COVID-19 emergency:a possible catastrophe announced in the refugee camps in Greece

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Athens, Greece.First recorded case of COVID-19 among migrants.She is a 19-year-old woman who tested positive in the last week of March, when she was admitted to hospital to give birth to her baby.

The young mother lives in the Ritsona refugee camp on the mainland, located about 70 kilometers north of Athens, which hosts 2,300 people (of which 252 unaccompanied minors) and that he was quarantined last Thursday for at least two weeks, after the positive results of the test to which 20 asymptomatic migrants were subjected (which later became 23).

Read also >> Covid-19 and health emergency:It is essential to protect the rights and health of migrants and refugees

Health officials are investigating the source of the infection and testing many camp residents to determine how many have contracted the virus.

The Greek Ministry of Migration has announced that travel will be severely limited and monitored by the police.

Read also >> Over 40 thousand refugees in camps that could accommodate 5 thousand.The devastating conditions of migrants in Greece and the indifference of Europe

The International Organization for Migration (IOM), which ensured the stay in Ritsona during the quarantine, had already been trying for some time to protect the site from the explosion of an outbreak.

«Everyone is at risk in Greece.Migrants and refugees are as exposed to the virus as the Greek community." he declared Gianluca Rocco, IOM head of mission in Greece.

“It is vital that everyone, including migrants and refugees on the mainland and islands, is guaranteed equal access to health services, including prevention, testing and treatment, especially in times like these,” Rocco continued.

Read also >> Greece denies healthcare to seriously ill refugee children in Lesbos

“The immediate inclusion of all migrants in the national response to COVID-19 is not only a humanitarian intervention, but an essential provision for public health policies in Greece.”

It's on Sunday the news of a second refugee camp quarantined for fifteen days after a 53-year-old man tested positive on the swab test.This is the Malakasa camp located 40 kilometers north-east of Athens.

According to the Ministry of Migration, an increase in police forces is also planned for this structure to monitor movements.

Malakasa is an "open" camp, in which migrants can enter and exit without limitations and which hosts around 2,500 people, not all of whom are registered, as tells Mihalis Hassiotis, a city councilor of Oropos, the city where the center is based.

Next door is a "closed" facility - in which around 1,300 migrants who arrived after March 1 are detained - which began operating when Greece blocked its borders in response to theopening of the borders of Türkiye.These people, detained in all respects - like reported from everyday life Kathimerini - are not entitled to asylum due to the suspension of their applications.They live in large tents that house 25 people each.

Arrival of some families in Malakasa detention camp via Human Right Watch

The precarious situation of the latest arrivals was reported on March 31 by Human Rights Watch that Greek authorities are arbitrarily detaining nearly 2,000 people in unacceptable conditions in two different facilities, denying them the right to submit asylum applications.Those who arrived in Greece after March 1, including children, people with disabilities, the elderly and pregnant women, would have been quarantined due to COVID-19, but the reality is very different.The refugees stated - how tells The Guardian - that they were forced to sign an expulsion order in Greek despite not being able to understand it, which stated that they should be repatriated because they had entered Greece illegally.

Read also >> Moria, the refugee camp in Greece where young migrants try to take their own lives

On March 26, the Greek parliament ratified a government decree of March 1, 2020 which suspended asylum requests from those who entered the country irregularly for 30 days.The March 1 decision, adopted before any measures were taken in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, requires new arrivals to be immediately expelled "to their countries of origin, where possible" or to transit countries, such as Turkey, without even registering.The decree, therefore, makes no reference to the prevention of infection with the new coronavirus, but is rather a reaction to Turkey's announcement of opening its borders to migrants and asylum seekers who want to reach European countries.

In fact, however, there have been no expulsions because Turkey has refused to accept repatriations.Following the adoption of the measure, however, the Greek authorities stopped at least 1,974 people who had arrived in Greece since March 1, transferring them to two detention centers set up near the city of Serres, 350 kilometers north of Athens, and to a military-owned land outside the town of Malakasa.

“If the government is serious about preventing transmission and illness of COVID-19 among migrants and asylum seekers, it must increase testing, provide more tents, offer people sufficient sanitation, water and soap, and implement prevention interventions », he declared Belkis Wille, senior crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch.«Forcing people, some of whom are at high risk of serious illness or death, to live in filthy and unsanitary conditions, all together in confined spaces, is the key to spreading the virus, not to mention the degradation and conditions inhuman".

The police personnel unions of Athens, North-East Attica and West Attica declared, in a statement of March 26, that hygiene measures in Malakasa are "non-existent" adding, in relation to COVID-19, that it is "mathematically certain that it will produce a bomb that will slowly explode due to the lack of basic health protections (sanitation, cleanliness, masks , gloves, number of people living in the tents)".

