Un autre hiver... un de plus...
Winter conditions add to migrant hardship in northern Greece
Freezing weather is exacerbating difficult conditions for migrants in overcrowded refugee camps in northern Greece. Last week the cold spell led to a protest by dozens of migrants at a camp near Thessaloniki. Greek officials have blamed the number of people flooding into the camp from the islands and across the Turkish border. But could the situation have been prevented?
Harsh winter conditions hit northern Greece a few days into the new year, bringing sub-zero temperatures, strong winds, snow and ice. In the Diavata refugee camp near the port city of Thessaloniki, several hundred people are struggling with basic survival. Yet every week, despite the weather conditions, more continue to arrive.
“They don’t think about this kind of thing, they just want to move on,” said one man at Diavata after another Afghan family arrived in the snow. “They just think that in the next stage from Turkey, when they go to Greece, everything will be fine.”
Camp protests
When they reach Diavata, the migrants find the reality is different. The camp is full to capacity, with around 800 registered asylum seekers. On top of these, there are between 500 and 650 people living at the site without having been registered by migration authorities.
“Most of them have built their own makeshift shelters and tents, which are not providing them with the protection needed,” says Mike Bonke, the Greece country director of the Arbeiter Samariter Bund (ASB), an NGO providing support services to Diavata. “They have no (safe) heating, washing and sanitation and cooking facilities.”
Last week, the difficult conditions prompted around 40 migrants to hold a protest outside the camp, burning tires and blockading the road. A truck driver tried to get through the barricade resulting in a fight which left one man in hospital.
The driver lost his patience and started swearing at the migrants, who threw rocks and broke his windscreen, reports said. The driver and four migrants were charged with causing grievous bodily harm, according to the Greek daily, Katherimini.
Conditions create health concerns
Diavata is just one of a number of migrant facilities in northern Greece to have been affected by the cold snap. An NGO contacted by InfoMigrants said that Orestiada, near the Evros river to the east, was covered in snow. Migrants in the critically overcrowded camps on the islands too are contending with snow, frozen water pipes and icy roads.
According to the ASB, the refugee reception camps lack resources to cope with the current conditions. “Healthcare services at all (refugee reception) sites are not adequate,” Bonke says.
Agis Terzidis, an advisor to the Greek Minister of Health and Vice-President of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) which coordinates healthcare provision to migrants and refugees, admits that the cold weather, in addition to the poor conditions and overcrowding in the camps, is exacerbating migrants’ health problems. “We have people living in conditions that are not acceptable for anyone,” he says.
National health system must step up
In response to the worsening situation, there are plans to boost EU-funded medical teams operating in camps throughout the country, including the islands, Agis Terzidis says. But he told InfoMigrants that from now on, more pressure would be put on the Greek national health system and local hospitals to tackle the problem, rather than medical staff in the camps themselves.
Terzidis also insisted that fixing the situation in the camps was “not in the mandate” of the CDC, as it was chiefly a result of greater numbers of people arriving and consequent overcrowding.
Instead, the CDC’s main priority remains vaccinating migrants to prevent outbreaks of hepatitis, measles and other infectious diseases. It also focuses on treating those suffering from chronic diseases, some of whom will likely succumb to the harsh winter conditions.
Too many people
With more bleak weather predicted, a vegetable garden is being planned in the Diavata camp, giving the residents something to look forward to. That will have to be abandoned if more people start to arrive when the weather improves.
The camps continue to be under pressure from the large and unpredictable numbers of arrivals. Currently there are around 20 arrivals per week at Diavata, but that could quickly escalate to hundreds. So far, Greek authorities do not seem to have taken steps to limit how many end up at the camps seeking protection.
I think we can all agree that this situation should have been solved by registering these refugees in the Greek Migration system and providing them with dignified and safe shelters.
_ Mike Bonke, Greece country director, Arbeiter Samariter Bund
As both government and army staff and their NGO colleagues in the camps remain powerless to solve the problem of overcrowding, their main task will be to protect migrants from harm and exposure as the winter enters its coldest months.
