AYS Daily Digest 20/01/2021: What is life actually like in the Greek hotspots?
By: Are You Syrious
Tags: Digest, Europe, Greece, Human Rights, Refugees

AYS Daily Digest 20/01/2021: What is life actually like in the Greek hotspots?

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Moria 2.0 these days. Copyright: Moria White Helmets

FEATURE: What is life actually like in the Greek hotspots?

At least some of the most vulnerable people on Samos were able to spend recent nights in the warmth. The continuing effort of various NGOs managed to do what should be the governments business as usual in winter: Making sure people have a roof over their heads and stay warm. With combined efforts, the NGOs were able to get permission to provide emergency shelter in community spaces for 16 people, including pregnant women and young families. They hope to be able to also shelter the elderly and those with medical needs in the coming days. Only 800 of some 3,500 asylum seekers on Samos are currently accommodated inside the official Reception and Identification Centre (RIC) facility, according to Europe Must Act. The rest are basically left on their own.

“Around 2,700 people currently live in tents and makeshift shelters on the slopes of the mountain above the town.”

Among the people living on the slope many belong to the most vulnerable groups.

The European Court of Human Rights will now examine the living conditions in the Greek Hotspots. The ECtHR send a communication to Greece, asking Greece to answer questions regarding the treatment of a total of eight people, all of whom were living in one of the so-called EU hotspots and had pre-existing medical conditions or were particularly vulnerable. The NGOs, HIAS Greece and Equal Rights Beyond Borders, represent the eight complainants. The issue on the table is whether or not the conditions in the camps amount to an instance of degrading and inhuman treatment, as forbidden under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

“Article 3

Prohibition of torture

No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

In all of the eight cases, extremely vulnerable people were repeatedly denied access to medical care by the authorities. Elli Kriona Saranti form HIAS Greece states:

“It is now up to the Court to state unequivocally that the living conditions at the hotspots do not meet basic human needs and that the measure of geographical restrictions puts the lives of vulnerable people at serious risk”

Meanwhile, an EU task force published a paper that seems to paint a pretty rosy picture of life in Moria 2.0 — and a German newspaper does not seem to see the need to double-check this information. According to an article published in Die Welt that refers to this EU paper, which was available to the editors, the tents in Moria 2.0 are “all winterized and have a solid floor that is also protected against water. Wooden pallets covered with plastic sheeting were placed under the tents and a rainwater management system was set up throughout the area — with collecting basins, pumps and canals to channel the water away from the tent sites.”

That sounds like a pretty nice camp! Unfortunately, people who follow groups like Moria Corona Awareness Team or Moria White Helmets, two dedicated groups of camp residents, on Facebook know that first of all this is far from being true, and second, most of what has actually been done in order to manage the masses of rainwater that flooded the camp in the recent days and weeks was installed by the residents themselves.

In referring to the mentioned article in the Welt, Stand By Me Lesvos explained that while the EU report claims that heaters are available for each tent, these heaters are not distributed but stored in the warehouse. The electricity infrastructure is still not sufficient for the heaters to be used. Members of the Moria White Helmets spent recent days trying to get the electricity working.