Moria refugee camp - Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association

Overcrowded Refugee Camps Are Designed to Tell Us That Non-Europeans’ Lives Count for Less

Nikos Xypolytas — Tue, 24 Nov 2020 06:45:17 +0000

Refugees find shelter outside a Lidl supermarket after a fire destroyed Moria refugee camp on the island of Lesbos on September 11. (Milos Bicanski / Getty Images)

The fire at Greece’s notorious Moria refugee camp left over 12,000 people without shelter, but the new camp built to replace it holds only 3,000. The deliberate overcrowding flies in the face of anti-COVID measures, but it also has a clear political message: asylum seekers’ lives are more dispensable than European citizens’.

On September 9, flames engulfed the notoriously overcrowded Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, leaving over twelve thousand people without shelter. In the time since the fire, a new camp has been built — but with an official capacity of only three thousand. Many describe the new and massively overcrowded camp as “even worse than Moria,” lacking essential facilities like baths and clean toilets.

The former Moria residents and activists, as well as locals living in Lesbos, oppose the building of a new camp — instead call for the relocation of the asylum seekers to countries around the European Union. Yet even given these dire conditions, EU countries are only making symbolic gestures; Germany and France each pledged to take 100 to 150 children, the Netherlands fifty children, and Finland as few as eleven. Meanwhile, at least 240 asylum seekers have tested positive for the new coronavirus.

Professor Nikos Xypolytas is part of the sociology department at the University of the Aegean, focusing on migration and labor. Having interviewed many of Moria’s former residents, he sees the burning of the camp as a “symbolic event” in the continent’s so-called “migration crisis.” With winter looming over the poorly housed asylum seekers, Jacobin’s Elena Gagovska spoke to Xypolytas about the destruction of Moria and the future of European Union migration policy.

Could you give a brief history of Moria and what the conditions were like before it burned down?

Even though there are five other refugee camps in Greece, no other camp was ever like Moria. Moria was the crown jewel of European migration policy. It was established in 2015 and the conditions at Moria were always atrocious — because it was designed that way. The EU was always in the shadows when it came to Moria: the camp was part of European migration policy, but also, it wasn’t.

When Moria burned down, Europe had to step up essentially and say “yes, we need a new camp.” Up until that moment, the official narrative was that Moria was necessary in order to house people whose claims were being processed, but also that the EU was supposedly unhappy with what existed there — while not being able to do much to change the situation because the circumstances were dire and there was a state of emergency. In that state of emergency, certain things can be allowed. But of course, there’s no such thing as a five-year-long emergency.

You have called Moria the EU’s “most effective tool of deterrent migrant policy.” Could you unpack this?

Moria always had a twofold goal: to send a message to those both inside and outside the camp. When it comes to those outside Moria, the message is quite straightforward. It is a deterrent in the sense that if you wish to come to Europe, you have to go through this horrible process.

On the other hand, for those inside the camp there are ostensibly two goals. The first is to facilitate so-called “voluntary repatriation” (i.e. asylum seekers deciding to go back to their home countries that they were fleeing). Given these horrible conditions, this was obviously not voluntary at all. When people find themselves in situations even worse than those they left, it says a lot not about how good things were back home, but about how terrible things are in the camp.

The second part of Moria’s function is about disciplining the asylum seekers who won’t go back to their home countries, into the role of their new social identity. There is a social identity or status of being a refugee that is not related to the 1951 Geneva Convention, but is instead about a new construction of what we call an “unwanted population.” This unwanted population has to internalize the fact that they are unwanted — and that they are not second- or third-class citizens, but a category that does not relate to the concept of European citizen, or even to the concept of a human being that we can respect on European soil.

You have also talked about how Moria’s horrendous living conditions, as well as the fact of waiting for months or even years to have asylum claims examined, have contributed to a kind of epidemic of mental illness rampant throughout the camp. Could you tell us more about this?

The way refugees approach mental illness in Moria camp is very similar to how they approach the coronavirus: “the more I stay in this environment, the more prone I am to getting this disease.” Mental illness in Moria is directly related to the fundamental aspect of European migration policy: waiting. Not only do the asylum seekers have to endure unacceptable conditions, but they also have to wait.