▻http://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/14401/winter-conditions-add-to-migrant-hardship-in-northern-greece
#Grèce #asile #migrations #réfugiés #camps_de_réfugiés #neige #froid #Salonique #Softex #Diavata #résistance #protestation
#Hara_Hotel. A Tale of Syrian Refugees in Greece
Hara Hotel chronicles everyday life in a makeshift refugee camp on the forecourt of a petrol station in northern Greece. In the first two months of 2016, more than 100,000 refugees arrived in Greece. Half of them were fleeing war-torn Syria, seeking a safe haven in Europe. As the numbers seeking refuge soared, many were stranded in temporary camps, staffed by volunteers. Hara Hotel tells some of their stories.
Teresa Thornhill arrived in Greece in April 2016 as a volunteer. She met one refugee, a young Syrian Kurd called Juwan, who left his home and family in November 2011 to avoid being summoned for military service by the Assad regime. Interweaving memoir with Juwan’s story, and with the recent history of the failed revolution in Syria, and the horror of the ensuing civil war, Hara Hotel paints a vivid picture of the lives of the people trapped between civil war and Europe’s borders.
Thousands of refugees left in cold, as UN and EU accused of mismanagement
United Nations refugee agency and EU’s Echo aid department accused of failing to properly ‘winterise’ camps
In a recent UNHCR video, promoted by Echo, the two institutions hailed the success of their winterisation work. In early December, the EU also said that Greece was safe enough to return refugees there from other European countries.
But refugees and independent aid workers say Echo and UNHCR had initially ignored the gravity of the situation. The head of Medécins Sans Frontières in Greece, Loic Jaeger, described the situation as a failure.
“We are outraged about the positive communications [from UNHCR and the EU] that are completely disconnected with reality,” said Jaeger, speaking before UNHCR began to admit flaws in the process on 9 December.
Jaeger said: “Our feeling is that there is a willingness now, led by the fact that there is a massive amount of money [allocated for winterisation], to try to present the situation as if it is OK. But it is not. On the islands we are still not even starting to winterise. In some places it’s working quite well, but in northern Greece you still have people sleeping in tents in the snow."
▻https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/22/thousands-of-refugees-left-in-cold-as-un-and-eu-accused-of-mismanagemen
#réfugiés #immigration #migrants #Grèce #camps #campements #UE #UNHCR
]]>Eko civilization, or life in a gas station
Before to come in northern Greece I spoke with a Sarajevo’s siege veteran. He was telling me that his story isn’t the truth, it’s only his experience and the story of a man can’t replace the complexity of the whole.
I’ll use this position to present this assemble of texts.
To resume what’s I’ve seen and learn in this one month experience; I choose this phrase from a George Orwell essays:
The common man is a creature of common sense and decency, neither servile nor servants, who could do most things with his own hands and who wore any formal learning lightly. The common man was the best hope for civilization, rather than proletarian man or aristocrats or elites of any kind.
#témoignage #asile #migrations #Idomeni #reportage #réfugiés #Grèce #camps_de_réfugiés #Eko #solidarité
]]>ekathimerini.com | Skeleton found at #Amphipolis tomb site
▻http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_12/11/2014_544525
Archaeologists excavating a tomb dating to the era of Alexander the Great in ancient Amphipolis in northern Greece have found human remains, the Culture Ministry said Wednesday.
The skeleton was found inside a rectangular grave with pieces from the wooden casket and bones scattered around the area. The grave, which lies 1.60 m below the floor level, was found in the third chamber of the massive tomb site.
Experts will examine the findings in the coming days, the ministry said.
Culture Minister Costas Tasoulas will hold a press conference at the Amphipolis Museum on Saturday, November 22, at 1 p.m.
Archaeologist Katerina Peristeri will present the results of the excavation on Saturday, November 29, at 11 a.m.
Schéma de To Vima
Archeologists discover skeleton in Amphipolis tomb - Το Βήμα Online
▻http://www.tovima.gr/en/article/?aid=649942
ekathimerini.com | Archaeologists find missing head of Amphipolis sphinx
▻http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_21/10/2014_543939
Archaeologists digging at a tomb dating to the era of Alexander the Great in ancient Amphipolis in northern Greece have found the missing head of one of the two sphinxes guarding the entrance of the grave.
According to a statement yesterday by the Culture Ministry, the head, which was found inside the tomb’s third chamber, belongs to the statue on the eastern side of the entrance.
Barring some slight damage to the nose, the head is largely intact. The head measures 60 centimeters from top to bottom. Archaeologists also found fragments of that sphinx’s wings at the same chamber.