Conditions at the Serres site, where tents are clustered inside a pen on a dried-up riverbed, are even worse than those at Malakasa, say Katy Fallon, Bashar Deeb and Daniel Howden in an article of Guardian.Those detained say they have no electricity to charge their cell phones.

Spyros Leonidas, mayor of the nearest village, Promaxonas, said the camp was "unfit for animals, let alone people".«There are newborns and pregnant women.And there is no hot water,” he said.

In an interview issued by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to Christiane Amanpour of CNN , the head of the Greek government clarified that the suspension of asylum requests was temporary (due to the opening of the Turkish borders) and that from April 1st everything would return as before.

«It is my duty, and I have made it very clear, to protect my borders.And that's exactly what I did.Greece or the European Union will not be blackmailed by Türkiye over this issue.So we made it clear that this was a temporary measure.It expired today (April 1st), so I expect a full return to normality when it comes to asylum applications.We have changed the procedure.We want to simplify the asylum application and make it much quicker.The people who will be granted this will have the full right, if they choose to do so, to remain in Greece and we will welcome them.Those who are not offered international protection will have to return to Türkiye or their countries of origin" he told Amanpour.

But NGOs (including Doctors Without Borders), doctors And academics are calling for Greek refugee camps to be evacuated due to the new coronavirus pandemic which could cause devastating consequences.

The European Union has, in fact, been urged by many to transfer asylum seekers from overcrowded facilities on the Greek islands to try to save human lives.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has also called for the evacuation of asylum seekers populating the refugee camps on the Hellenic islands.

In an interview issued to Deutsche Welle Turkish, Boris Cheshirkov, UNHCR representative in Greece, drew attention to the cramped spaces of the camps and the poor sanitation services.

Cheshirkov said that UNHCR has offered financial assistance to refugees to enable them to purchase disinfectants and to support center administrations to ensure hygiene in the event of an epidemic.

On March 23, the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) wrote to the European Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič to ask for the evacuation of the 42,000 people living in the camps - and who already live in a precarious situation - as an "urgent preventive" measure to avoid "many deaths" due to the new coronavirus.

“There is no possibility of isolation or social distancing, nor is it possible to guarantee adequate hygienic conditions,” we read letter.“There are only six places in intensive care units on the island of Lesvos and the necessary health equipment is not currently available on the islands,” the Commission added on March 31 she returned once again on the issue, underlining how the current pandemic is proof of the fact that no country can face certain challenges alone and asking for clarification on the timing regarding the transfer of 1,600 unaccompanied minors in eight European Union countries who have made themselves available to the welcome.

Mitsotakis also urged the European Union to provide more assistance to keep the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 away from island refugee camps.

“Conditions are far from ideal,” he said Mitsotakis.«But I must also underline that Greece is basically tackling this problem alone.We didn't receive the support we wanted from the European Union."

In an interview released last Thursday in Deutsche Welle the European Commissioner for Home Affairs and Migration, Ylva Johansson, declared that the European Union must do everything to avoid an outbreak of the pandemic in refugee camps with an emergency plan prepared in consultation with the Greek authorities which includes the evacuation of the most vulnerable subjects who must be placed in safety in hotel rooms or apartments, the sending of medical equipment and personnel, the transfer of unaccompanied minors (not before being subjected to the swab test) in the eight European states ( Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal) who have expressed availability, the collaboration of IOM and UNHCR.

"It is everyone's task to show concrete solidarity towards Greece and migrants", added Johannson who shortly before, during a video link with the European Parliament, had described the Ritsona epidemic as an "alarm signal".

According to data collected by the IOM, Greece currently hosts approximately 100,000 asylum seekers, of which 40,000 in refugee camps located on five islands in the Aegean Sea.

Konstantinos Moutzouris, governor of the northern Aegean islands, said - how reported from Deutsche Welle - that the "immediate removal" of camp residents is essential to avoid the potential spread of the virus, but the government in Athens has ruled out the transfer of migrants to the Greek mainland.

Greece, which he decreed general forced quarantine starting from Monday 23 March, he recorded (as of April 5, 2020) 1,735 cases of infection and 73 deaths from COVID-19.

Kayvan Bozorgmehr, doctor and professor at the Institute of Public Health at Bielefeld University in Germany, he declared to Al Jazeera that, due to the terrible conditions in which they find themselves, Greek refugee camps represent potential hotbeds for the spread of the virus.

“Refugees in the camps are exposed to a high risk of contracting infectious diseases due to overcrowding, combined with poor hygiene and precarious sanitation,” added Bozorgmehr, who is among the academics who have called in an appeal for the evacuation of Moria, the refugee camp on the island of Lesbos with a reception capacity of 2,200 places which currently hosts around 20,000 migrants.

«It is highly likely that refugees could contract the virus in host communities or hospitals.Uncontrolled spread in settings such as refugee camps, such as those on the Greek islands, can cause a public health disaster as social distancing measures and quarantine are impractical in those settings."