There is a long history of sociological and anthropological analysis of waiting that argues that by forcing someone to wait, you more or less demonstrate their social value as opposed to your own. Your social value is far more important when you make someone wait; thus, we can assume the kind of social value that is assigned to asylum seekers who are made to wait for years.

As you have mentioned, a new camp with a capacity of three thousand people is being built in order to replace Moria. Could you talk about the message the EU is sending with this new policy?

It became evident after Moria burned down that it always served a policy of deterrence. Before, no one wanted to admit that officially — but now it’s something that is officially accepted.

It is always impressive to officially state that the capacity of a center is much less than the number of people expected to stay there. By stating a very specific official fact and by creating a new camp that is by definition overcrowded, a message is sent about the lives of asylum seekers not being worth the same as the lives of European citizens.

You would expect an official policy statement to say at least — even if it was not accurate — something like “the new camp has a more or less 6,000+ people capacity, but we are trying to figure this out.” Instead, this is a blatant expression that the camp is built for less people than it will house. And there is a reason for that. This camp sends a message to every single European, and more importantly to every single non-European that is trying to enter. The EU is starting to unmask itself as a dysfunctional, faceless bureaucratic entity, in terms of its political identity, its lack of moral principles, and its actions.

Can NGO workers access the new camp? Could you talk about the limits of NGO work in this field, in terms of actually bringing about a solution to the “migrant crisis”?

Certain NGOs do have access. Many smaller NGOs also left just before the coronavirus outbreak. But it should also be noted that with this huge engagement of NGOs as a major player in the refugee crisis a specific message is sent: civil and social protection cannot be expected to derive solely from the state.

Obviously, not all NGOs are the same or have the same access to finance, though they are forced to search manically for funding because their whole existence is based on it. So, of course, NGOs are deeply affected by market forces. Competition runs through the core of NGOs, among NGOs, and within the same NGOs: you have project managers working against other project managers, and so on. Social protection as a concept in social policy and sociology means protection from the market. So, you have an agent of social protection who is by definition formed by market forces.

Still, many NGOs truly help migrants and by doing so they try to undermine EU migration policy — because this is essentially the biggest danger that migrants face. It is not that refugees need help and EU migration policy is providing that help. They need help from migration policy.

When NGO workers take such a position of solidarity with migrants rather than simply being part of the migration management system, they become demonized and are even seen as traitors by the Greek right. In fact, the extreme right-wing in Lesbos has targeted people who support refugees in one way or another, whether they are left-wingers, autonomous groups that try to show solidarity to the refugees’ situation, or NGO workers.

Speaking of market forces, I wanted to ask you to speak about how the right to work is denied to most refugees in this camp, including access to work, and how this furthers their marginalization. This lack of access to work can push refugees into black market or criminal activities, and thus facilitate the creation of negative stereotypes about refugees.

Exactly. It is important to understand migration flows as part of an effort to create a cheap labor force. This is not about being offered a specific job on the labor market, but about disciplining refugees as part of a cheap labor force. To condition someone in this way is a long process that involves constructing a specific social status of a refugee population. It is about making sure that they understand that their place in this continent — if they are ever given one — is a very specific place. This disciplining aspect of migration policy should always be stressed.

How does the coronavirus affect refugees, especially given that refugees at the new camp have no way to do social distancing or have facilities to maintain proper hygiene? To what degree is the EU complicit in the spread of the virus among refugees and for possible future deaths?

Fortunately, as far as I know, no one has gotten sick from COVID-19 in the camp. Many have tested positive, but no one has been seriously ill. Now the temperature is high; however, the camp will be hit by north winds in the coming months so I do not know how the situation will change, nobody does.

But in terms of “migration management,” COVID-19 was a godsend since the much-protested idea of a closed camp now became acceptable. Previously, that idea was protested against by the local population in Lesbos and other islands on two grounds: first, that they did not want the refugees in their backyard, and second, that they did not want the idea of a concentration camp.

