The fire has destroyed the entire camp of Moria, sending thousands of people off into the streets. “Moria never again” was what the people stuck inside the camp and the supportive activists shouted both angrily and hopefully. Never again a prison in the open, never again inhumane conditions for the migrants. Never again an unwelcoming Europe that pushes away men, women and children that are trying to get to its shores.
From the ashes of this shameful camp was born another monster: the new government camp near Kara Tepe. Looking at it for the first time, the unexperienced eye could mistake it for a military zone: a fenced camp, police guarding the entrances and perimeters, armoured buses passing by on the adjacent roads. On the other hand, those who know well the situation in Lesvos know that this is the only way the Greek national policies and the European ones know how to treat the migrants who are unwillingly stuck on this island.
Every one of them must be searched every day when entering the camp. We witnessed some tensions between migrants and police when the migrants were searched yet another time.
Access to the camp is prohibited, and it is difficult to get closer to it without being stopped by the numerous police forces monitoring the area: there is no way of knowing what is going on inside, apart from the testimonies of those who are forced to live inside the camp.
Not far from the camp is Hope Project’s warehouse, an association which was founded by English Eric and Philippa Kempson, and that has been supporting on a daily basis the people living in Moria before the fire and those living in the new camp now.
“The situation inside the new camp is unacceptable, starting with its position” Eric tells us. “That is the worst part of the island, it’s very windy and very cold. Some tents have been put straight on the beach near the sea: that is insane. The government – he continues – had announced that it would be only temporary, but in the meantime it has spent 2.9 million euros to rent that land for five years”.
They show us the photographs taken by the migrants living inside the camp and there are simply no words to describe them.
The new camp
8,000 people without running water and showers. The only way the migrants can shower is by using the few showers set up by volunteers and activists, or to bathe into the sea. The environmental consequences are already documentable, because of the reaction of the sea water to the chemicals present in the soaps.
The only bathrooms are the chemical ones, which are insufficient and are never cleaned, while the food – terrible in quality – is distributed only once a day.
“The Greek government and the European Commission are criminally responsible for all this” says Kempson while talking about the corruption behind these camps: “For the old camp, they spent 2.6 billion euros. With all that money I could have bought the entire island. Where has this money gone?”
While in Moria most barracks had been built with materials found here and there, in just a few weeks hundreds of UNHCR tents have appeared on the beach. Being directly in contact with the ground, without being raised in any way, they were flooded on the first rainy day.
Another cause of concern are the frequent rumours concerning the fact that the government intends to build a centre for repatriation on the island. Somebody is already saying that the cost will be of aroud 85 million euros, others are pointing out the area chosen for construction: a vast plot of land, completely isolated, designated as an area for military practice, which we have tried to get to.
In Lesvos, there is no place for any other type of hospitality. A government memo has announced that Kara Tepe will be closed before the end of this year and Pikpa (self-managed by Lesvos Solidarity) before the end of this month. The government urgently wants to take control of the migrants again and it has therefore accelerated this process: the police has called the activists of Lesvos Solidarity to tell them that they are going to be moved out on the 12th of October.
The hundreds of people staying in the two camps are extremely vulnerable: single mothers, minors, handicapped people, Lgbtq+ individuals, people suffering from cancer and torture victims. But this doesn’t matter to the government: the only alternative for them will be the new camp.