The first case of COVID-19 on the islands was recorded on Lesvos at the beginning of March when a Greek woman from Plomari tested positive.

From the March 16 no visitors, including members of NGOs and agencies, are allowed access to reception centers on the Greek islands.The measure sanctioned the suspension of all activities and the closure of special structures such as schools, libraries and areas used for physical exercise and the medical control of new arrivals who, in the event of a positive test, will be placed in quarantine.

To ask for the immediate evacuation of the largest refugee camp in Europe and avoid the risk of spreading the new coronavirus, around 6,000 doctors across Europe have joined the campaign #SOSMoria.

The appeal they signed states:“If Europe looks away now, this situation could escalate into a health disaster and this would represent a serious violation of the norms and values ​​of European healthcare.It is our duty to prevent this from happening.For the refugees, for the Greek people, who have been in limbo for years, and for Europe.As physicians we took an oath promising to provide medical care to all people, regardless of their personal history.As European doctors we are obliged to do everything possible to prevent this catastrophe."

On March 24, twenty-four humanitarian and human rights organizations they asked to the Greek government to immediately reduce the congestion of migrants and asylum seekers in reception centers in the Aegean islands to avoid a pandemic crisis.

“Thousands of people, including elderly people, chronically ill people, unaccompanied children and minors, pregnant women, new mothers and disabled people, are trapped on the Greek islands in extremely dangerous, deplorable and overcrowded conditions.Forcing asylum seekers to remain in a situation that violates their human rights and endangers their health, well-being and dignity cannot be justified by any health reason,” the request reads.

“As of March 22, the population of the hotspots of Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Kos and Leros exceeded the expected reception capacity by almost 31,400 units, with 37,427 people present in structures that can accommodate 6,095.The conditions in the centers cannot be described as suitable for a dignified and humane life.Extremely limited access to running water, toilets and showers, as well as hours-long waiting lines for food distribution and access to insufficient medical and nursing staff, make it impossible to comply with the guidelines for protection from the new coronavirus, exposing people to significantly greater risk than the growing threat of COVID-19 transmission,” the NGOs continue.

The Greek government is asked to take appropriate measures to prevent an outbreak and to prepare a plan to be implemented immediately when the first case of COVID-19 is detected in a reception centre.If an outbreak were to break out, quarantine would trap tens of thousands of healthy people forced to live with infected people, without being able to count on an adequate medical response.

But would it be conceivable to be able to maintain social distance in an overloaded refugee center like Moria where the health situation was already serious before the new coronavirus arrived in Greece?In such a context, can the recommended measures to prevent its spread be respected, including washing hands regularly when there is not enough soap and water?

Deutsche Welle the he asked to migration expert Gerald Knaus, co-founder of the European Stability Initiative think tank and architect of theagreement on refugees signed by the European Union and Türkiye in March 2016.For Knaus, the humanitarian crisis can still be prevented but we must intervene immediately because in the reception centers people are not able to maintain social distance, because they cannot wash their hands and because of the small number of beds in intensive care.

The need to act immediately - explains Knaus - is not only in the interest of the refugees but of Greece and the entire European Union.The first step to be taken is for Greece to take a position towards its European partners.Inaction can only produce a devastating crisis for everyone.

Since certainly no migrants will return to Turkey from the islands in the coming months, due to the closure of the borders, Knaus identifies a possible solution in the transfer of 35,000 refugees from the islands to the mainland, providing 15,000 beds in temporary tent cities that could be set up by the IOM, another 10,000 beds in currently empty Greek hotels, while another 10,000 people could be hosted by countries, such as Germany, in centers that already welcome those with refugee status.Such a decision would send a strong signal to the Greek population that they would no longer feel isolated in the management of an emergency that has now become permanent, creating a type of European solidarity that would be remembered decades later.

The strategist of the agreement signed in 2016 between the European Union and Türkiye believes that his creation no longer exists.While he is convinced that it worked for four years, benefiting Syrians in Turkey and drastically reducing the number of arrivals and deaths, on the other hand he thinks it was not effective for the Greek islands.

When at the end of February, Ankara failed to fulfill its commitment by opening the Turkish borders on the border with Greece - following thekilling of 36 Turkish soldiers in a bombing south of Idlib, Syria, and after accusing the European Union of not having respected the economic promises made and of lack of support to military operations in Syria - allowing migrants to approach the Hellenic land border, the 2016 agreement is definitively dead.

For Knaus, if the European Union wishes to renew cooperation with Turkey, a new mutual commitment, a new declaration between the parties, is necessary.But although the dialogue has been started, there are currently two biggest obstacles:an inadequate economic proposal from the European Commission and the lack of concreteness of Turkey which wants to quickly resolve the problem at a time when the European Union finds itself managing one of the deepest crises in its history.

preview photo EPA/ORESTIS PANAGIOTOU away InfoMigrants

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