However, the COVID-19 outbreak helped to turn the issue of refugee management into a public health issue. Now, even if we support “the wretched of the earth,” there is an absolutely rational reason why they should avoid contact with the local population because that might be catastrophic for everyone. So suddenly there is a new narrative that pushes support for the detention of refugees in terms of public health.

Do you see any political will to change the way refugees are treated in the EU?

Absolutely none. It is a destructive policy. And I am afraid that the only thing that would change this policy is if everything changes, through some symbolic event like the one you had when Moria burned down. There are all of these people who mistakenly believe in just buying time before the dead bodies start piling up. Because of this, the next symbolic event will be bloody.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Professor Nikos Xypolytas is part of the sociology department at the University of the Aegean, focusing on migration and the importance of low-status work in migrant exclusion.

ABOUT THE INTERVIEWER

Elena Gagovska is a Macedonian activist, writer, and student based in Berlin.

Source: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/11/overcrowded-refugee-camps-eu-migration-policy-lesbos-moria

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Inhumane refugee camps cast shame across Europe

Barrí Ó Casaide — Tue, 03 Nov 2020 06:35:38 +0000

Migrants at the Kara Tepe refugee camp, on the island of Lesbos, Greece. Around 7,600 refugees and migrants have settled at the new tent city after successive fires on September 9 devastated the Moria refugee camp. Picture: Panagiotis Balaskas/AP

Several weeks ago, Moria, Europe’s biggest refugee camp, was burnt to the ground. Less than two weeks later, a new camp was built, and the people found themselves once again in a camp in worse conditions than the ones they had evacuated.

The new Moria currently hosts around 7,500 people in summer tents. There are still no showers and adequate sanitation and hygiene facilities amid a global pandemic.

The camp is exposed to wind and sea weather elements, and winter will bring extreme hardship to those living in these conditions.

Last month, the authorities announced the closure of two smaller camps in Lesvos that provide dignified and humane living conditions for families and vulnerable people, one which is community-driven and run by volunteers and the other by the municipality.

While Europe was so quick to support the rapid construction of the new Moria, it remains silent and does nothing to protect camps like Pikpa that provide dignified and humane living conditions.

Europe needs to recognize that places like Moria will not deter men, women, and children seeking safety and protection in Europe. If we don’t change these policies fast, it will only lead to further avoidable humanitarian catastrophes. These camps need to be shut down immediately, and camps like Pikpa should be protected and replicated.

It’s hard not to worry about the future of Europe and our society when people are forced to endure such conditions, and humane alternative accommodation structures are shut down.

In the aftermath of the fire and the creation of the new camp, it is important to remember what Moria was for thousands of men, women, and children, and why these camps are a terrible idea.

Aid organizations and rights groups had repeatedly warned that Moria was a ticking time bomb.

The fire was the result of years of neglect by European policies that kept people in dangerously overcrowded, unsafe, and unsanitary conditions.

Before the fires, tensions were extremely high, and security had deteriorated. The camp had been in lockdown for over five months with entry and exit severely restricted.

People were crammed into overcrowded containers, flimsy tents, and makeshift shelters with limited access to water, food, sanitation, and healthcare — all in the context of COVID-19. The fact that there were no casualties is nothing short of a miracle.

In 2016, Europe, to stem the flow of migration, signed a deal with Turkey that trapped thousands of refugees and asylum seekers on the Greek islands. This meant that the people languished in limbo for months and years, going through lengthy and unfair asylum procedures, the vast majority of them without any legal aid, support, or information.

Moria, built to accommodate a little over 3,000 people, had for the past five years operated way beyond its limits. In March of this year, it housed 20,000 people — more than six times the capacity.

When the fire broke out, 13,000 people evacuated and were left to sleep on the street without shelter, food, and water.

Among those living in Moria were people with severe physical and mental health conditions, victims of violence and torture, the elderly, new-born babies, pregnant women — many carrying the trauma from the countries they fled and the dangerous journeys they undertook.

