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GREECE: For Refugees, Could Afghanistan be Worse

Apostolis Fotiadis

ATHENS, Apr 6 2009 (IPS) - For more than a decade migrants and refugees have been landing up at a slum in Patras town in the hope of catching a boat to Italy.

The settlement they live in close to the port in this town of 160,000 located 220 km south-west of Athens, was set up by Kurds but more than 95 percent of the people living there today originate from Afghanistan.

Living and hygiene conditions in the settlement are at best inappropriate for human beings. But while this has been a chronic situation problems have been aggravated of late with local community members and authorities getting increasingly hostile to the refugees.

“Municipal authorities have not responded to our pleas to regulate the problem, believing it will fade away when pressure from local community forces migrants and refugees to move away,” Andreas Vgenopoulos, member of an organised citizens group that offers support to refugees and migrants in Patras told IPS. “What they do not get is the desperation of this people. If you only understand where they come from you know they will not turn back, they will stay until they go west.”

Since last May ‘Medisins Sans Frontieres’ (MSF) has operated a small first aid unit inside the settlement manned by a doctor specialising in humanitarian crisis conditions, and a psychologist. Christos Papaioannou, coordinator of the project, says people face serious dangers from just the hygiene conditions.

Usually five to ten people sleep in each of about 200 hutments assembled from wood, paper and plastic. There are only four lavatories available for everyone in the settlement. The population is strictly male, and includes many unattended minors. Garbage and cesspits are rarely cleaned, and loads of sludge accumulates around the settlement, posing a threat not only to people living in it but also to locals in neighbouring buildings.

“Since last May we have examined about 7,000 people in the settlement. Most often we deal with dermatological and respiratory problems caused by lack of hygiene as well as various injuries. Some people also suffer from depression, extreme stress and sleeping disorders. We have characterised the situation in Patras as a medical emergency, meaning that a large group of vulnerable people does not have free access to medical services.”

According to Greek law, undocumented migrants should be accepted in hospitals only in case of emergency. Treatment, even of seriously sick people, depends strictly on doctors’ goodwill.

The MSF estimates there are about 1,200 to 1,500 people living in the settlement today; exact numbers are difficult to ascertain since the population is constantly moving. Some people have stayed in Patras for years, while others move out in days. They survive on jobs they get in the informal market and provisions offered by citizens.

Vgenopoulos says the injuries doctors see are often the result of abuses committed by coastal guards and policemen responsible for guarding the port’s facilities.

“There are many reported cases of authorities brutalising people who attempt to board boats. The decision for increased policing measures on the facilities has created a situation in which desperate people risk everything to get on a boat.”

On Mar. 2 a lorry driver attempted to crash an Afghan who had climbed on the back of his truck; migrants often hide under and inside trucks waiting to board ferries.

A case of attempted murder has been filed against the lorry driver but this will not stop the deterioration, Vgenopoulos says. “It is worrisome that a radical approach is gradually adopted by a small part of Patras residents. This encourages extreme right and racist elements who believe the issue can only be given a radical solution.”

On Jan. 21 a fire was reported in the settlement. Some nearby residents were heard shouting, ‘Let them burn’, and tried to block the fire brigade from extinguishing the flames. Others were seen spitting on the refugees from their balconies. A third of the slum, including the MSF station was destroyed, leaving 500 people without a roof.

Locals have also turned against supporters of the refugees. “Some people went so far as to say that we profit from this situation,” says Vgenopoulos. “But we do not have anything to gain from the suffering of these people. Responsible for keeping them hostages like this are the smugglers network, in which key roles are saved for elements of the authorities, and the shameful role of Greece in the broader issue of European migration politics.”