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NEW MSF REPORT SHOWS SCALE OF SUFFERING CAUSED BY HOTSPOT SYSTEM ON ASYLUM SEEKERS, REFUGEES AND MIGRANTS
In a report released today, Médecins Sans Frontières/ Doctors Without Borders (MSF) once again calls on European leaders to completely change their approach to migration and to stop intensifying their existing containment and deterrence policies, which are causing avoidable harm to the health and wellbeing of asylum seekers, refugees and other migrants.
The report, ‘Constructing Crisis at Europe’s Borders’, shows how Europe's migration policies put the health, wellbeing and safety of the men, women and children trapped on the Greek islands in jeopardy. People who have survived violence and hardship are stuck in appalling conditions, with a lack of information on their legal status and subjected to harsh border and asylum procedures. This system has inflicted misery, put lives in danger and erodes the right to asylum.
During 2019 and 2020, MSF mental health clinics on Chios, Lesvos and Samos treated 1,369 patients, many of whom suffered from severe mental health conditions including post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. More than 180 people treated by MSF had self-harmed, or attempted suicide. Two-thirds of them were children, and the youngest was just six years old.
MSF patients cited daily stresses and constant fears as major factors impacting their wellbeing and mental health. These include navigating life in poor conditions, complicated administrative and asylum procedures, exposure to violence and insecurity, family separation, unaddressed medical needs, and fear of deportation.
Furthermore, for years, even the most basic life essentials have been neglected on the Greek islands. MSF and other NGOs have been continuously forced to step in to provide crucial services, from healthcare to water. Between October 2019 and May 2021, MSF teams trucked in over 43 million litres of clean water for people in the over-crowded Vathy hotspot on Samos where the water is unsafe to drink.
“Despite claiming to change for the better, European governments are spending millions to standardise and intensify policies that have already done so much harm,” says Iorgos Karagiannis, MSF Head of Mission in Greece.
“Shockingly, Lesvos's Moria hotspot, which was not only dysfunctional but deadly, is now the blueprint for a new prison-like centre on Samos. The new facility is in a remote, exposed area of the island and will hold people in shipping containers, surrounded by barbed wire, with controlled entry and exit. This cannot be sold as an improvement in people’s living conditions. Instead it will continue to cause a degradation in people's mental health and will make the suffering of those trapped on the Greek islands even more invisible" said Karagiannis.
Executive Director of MSF UK, Vickie Hawkins added, "The UK government in 2020 announced that it had filled all the places under the Dubs Scheme for unaccompanied refugee children within Europe and closed it down. They have since rejected attempts to put in place a successor to the scheme and rejected an amendment to the immigration bill that would have provided a base line for safe and legal routes for unaccompanied children from within Europe. The UK, like the rest of Europe, is turning its back on these vulnerable men, women and children".
"It is not too late for compassion and common sense. The UK government and leaders across Europe should end polices of containment and ensure people have access to urgent assistance, relocation to safe reception facilities and integration in communities across Europe" Hawkins concluded.
ENDS
Interviews and B-Roll available upon request
.jpg "Copyright: Evgenia Chorou/MSF
Portrait photo of Jaber Alsoudy, his wife and child outside their tent.
Jaber, a 37-year-old man and his wife, 21 years old, left from Syria because of the war, seeking for a safe place and a better future in Europe. During the journey his wife was heavily pregnant. Their son who is now a bit more than 1 year old, was born just before crossing the sea from Turkey.
“We arrived on Samos on November 2019, after multiple failed attempts to cross the sea between Turkey and Greece. We were scared. We spent approximately 9 hours in the sea but finally we made it to Samos and Vathy camp. But there is no safety here. I feel like we are living in a jungle. There is no electricity. There is no good access to water. I feel like we are animals. You constantly have the feeling you are the target. We are a target of the authorities, we are a target of other people inside the camp. We don’t know if something will happen to us by a friend or by an enemy. We don’t feel safe. We are treated like animals.
But despite the circumstances, we are trying to take care of ourselves in these conditions. The long procedure of the asylum application though has a huge impact on us. We are mentally and physically very tired from everything. We are afraid to leave our child outside of the tent because it is not safe and we can’t even go and stay inside the RIC, there it is worse. Here it is safer. There would be no privacy.
It is very hard for us to accept to go to the new camp. We left Syria because we had a lack of dignity and respect for the basic human rights. But what we have been searching in Europe, we have not found it yet. We are not being treated like human beings. We know that the new camp is surrounded by a big fence, that it is in the middle of nowhere, it is an hour away from Vathy. You have to enter and exit that camp at specific times. My wife is attending the mental health clinic of MSF to get psychological care. She is tired and depressed. She never expected that she would need psychiatric medication to cope with life.
We want to have a future. I want to be productive for the society. I want my child to go to school, to have a normal life.”")