Migrants at their tents after a rainstorm at the Kara Tepe refugee camp, on the northeastern Aegean island of Lesbos, Greece. Picture: Panagiotis Balaskas/AP

In Moria, many children without parents were living alone and unprotected. At the time of the fire, around 4,000 of the residents were children. They should have been in school and living in a safe environment.

In 2018, according to MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières), almost a quarter of the children attending their mental health programmes in Moria had self-harmed, thought about, or attempted suicide.

I imagined my own mother, grandmother, and kids living in these conditions, their physical and mental health deteriorating, the uncertainty, the fear, and the seemingly never-ending asylum procedures. What I struggled the most with was coming to terms with how, in Europe in 2020, such places even exist.

It is impossible to trap thousands of people in inhumane conditions, deny them of their basic needs, and expect that there will be no problems.

Forcing men, women, and children fleeing war and persecution to stay in camps like Moria is exactly the opposite of what they need to recover, heal, and start rebuilding their lives.

What is happening in refugee camps on the Greek islands should be of great concern to all of us.

It is a shameful indictment of Europe, our governments, and our society as a whole. We are failing these people. It is a collective moral failure of the EU.

Everybody who arrives in Lesbos or any of the other Greek islands risked their lives to get there because there is no safe and legal way.

After the fire in Moria, the Irish government’s initial response was to relocate four unaccompanied minors.

The failure of EU countries to take responsibility has left the entire burden on the shoulders of small island communities, locals, volunteers, and aid workers, who for years, in the absence of any real help and solidarity, have been left alone to support people living in desperate circumstances.

It is time the Irish Government, and all EU member states, step up and take responsibility for years of neglect against men, women, and children who continue to be punished for seeking protection and safety in Europe. It is not a huge demand.

All we are asking for is that people have access to dignified and humane living conditions, fair asylum procedures and that EU member states share that responsibility equally.

Barrí Ó Casaide has worked with Doctors without Borders (MSF) and other aid organizations in refugee camps in Greece since 2017.

Source: https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40072922.html

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‘Anti-Migrant’ Protesters Set Fire, Throw Stones at MSF Clinic in Greece

Chantal Da Silva — Sun, 30 Aug 2020 13:18:34 +0000

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has warned that “violent riots” outside a new government coronavirus clinic set up to provide care to migrants, asylum seekers and refugees amid the coronavirus pandemic represent a growing “anti-migrant” movement in Greece.

MSF said “anti-migrant” protesters attacked its pediatric clinic outside the Moria refugee camp in Lesbos after targeting the launch of a new government coronavirus clinic being inaugurated by Greece’s President Katerina Sakellaropoulou on Thursday.

The demonstration quickly turned violent, MSF said, with a fire being lit outside the pediatric clinic, while some demonstrators “threw stones” into the facility, where staff were treating patients, including children.

In a statement sent to Newsweek, Marco Sandrone, MSF’s Lesbos field coordinator, said: “MSF strongly condemns the violent attacks on its pediatric clinic and the new Government COVID-19 facility outside Moria yesterday.”

“In what world do we live in, where children and pregnant women being treated by doctors are subject to people throwing stones at them?” Sandrone questioned.

Sandrone said the situation became so intensified that the organization’s medical teams eventually had to be “evacuated by bus from the scene.”

“It is just utterly incomprehensible that attacks like this can occur in in any
setting,” the MSF field coordinator said.

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The incident was not a solitary one, with humanitarian groups working to support migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, facing a growing wave of backlash from anti-migration groups and local communities.

“For some time now, we have been witnessing a rise in aggressive behavior towards asylum seekers and refugees, as well as humanitarian organizations and volunteers who have repeatedly been targeted and harassed for simply trying to provide assistance to vulnerable groups on Lesbos,” Sandrone said.

“This incident highlights a malignant symptom that needs to be addressed now,” he said, calling on authorities to “take all necessary measures against the growing anti-migrant rhetoric, aggression and violence circulating on Lesbos, and to take action against those who have harassed and attacked humanitarian actors without impunity immediately.”

