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Europe freezes up on solution for freezing refugees
A deadly cold snap has already claimed at least four lives as Greece and Europe muddle the response.
Hundreds of asylum seekers in the Balkans and on the Greek islands of Samos, Chios and Lesvos are shivering through winter rains and heavy snowfall in overcrowded refugee camps ill-equipped for a sustained cold snap.
Over 700 people, including young children and other vulnerable individuals, remain in unheated tents in the Reception and Identification Centre in Samos, according to UNHCR, the U.N. refugee agency. Although UNHCR and other NGOs have distributed close to 360,000 high thermal blankets, boots and other winter gear, the living conditions remain unsuitable as temperatures dip below 40 degrees Fahrenheit this week.
After a comment by Greek Migration Minister Yiannis Mouzalas on Jan. 5 that “there are no refugees or migrants living in the cold anymore” an anonymous refugee from the Morial camp in Lesvos released an 18-minute video on Jan. 7 showing asylum-seekers living in snow-covered summer tents built in warmer weather last year. The video, which has been viewed over 30,000 times, is narrated by a french-speaking man and shows unheated tents collapsing under the weight of the snow.
The video was shared widely on social media and launched a conversation about the treatment of refugees in Lesvos. Officials in Greece responded to the video by dispatching a Greek Navy ship to the island with room for as many as 500 refugees. The ship is equipped with beds, stoves and mattresses.
The temperatures have reportedly killed a number of refugees and migrants. UNHCR reported the deaths of two Iraqi men and a Somali woman in southeastern Belgrade, Serbia, and an Afghan man at the Greece-Turkey border because of the weather. According to the AP, migrants staying at a warehouse in central Belgrade have trouble breathing because of the smoke from fires they lit to keep warm. Two migrants were reportedly hospitalized for inhaling too much smoke, and half of the migrants living in the warehouse are showing symptoms of lung problems.
Although the number of incoming refugees to Greece has diminished in comparison to last year as a result of a March 2016 deal between the E.U. and Turkey, the relocation of refugees out of the island and to the mainland has been impeded by what UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards called a “slowness in registration or identifying vulnerable individuals.” Greece will only transfer asylum seekers to the mainland after they’ve completed the registration process, which includes a recording of personal data and an interview to determine a migrants eligibility to receive asylum, or in cases of particular vulnerability. According to The New York Times, thousands of migrants have yet to complete the registration process.
Under the E.U.-Turkey agreement, Ankara receives €3 billion and a fresh chance to join the union in exchange for help keeping asylum seekers out of Europe. To date, over 850,000 people have reached the Greek islands by boat from Turkey, according to Human Rights Watch. Since last spring, however, the Greek coast guard has been turning back boats under the premise — questioned by human rights groups — that Turkey is a safe first country of asylum. More than 800 people have been returned under the agreement, and most recently, 27 Syrian refugees denied asylum have been returned to Turkey.
Meanwhile, the E.U. Emergency Relocation Mechanism of 2015, an agreement to resettle migrants in member E.U. states, has fallen short in its promise to relocate 66,400 from Greece and 39,600 from Italy over a two-year period ending September 2017. So far, only 12 percent of the total have left or are scheduled to depart Greece, Edwards said.