]]>Tumulus Kasta : grande mosaïque partiellement dégagée
Large mosaic in ancient tomb uncovered in Greece - Yahoo News
▻http://news.yahoo.com/large-mosaic-ancient-tomb-uncovered-greece-133009733.html
In this picture provided by Greece’s Culture ministry on Sunday, Oct. 12, 2014, a partly damaged floor mosaic is shown inside an ancient Greek tomb, depicting a chariot driver, two horses and the Greek god Hermes. Archaeologists digging through an ancient grave at Amphipolis, northern Greece, uncovered the 3-by-4.5 meter (10-by-15 ft.) mosaic in what is likely the antechamber to the main burial room. (AP Photo/Greek Culture Ministry)
]]>Detained immigrants launch hunger strike in northern Greece
Some 100 undocumented immigrants on Tuesday launched a hunger strike at a reception center in #Paranesti, in the northern regional unit of #Drama, demanding to be released after having been issued with documents suspending their deportation.
According to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency, the detainees were recently transferred to the center from the eastern Aegean island of Samos.
Most hail from Iraq, Iran, Syria and Afghanistan and are keen to be reunited with their families, whose welfare they have expressed concerns about, sources said.
According to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), some of the migrants claim to have fallen victim to discriminatory tactics by staff at the center who are alleged to have released other migrants with similar appeals.
#grève_de_la_faim #détention_administrative #rétention #migration #asile #réfugiés
]]>UNHCR seeks clarifications on the fate of Syrian refugees in #Evros
In the afternoon of 12 November, UNHCR received information that around 150 Syrian refugees, among them many families with children, were being held in police custody in the area of northern Greece, after crossing the Evros river earlier that day. Members of the group of refugees, as well as persons claiming to be their relatives, reported the presence of some 70-80 persons in the yard of a church in Praggi village, near Orestiada, and of another group of 80-90 persons in a near-by forest.
Following communication with local police authorities which could not confirm the facts, a UNHCR team visited Praggi, during the early evening hours of the same day. The team was informed by eye witnesses that a group of about 80 foreigners, previously at the village’s church, were seen taken on police vans to unknown destination.
Despite UNHCR’s repeated contacts with the Greek Police at local, regional and central level, it was not possible to trace the whereabouts of the two groups of Syrians. Until now, these two groups have also not arrived in the First Reception Centre, in the region of Fylakio/Kyprinos, in Orestiada for registration and screening purposes, as foreseen by national law in force for new arrivals.
UNHCR reminds that newly arriving third country nationals should, in accordance with the provisions of Law 3907/2011, be referred to First Reception procedures for their proper registration, identification, profiling and coverage of essential needs, before their administrative treatment is further decided.
Particularly with respect to people fleeing Syria, UNHCR has addressed repeated appeals to States to facilitate access of refugees to safety, and to avoid returns to countries neighbouring Syria that face presently the largest burden of hosting over 2,2 million Syrian refugees.
UNHCR urges the competent Greek authorities to investigate the fate of the group of 150 Syrians who were reported to be in the area of northern Evros on 12 November 2013. UNHCR requests their immediate referral to State procedures in accordance with the law.
▻http://www.unhcr.gr/nea/artikel/2768a7a2ced20c6daca7326788699f09/unhcr-seeks-clarifications-on-the-fa.html
#Grèce #migration #réfugié #asile #push-back #refoulement #Syrie
Et voilà ce que moi et @albertocampiphoto avons entendu d’un réfugié syrien... même scénario... avec meurtre... Nous l’avons reporté sur le blog Visions Carto (@reka) :
►http://blog.mondediplo.net/2013-05-03-Kumkapi-avant-de-passer-la-frontiere
Ici les esquisses du refoulement avec meurtre :
Et maintenant peut-être des gens comprennent pourquoi, il y a une année, quand nous avons interviewé le chef de la police de Orestiada (en charge du contrôle de la partie nord la frontière terrestre entre la Grèce et la Turquie) il nous a dit « Quoi ? Des Syriens ? Il n’y a pas de Syriens ici... Jamais vus... Aucun Syrien n’est passé par ici »... Well... si vous les repousser systématiquement vous pouvez effectivement dire que « aucun Syrien » ne soit passé par là. Sauf que, bizarrement, nous en avons rencontrés plusieurs dans notre enquête dans la région...
Les faire disparaître n’est pas la même chose que de ne pas en avoir vus !