MSF Sea@MSF_Sea

Violent riots outside #Moria camp, where anti-migrant protestors gathered in opposition to the President’s visit to inaugurate new COVID-19 hospital. A fire was lit outside the MSF clinic while others threw stones into the clinic where 50 staff were treating women and children.

Thursday’s incident comes after MSF was forced to shut down its own coronavirus clinic in July after facing a fine and the threat of criminal charges from local officials after widespread opposition to the facility’s launch.

An MSF spokesperson told Newsweek at the time that they believed local officials had received complaints from local residents or groups that have previously expressed opposition to the clinic.

“The isolation center was the only place on Lesbos providing a safe space in which people from Moria with COVID-19 symptoms could be isolated and offered medical care,” MSF said at the time in a statement shared with Newsweek.

Now, MSF’s new center is set to continue to provide care to migrants, asylum seekers and refugees. However, the clinic is likely to continue to face opposition from anti-immigration groups.

So far, there has not been an outbreak of coronavirus at the Moria refugee camp, despite widespread overcrowding and limited access to sanitation.

However, humanitarian organizations like MSF have said it is crucial to stay vigilant, warning that an outbreak at the camp could cause major devastation to already vulnerable groups.

On the whole, Greece has had relatively low numbers of coronavirus cases identified. As of Friday, the country had 7,934 confirmed coronavirus cases identified, with 235 cases resulting in death, according to an online tracker maintained by the Johns Hopkins University.

Newsweek has contacted the Greek government for comment.

A boy walks in a improvised tents camp near the Moria refugee camp on the island of Lesbos on June 21, 2020. MSF says it has seen growing opposition to its efforts to support migrants, asylum seekers and refugees in Lesbos, Greece.ARIS MESSINIS /AFP/GETTY

Source: https://www.newsweek.com/anti-migrant-protesters-greece-msf-coronavirus-1526717?piano_t=1

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Europe’s largest refugee camp braces for COVID-19 outbreak

Deutsche Welle — Sun, 30 Aug 2020 12:10:43 +0000

NGOs warn that coronavirus may soon spread at Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, where some 13,000 people live in cramped conditions. Such an outbreak, experts say, would see the island struggle to cope.

Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos is the biggest in Europe. Originally conceived to hold 3,000 people, there are now 13,000 people living in extremely cramped conditions in makeshift tents and containers.

So far, there has not been an outbreak of coronavirus — but NGOs are warning that it’s just a matter of time before an outbreak hits the island that is ill-equipped to cope.

Caroline Willemen, a field coordinator with Doctors Without Borders, is concerned about the situation. “I know that this is not a scientific comparison, but in a time when all major events have been canceled because there is too much risk of infection, this place is simply unthinkable,” she tells DW.

Caroline Willemen, from Belgium, works as a field coordinator for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Lesbos

In Mytilene, the capital of Lesbos, just 10 kilometers away, the virus is already spreading.

Generally, Greece has seen an increase in cases over recent days and weeks. Authorities have called on people to wear masks, socially distance, wash their hands, disinfect, and self-isolate if they feel unwell.

“This is totally unrealistic in Moria,” says Willemen. “Even if people spend as much time as possible in their tents, they still eat three times a day with thousands of other people. The same goes for the restrooms and showers. It is impossible to avoid the masses.”

It is also impossible to wash one’s hands regularly at the camp, she says, adding that because there are so many people in such a small space — with sub-standard hygienic standards — the conditions pave way for a rapid spread of the virus.

Crowds are impossible to avoid at Moria

Symbolic measures

So far, the Greek authorities have only implemented symbolic measures. In March, the government called on refugees and asylum seekers in Moria to follow hygiene and safety regulations, in addition to restricting their movement. Since then, only 150 people per hour have been allowed to leave the camp.

The rest of the population on Lesbos was also subject to a strict lockdown in spring but they have been allowed to move freely for almost two months. The people in Moria camp have seen restrictions on their freedom of movement extended seven times.

The number of boats arriving with refugees and asylum seekers from Turkey has increased significantly this summer. On arrival, they are questioned about possible COVID-19 symptoms and their temperatures are taken.

