfer asylum seekers to facilities with lower occupancy.
This backdrop renders evacuation out of Moria and other sites a public health imperative to prevent loss of life. Beyond unaccompanied children, whose plight has led to welcome relocation initiatives to other EU countries, many more people face acute health risks, not least due to particular circumstances including age, medical conditions and trauma.
150people tested positive for the coronavirus at a quarantined seaside hotel housing 470 people, including many children, but none of those infected displayed symptoms of COVID-19, media report.
Located 170 kilometres southwest of Athens, this hotel has been quarantined since April 16 after an employee tested positive.
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
L’ ALTRA VOCE published a letter co-signed by 70 people staying at one of the official camps in Una Sana canton, run by IOM. From the Miral camp in Velika Kladuša, they wrote that there is not a sufficient amount of food for everyone, and people are not allowed to buy and bring inside their own food to eat at their chosing, thus selectively applying their own standards.
According to the people whose photos and statements made it to the Letter, there is always someone going to sleep hungry. Also, there are frequent references to violent measures and unprofessionally harsh treatment by the outsourced security companies working in camps. Among others, the letter states:
“If we ask for the market they always say IOM will open market for you inside the camp and provide you a western union inside the camp but until this opportunity, you cannot buy anything from the market.
We are all worried because very soon our Ramzan month is coming how we will survive during the Ramzan because they don’t have any good management or their staff is also acting like racist people we are afraid might be they will also beat us in future.”
#Covid-19 #Migration #Migrant #Balkans #Grèce #Camp #Lesvos #Chios #Samos #Leros #Kos #Hotspot #Athènes #Hotel #Quarantaine #Bosnie-Herzégovine
▻https://medium.com/are-you-syrious/ays-daily-digest-21-04-20-transparency-ignored-when-it-serves-ulterior-motiv