Three years ago, I was working in Moria camp, the largest and possibly most notorious refugee camp in Europe on the Greek island of Lesvos. A former army barracks built to house just under 3,000 people, Moria camp was chronically overcrowded and, at its peak in 2020, had a population of over 20,000 people, one-third of whom were children.

The squalid conditions these migrants were forced to live in were harrowing: hygiene facilities so scarce that hundreds shared one shower, there were no toilets in some parts of the camps, families had to sleep in summer tents in the freezing winter, and rubbish piled high around them.

I met young children showing signs of severe distress and some were self-harming. Children were bitten by scorpions, snakes, and rats. Access to healthcare inside the camp was virtually non-existent and food shortages were the norm. Violence was an everyday reality and deprivation was everywhere. It was a dystopian hell.

At the time, I was disgusted by the anti-refugee rhetoric spreading through Europe. How could people not see that these were vulnerable human beings who had a right to protection?

“In the name of ‘fixing the broken asylum system’ the British government is planning to bring in some of the most punitive, cruel and dangerous migration policies in the world”
Now in 2022, I hear the same populist anti-refugee rhetoric being wielded against people trying to reach the UK on boats in the English Channel – this time in the form of the British government’s Nationality and Borders Bill.

If passed, the bill will criminalise men, women and children trying to reach sanctuary in the UK with potentially fatal consequences. It will violate the Refugee Convention and other international legal obligations and undermine the UK’s international standing. We must try and stop it.

Terrifying possibilities

In the name of “fixing the broken asylum system,” the British government is planning to bring in some of the most punitive, cruel and dangerous migration policies in the world. The Home Office claims the bill will help to save lives, but we know that more lives will be lost as a result of their dangerous and illogical measures.

Plans to expand the use of large-scale asylum accommodation, replicating the Greek island approach, terrify me. These measures confine people to prison-like facilities, severely impacting their access to vital services and damaging their mental and physical health. I know – I have seen it happen.

I am appalled that the government considers Napier Barracks, a former military site where hundreds of newly arrived asylum seekers in the UK have been sent, a “prototype” for larger-scale facilities. Conditions in Napier have been decried by multiple independent investigators, the High Court, NGOs and, most importantly, the inhabitants themselves.

MSF UK@MSF_uk
The #AntiRefugeeBill, or Nationality and Borders Bill, returns to Parliament today.

Here’s a reminder of the dangers of this inhumane legislation and how you can become a part of the growing movement against it.

MSF UK@MSF_uk

We’re at a critical point where the UK Gov could erode the fundamental right of claiming asylum.

Under the Gov’s proposed Borders Bill, unaccompanied children and torture survivors can be criminalised and denied vital protections.

Let’s not allow this!
https://msf.me/3n9jynx

Proposals for offshore detention facilities are meanwhile extremely alarming. This would allow asylum seekers to be removed to another country and detained there indefinitely while their claims are processed.

My colleagues who worked on Nauru Island, where the Australian government implemented a similar policy, witnessed some of the worst mental health suffering recorded in MSF’s 50 years of existence. Almost one-third of our 208 patients attempted suicide. Children as young as nine years old tried to kill themselves.

If these measures were not bad enough, the government is also attempting to enable pushbacks of migrant boats in the Channel. This is not only dangerous but a flagrant violation of international law. MSF’s search and rescue teams in the Mediterranean Sea have seen first-hand the deadly consequences of attempts to push back small boats and refusal to rescue those onboard.

Over 1,500 people drowned in the Central Mediterranean in 2021 because of UK and EU-backed policies that undermine effective search and rescue. If the UK adopts this approach in the English Channel, it is inevitable that more people will die.

Counterproductive measures

Not only is the Nationality and Borders Bill cruel, but it will also be ineffective and counterproductive. Harsher detention policies and pushbacks will not stop people seeking safety, it will only make their journeys more dangerous. Lives will be lost in a pointless battle where the casualties will be vulnerable and persecuted people.

Perversely, while the British government repeats talking points about the need for people to arrive through “legal routes,” it has made it virtually impossible for people to reach the UK through official channels.

The Dubs Scheme, focused on relocating unaccompanied child refugees from within Europe, and family reunification pathways have been shut down. The only remaining option is the painfully slow UNHCR resettlement scheme, which resettles fewer than 1% of the world’s refugees every year.

“The British government claims it wants to stamp out people smuggling operations that prey on vulnerable people, but this bill actually risks pushing more people into the hands of these dangerous gangs”

The UK government has also failed to establish a functioning scheme to enable individuals in immediate danger to legally enter the UK. Six months after the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme was announced, the programme has only just formally opened and the first to be “resettled” include those already evacuated to the UK. Those still in Afghanistan are forced to wait while the humanitarian situation further deteriorates.

As MSF is one of the few international organizations left providing medical care, my colleagues in Afghanistan see the crisis unfolding daily. People cannot simply wait and hope their time for resettlement will come soon. Yet if they attempt to reach the UK via irregular routes, they will face criminalisation and indefinite detention under measures set out in the Nationality and Borders Bill.

The British government claims it wants to stamp out people smuggling operations that prey on vulnerable people, but this bill actually risks pushing more people into the hands of these dangerous gangs.

The Home Office’s own Equality Impact Assessment of the Nationality and Borders Bill found “there is a risk that increased security and deterrence could encourage these cohorts to attempt riskier means of entering the UK.”

Migrants, refugees and asylum seekers are not the faceless mass that the government attempts to portray them as, but real people who want to be safe. Many have already endured torture, sexual violence, and imprisonment, not to mention the perilous journey to the UK, which nobody undertakes lightly.