There are also two quarantine stations on the island where new arrivals have to spend a week, but the conditions are rather opaque, according to the freelance journalist Franziska Grillmeier, who has lived on the island for years.

She says the media has not been allowed to access the camps and that there are no medical or legal provisions. “Nobody knows exactly what happens there,” she tells DW.

“I understand that some people who are infected, but the problem is that for those who came to Lesbos before these new arrivals, the clock has been put back and they have to start their isolation from scratch if someone tests positive,” she adds.

Grillmeier says the government was using the COVID-19 pandemic to push through its own agenda. “To lock people up more. And to widen the divide between the Greek population and the refugees.”

Journalist Franziska Grillmeier has lived on Lesbos for years

NGO threatened with legal action

The freedom of NGOs is also being restricted, says Grillmeier. “The fewer independent actors there are, the freer the government is.”

Willemen, with Doctors without Borders, has also seen a shift. “We had rented a warehouse and set up a COVID-19 clinic for refugees,” she explains, adding that the hospital in Mytilene had welcomed the move because there are only six intensive beds for a population of 100,000 on the island.

The plan had been to equip the makeshift clinic as soon as possible. But then the authorities sent a letter, telling the NGO that some of the island residents had complained. Doctors Without Borders was fined €35,000 and threatened with criminal charges related to urban planning regulations.

Willemen says she does not understand what happened, since Doctors Without Borders had informed the local authorities and national authorities of its plans — and had even invited officials to visit the clinic. Nonetheless, the clinic is now closed and the 50 members of staff who had been trained up to work there have lost their jobs.

“The fine is one thing but legal action is a risk that we cannot take,” Willemen says.

She adds that it will soon become clear that it was a mistake to forbid the clinic from opening.

“It is sheer luck that there has not been an outbreak yet,” she says, especially as there were 300 or 400 people who belonged to the high-risk category in the camp, and at least 48 people have tested positive on the island so far.

“It is possible that there are some positive asymptomatic cases. But we think that it is unlikely that the virus has spread widely because the chances of not seeing any symptomatic cases in a population of 13,000 are very slim.”

But, she says, it is only a matter of time until this all changes.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/europes-largest-refugee-camp-braces-for-covid-19-outbreak/a-54640747

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2020 Could See A Renewed Refugee Crisis In Europe

Alasdair Lane — Sat, 11 Jan 2020 16:58:36 +0000

A desperate scramble from Syria’s Idlib province has begun. Pouring from the last rebel stronghold as state troops advance, the region’s weary populace face a perilous journey. The road north is their only real hope—but strafed daily by machine gun fire and aircraft missiles, it’s a daunting prospect.

Still, if they’re to reach the Turkish border, it’s a route they must brave. And then what? Into Europe, somehow, and a spot in a squalid, disease-ridden refugee camp. It’s a passage tens—if not hundreds—of thousands will make in the coming months. There was hope, this year, that Europe’s migrant crisis might abate. Such optimism has now faded, replaced by a sobering realisation: 2020 could mark a new low.

It’s a fact Turkey’s President Erdogan has made unapologetically clear. Already home to the planet’s largest refugee population—numbering almost 4 million—his nation simply can’t accommodate any more, Erdogan claims. Looking to head off the migrant surge, he has closed the border with Syria—but the evacuees’ inexorable journey north will continue nonetheless.

This picture taken on December 24, 2019, in the village of Hazano, about 20 kilometres northwest of … [+] AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

This new “migrant burden” shall not be shouldered by Turkey alone, the firebrand leader said on December 23. Like it or not, “all European countries” will have to pull their weight or feel the surge’s “negative effects” firsthand, he warned.

The sheer scale of crisis in Idlib points to a painful future indeed. Home to three million people, the region is the last to oppose Bashar al-Assad’s totalitarian rule. In recent days, as Russian-backed government forces closed in, over 235,000 have abandoned their homes. It is the single largest displacement of Syria’s eight-year civil war, with much of the province’s south now “almost empty,” according to U.N. observers.

