Greece does all it can to deter refugees from entering its territories
The Malakasa refugee camp is quiet and extremely hot. Situated 40 kilometres northeast of Athens, the camp appears almost deserted. Suddenly a man with a suitcase appears at the gate. A Greek security guard warns him that if he leaves, he will not be allowed back in. The man, who appears to be Afghan, gives the guard a barely perceptible nod. The guard approaches the gate, opens it and says indifferently, 'Have a good life.'
One meal a day
People living in Greece's reception centres endure appalling conditions. According to a recent report published by the aid organisation Refugee Support Aegean, refugees are housed in remote areas with limited access to healthcare and education services. The report also found that they lack adequate protection and legal assistance.
‘When I arrived at Malakasa, I was put in a room with no pillow, no blanket and a leaking roof,’ says Yahooda, a 44-year-old Iranian who fled his country for religious reasons. ‘We could only take cold showers, and water would flood our room through a hole in the roof.’
According to Yahooda, one meal a day is provided, but it's sparse and of poor quality. ‘We were often hungry,’ he says sadly.
Malakasa is a bleak place, especially for children. They have almost nothing to do, and it can take months before they are placed in regular schools, if at all. 'I often wonder where these children go, and how they are doing,’ says a worker with Solidarity Now, the only organisation still providing activities for children at the camp. ‘Sometimes there isn’t even time to say goodbye.’
Suffering on Lesbos
After a fire destroyed the notorious Moria refugee camp in September 2020, the Greek government hastily set up a temporary camp on Lesbos. Named after Mavrovouni, the camp still exists today and is even more cramped than its predecessor.
Surrounded by fences and barbed wire, the camp is filled with tightly packed tents and iso boxes. The stifling heat makes it difficult to breathe, and residents walk past with tired faces and worn clothes. Scabies is rampant in the camp.
Omar, a 47-year-old Syrian, lives in a tent in Mavrovouni with his 23-year-old daughter and 19-year-old son. ‘We were first put in an iso box’, he says. ‘But when two young men were assigned to stay with us, I feared for my daughter’s safety.
When I raised the issue with the camp administration, they moved us to this large tent. It felt like punishment. Now we live with dozens of people and have no privacy. When we ask the staff for help, they tell us to leave the camp if we’re not happy.’
In a few days we'll have to leave the refugee camp, but where can we go?
After fleeing Aleppo, Omar and his family lived in Türkiye for ten years. But rising hatred, discrimination, and fear of deportation forced them to flee again. 'I had a successful shop in the coastal city of Izmir, but the Turkish owners forced me to close it and leave,’ Omar explains.
It was too expensive to flee with his whole family, so he left his wife and two youngest children behind in Türkiye. ‘It was only after I left that my wife found out she was pregnant. When she later tried to reach Greece by boat, she and my children were arrested in Türkiye. I don’t know where they are now.’
Greece facing the European Court of Human Rights
Greece is systematically forcing refugees back into Türkiye, by land and by sea, sometimes with deadly consequences. The ForensicArchitecture platform alone has recorded over 2,000 verified incidents.
In June, Greece faced the European Court of Human Rights for the first time in two cases, in which refugees were represented by lawyers from Prakken d’Oliveira, the Dutch Council for Refugees, and the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR).
‘In recent years, all major human rights organisations have raised concerns about Greece's pushback practices,’ says Maria Papamina of GCR. ‘We have assisted over 800 victims of pushbacks, and this practice must stop.’ The court's verdict is still pending.
Quick residency decision: No safety guarantee
In the past, asylum seekers in Greece had to wait years for a decision on their status. Now, refugees from certain countries, such as Palestine and Syria, are granted residency quite quickly - sometimes within a few months. And while this should be good news, it brings new challenges.
‘We just received our residency status and have to leave the camp in a few days,’ Omar says. ‘But where will we go? Should I wait here for my wife and children, or should I try to move on to another European country?’ he asks, overwhelmed.
Minos Mouzourakis, a lawyer and advocacy officer with Refugee Support Aegean, says the Greek government is forcing refugees like Omar to make impossible choices. ‘Either you get your status and become homeless, or you travel to another European country and apply for asylum again,’ says Minos.
‘According to European rules, this shouldn’t be possible, but most countries won’t send refugees back to Greece because of the appalling conditions and lack of support and integration.’
Greatest wish
Moreover, the process of family reunification is incredibly complex and takes years. ‘Why are we being treated so inhumanely?’ asks Yahooda, the Iranian refugee. ‘My greatest wish is to be reunited with my wife and two sons, whom I haven’t seen in over five years.’
Everyone is exhausted, burned out and leaves
Aid organisations working with refugees are under immense pressure. ‘We’ve been falsely accused of human smuggling several times by the Greek government,’ says Lefteris Papagiannakis, director of the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR). ‘New laws criminalise our work and put pressure on organisations to stop rescuing people at sea or helping them on land.’
Administrative hurdles also make it difficult for aid groups to operate, with complex registration rules. ‘If an organisation doesn’t comply, its permission to work in the camps is revoked,’ says Minos of Refugee Support Aegean.
Exhaustion is visible in the eyes of the aid workers. ‘Everyone is burned out and leaving,’ says one medical aid worker. But there is also a lot of resilience and determination within Greek organisations. The Greek Council for Refugees, for example, continues to provide tireless legal support.
GCR’s lawyer Maria Tsiota is greeted with flowers and cake by a Somali family she helped to gain asylum in Greece. ‘The joy I see on people’s faces motivates me to continue my work,’ Maria says. ‘But what will the future hold for this family?’
A call for solidarity across Europe
‘What we need is a humane and united European asylum policy, where countries take joint responsibility for the reception and protection of refugees arriving in Europe,’ says Femke de Vries, European asylum policy officer and lobbyist at the Dutch Council for Refugees.
‘It is crucial to create safe pathways, so that we can put an end to the violence and pushbacks at the borders,’ Femke adds. ‘Right now, not only are lives being lost, but human rights are dying too.’
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