The Nationality and Borders Bill is a deliberate and racist attempt by the UK government to shirk its obligations to these vulnerable people. It is inhumane, punitive, and doomed to fail.

Demonizing and criminalizing people who arrive on boats will not fix the broken asylum system – it will only cause further suffering to the people who need our solidarity and care the most.

Sophie McCann is advocacy officer at MSF UK and former advocacy manager for MSF’s operations in Greece.

Have questions or comments? Email us at: editorial-english@alaraby.co.uk

Opinions expressed here are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of The New Arab and its editorial board or staff.

Source: https://english.alaraby.co.uk/opinion/nationality-borders-bill-will-only-cause-more-suffering

The post The Nationality and Borders Bill will only cause more suffering and death first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

When Greece’s notorious Moria migrant camp burned to the ground in September, its thousands of desperate residents were rehoused in another site hastily erected on military-owned land nearby.

But while their new home offered an escape from the endemic violence and overcrowding of Moria, it has confronted asylum seekers with an entirely new hazard: potential lead poisoning.

Human Rights Watch warned Tuesday that the Mavrovouni migrants camp, erected on land including a former military firing range on the Greek island of Lesvos, could pose a serious risk of lead poisoning to its 7,500 residents.

“It’s very likely there is lead in the soil,” Eva Cossé, a Human Rights Watch researcher, told VICE World News.

Her group has been unable to conduct its own testing for lead contamination at the site. But it says that it is concerned due to the known risk of lead poisoning at former firing ranges, where highly toxic lead dust from bullets, shot and casings contaminate soil, and becomes airborne in dry, windy conditions.

“It’s well known across the globe that shooting ranges are contaminated with lead,” she said. “We say the government should have done testing before it put people there.”

The new camp was established on military land that includes a former firing range, where generations of Greek soldiers have carried out shooting drills since it was first opened in 1926. In the aftermath of the devastating fire at Moria camp, which made thousands of desperate asylum seekers homeless, the residents were rehoused there without any testing for lead contamination of the site having been carried out.

Lead poisoning can cause irreversible impairment of neurological, biological, and cognitive functions. Young children, who absorb four to five times as much lead as adults, and pregnant women are especially vulnerable. According to official data, one-third of the camp’s inhabitants are children — about 1,000 of them aged under 5 — and more than 1,600 are women, 118 of whom are pregnant.

Alastair Hay, professor of environmental toxicology at the Leeds Institute of Genetics, Health, and Therapeutics told VICE World News that the concerns raised by Human Rights Watch were warranted, due to the site’s use as a firing range.

“Children are the most vulnerable to lead due to their developing nervous systems,” he said.

“Most people get exposed to lead through ingestion, and young kids eat a certain amount of soil every day just because they’re putting their hands in their mouths.”

Human Rights Watch is concerned that construction work being carried out to make improvements at the camp could be worsening the risk of lead poisoning, by disturbing lead deposits buried in the soil. It’s also concerned about unexploded mortars and bullets that have been found throughout the site by residents, including children, despite assurances from the government that it had been cleared of danger.

The Greek government did not respond to requests for comment but has denied there is any risk at the site.

In a letter to Human Rights Watch last month, Migration and Asylum Minister Notis Mitarachi wrote that his ministry had been “assured that there is no lead contamination,” as only lead-free ammunition had been used on the firing range. Furthermore, the site had been covered in a layer of clay, which emitted low levels of dust, prior to being turned into a migrant camp.

But he acknowledged that lead testing had not been carried out on the site. Due to the concerns, he said he has arranged for soil testing to be carried out, although the results are not known.

However, Cossé said that an analysis of photographs of ammunition found by camp residents — which showed varieties that contained lead — cast doubts on the government’s assessment of the risks, and its assurances that the site had been cleared of bullets.

“This contradicts what the government said about the army only using lead-free bullets in the firing range,” she said.

Thousands of asylum seekers from countries like Afghanistan and Syria are stranded on Lesvos, sometimes also referred to as Lesbos, an island in the Aegean just a few miles from the Turkish coast. The island was once only a brief stopover for asylum seekers arriving by smuggler boats from Turkey before they made their way to the Greek mainland and onwards into Europe.

READ: Asylum seekers describe gang-style violence in Europe’s biggest migrant camp

But a March 2016 migration deal struck between the European Union and Turkey turned the Greek islands into de facto holding pens for migration into Europe, requiring migrants to remain there until their asylum applications could be processed.

The Greek government has faced criticism for the squalid conditions in the island camps, with regular calls for asylum seekers to be relocated into better-equipped accommodation on the Greek mainland. In response, it says it carries an unfair share of the burden of dealing with irregular migrants into Europe, who hope to travel onwards to wealthier northern European countries.

READ: Violence is exploding in Europe’s most notorious migrant camp

Human Rights Watch has called on the Greek government to carry out thorough testing of the levels of lead in the soil and dust at the camp and to publish the results. If lead is found, it says, residents should be tested, offered treatment, and relocated to a safe location.

“The Greek government could be putting at-risk families with young children, aid workers, and its own employees because it’s determined to hold asylum seekers on the island,” said Belkis Wille, a senior crisis and conflict researcher at the organization.

“If this is where the government is trying to force asylum seekers to live on Lesbos, then all the more reason to transfer people to the mainland.”

Source: https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy8y9x/migrant-camp-built-on-army-firing-range-could-be-giving-asylum-seekers-lead-poisoning

The post Migrant Camp Built on Army Firing Range Could Be Giving Asylum Seekers Lead Poisoning first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The post Moria migrants: Fire destroys Greek camp leaving 13,000 without shelter first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.