It bears all the hallmarks of 2015’s migrant upheaval. That year—the apex of the ongoing refugee crisis—more than a million individuals arrived in Europe, fleeing war or destitution in the Middle East and North African. In time the numbers lessened, thanks largely to a deal brokered by the E.U. and Turkey. For consideration of €6 billion, Ankara would start preventing the passage of migrants through its borders into Europe, Erdogan agreed in 2016.

A child stands among the tenst, at the Vial refugee camp, on the Greek island of Chios, on December … [+] AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

But allegations of noncompliance are rife. Turkish patrol boats have reportedly reneged on their obligations, allowing refugee vessels to cross the Aegean Sea into Greek waters. In 2019 alone, over 70,000 successfully made the journey, leaked E.U. documents reveal. For the tiny spits of land they wash upon, the consequences have been catastrophic.

Lesbos’s notorious Moria refugee camp—the largest of its kind in Europe—has an official capacity of 2,000. An estimated ten-times that currently reside there. Paper-thin tents are surrounded by piles of rotting rubbish, sanitation is poor, food scarce, and access to vital medicine patchy. In a sobering reminder of the dismal conditions, two refugees this month committed suicide.

BUDAPEST, HUNGARY – NOVEMBER 07: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks to the press after … [+] GETTY IMAGES

The pair had, in fact, made it to mainland Greece before they died. Most do not. A key element of Europe’s strategy is to keep refugees offshore, a way of preventing transcontinental travel. Still, finding passage through the Balkans and into Austria and Germany, tens-of-thousands reach central and western Europe every year.

For centrist governments struggling to contain surging right-wing sentiment, this is a problem. Accordingly, Germany’s Angela Merkel will next month visit Turkey in an effort to reaffirm the E.U.’s migrant deal, reports suggest. It will be a tough sell. Politically hemmed in himself, Erdogan wants rid of his nation’s refugee contingent. They’re destined, it seems, for a ‘safe zone’ in Syria’s northeast – a roiling region now pacified by Turkish troops, Ankara claims.

Whether that area can accommodate mass resettlement, let alone the new wave of migrant misery en route from Idlib, remains unclear. Behind them, they leave unfathomable hardship. Ahead, a future bereft of certainty, bar one lamentable fate: to be a political burden no one wants to shoulder.

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Alasdair Lane

I’m a U.K.-based journalist who’s worked at the sharp end of political broadcasting in Westminster, experienced the Brexit brouhaha up close, and interviewed some of the biggest names in U.K. and European policymaking. After a stint as editor of my undergraduate student newspaper, I found myself in London writing for, among others, The Independent.

As the 2015 General Election approached, I took on a producer role at Sky News, working across the channel and on multiple platforms. Inspired by the heady political times, I moved to Sky’s Westminster studio shortly after, becoming a political news editor.

The intense, fast-paced posting saw me direct the daily political coverage, produce content going out live, and interview some of the era’s biggest political hitters.

Returning to my writing roots, I continue to focus on British and E.U. politics, as well as dabbling in wider foreign affairs.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alasdairlane/2020/12/31/2020-could-see-renewed-refugee-crisis-in-europe/#3df3357f5b0a

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The Next Syrian Refugee Crisis Will Break Europe’s Back

Yiannis Baboulias — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 15:05:23 +0000

As the possibility of another exodus increases, Greece’s decrepit refugee camps expose how the EU wasted the past three years.

Afghan men gather outside the main gate of the Moria camp as migrants wait to be processed on the Greek island of Lesbos on Oct. 22, 2015. SPENCER PLATT/GETTY IMAGES

A few weeks ago, the entrance to the Katsikas refugee camp in northwestern Greece was blocked to all traffic. Initially, the protest was reported as one by locals against the refugees. It was quickly established, however, that the refugees themselves were the protesters. Their goal was to prevent the arrival of police buses bringing in more people to the camp.

I had visited this camp several times since 2016. It is a former military installation, converted to host around 350 people. When the protest took place, almost 1,000 lived there, in cramped conditions inside a site prone to flooding. A few days later, massive storms proved the point.

Katsikas is just one small part of a wider, much bleaker picture. The infamous Moria camp on the island of Lesbos has grown around three times in size since 2015. More than 13,000 live inside and around an installation whose capacity is supposed to be a mere 3,000. The conditions inside the camp are hellish. The death toll is rising, violence is rife, and ever more children show symptoms of “resignation syndrome”—they simply lie down and stop interacting with others, a condition that predominantly affects “psychologically traumatized children and adolescents in the midst of a strenuous and lengthy migration process,” according to experts. A similarly overcrowded camp in Samos is facing the same issues. Camps across the rest of Greece are in no better shape.

The residents of these camps are those who, over the past four years, have been stranded on Europe’s outskirts after making the trek from Turkey. The camps are an expression of the continent’s self-inflicted helplessness: the haplessness of the Greek bureaucracy and the obstinacy of other European countries, such as Poland and Hungary, unwilling to show any solidarity.

This brings us to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the threat he issued last week to “open the gates and send 3.6 million refugees” over the Aegean Sea and into Europe if it tries to interfere with Turkey’s invasion of northern Syria—with Greece being the logical first stop. The threat is effective because it raises uncomfortable questions about Europe’s readiness for a new refugee crisis emanating from the Middle East.

“It’s our right to say that,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in an interview with Deutsche Welle. “It is not a threat, and it is not a bluff. This is just the answer to an attitude of the European Union.” Erdogan clearly thinks Europe has given him the upper hand in any conversation about migration.

If so, Europe has done so unnecessarily. The question of whether the continent has the potential to manage the refugees currently hosted by Turkey permits a simple answer: absolutely. Greece on its own took in and fully integrated a million people from Albania and other Balkan countries in the 1990s. Distributing some 3.6 million people across the entire continent is a small problem in comparison.

The problem is that intra-EU fighting has weakened the bloc’s resolve. The migration deal struck between the EU and Turkey in 2016, which established Turkey as a barrier for Syrians and others fleeing toward Europe, was always doomed to fail. That’s not only because the funds promised to Turkey were a pittance compared with the task asked of it but also because of the country’s long history of using migrants for political ends.

The trends have been accelerated by Turkey’s rapid transformation from somewhat erratically to unreliable regional actor. In a recent report by the Dialogue of Civilizations Research Institute, Turkey is classified as a “civilization state” that defines its interests in ways opposed to the West. In her contribution to the report, N. Selin Senocak of UNESCO writes: “Especially after the coup attempt on 15 July 2016, Turkey has felt betrayed by the US and EU, marking a turning point in Turkey’s political history and its diplomatic relations with the EU and US.” This has translated into Turkey’s abductions of U.S. citizens, constant harassment of Greek and Cypriot boats and planes around the Aegean, and now threats to disrupt European societies by weaponizing refugees unless Turkey can get its way in Syria and also natural gas fields near Cyprus.

The question was always what Europe would do to prepare for the next inevitable wave of migrants with the time that the deal had bought. Unfortunately, it made barely any progress toward equitable and humane solutions. Europe’s deliberate choice to keep refugees in hellish conditions on Greek islands has made it subject to perpetual potential blackmail by Erdogan’s government. Despite threats of sanctions by the EU in the face of his brutal invasion of Syria, Erdogan can feel confident that little will be done in response.

Indeed, judging from the conditions at the Greek camps, it seems obvious that Europe is simply too exposed to another refugee crisis to call Erdogan’s bluff. Yet this is precisely what it should prepare to do. An immediate EU relief program should be put in place, and refugees should be evacuated in significant numbers from the Greek islands and into other countries. The facilities in Greece should be upgraded to end the suffering of those who remain. And, in the meantime, the Greek government should actively cooperate with nongovernmental organizations and other groups to house refugees outside the camps, rather than continue its current hostile approach.

Source: https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/24/syrian-refugee-crisis-europe-greece-turkey-balkans/

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The post The Next Syrian Refugee Crisis Will Break Europe’s Back first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.