I’m a social operator working in the field of hospitality with people requesting international protection and I work in reception centres in the north of Italy.
From the 23rd of July to the 6th of August I went on holiday to Greece.
This country is really beautiful, it’s the cradle of our civilization and the sun was hot but, while I was looking at the sea in front of me, I couldn’t help thinking about the landings of some years ago on the Greek coasts. These landings have never stopped and, according to Aegean Boat Report, in the last few weeks they have been increasing.
From the 5th to the 11th of August 1.067 people arrived in the islands of Aegean Sea, but ABR estimates they were 23.623. Frontex (European Border and Coast Guard Agency) has also published a press release stating “the number of landings on Greek islands in the Aegean Sea has increased by a quarter compared to the same period last year”:
During my visit of Rhodes island, I couldn’t help visiting the reception centre in the city of Rhodes.
By asking information to a local guide I learned the reception centre is in the former slaughterhouse at Akandia harbour.
So, one morning, leaving my group behind, I went to this harbour full of beautiful yachts and sailing boats. Next to them, on the ground, there is a proper dilapidated and forgotten ghetto, a reality totally dissociated from the context surrounding it.
The conditions of abandonment and deterioration can’t be justified since we are no more in an emergency state, this situation is even more dreadful given also the low number of people hosted inside, which could allow a more human management of the place.
There weren’t any obstacles in going in and the hosted people, mainly from Palestine, Iraq and Somali, welcomed me kindly and with a bit of legitimate astonishment.
After having introduced to each other and having played with the children to break the ice and the wall of mistrust of some of them, the hosts started to tell me about the life in this place, by answering my questions.
There is no social worker taking care of their medical, legal or bureaucratic needs which must be carried out outside the centre. The people of the island sometimes go there to give them clothes or goods for children, there is only one volunteer (probably a compassionate islander) who goes to the centre from 8 to 10 in the morning to check their conditions, talk to them and probably give them comfort trying to contain the sense of abandonment which everyone can perceive as soon as they get inside.
A Somalian girl who can speak English quite well told me that an employee from UNHCR goes there once a month and gives them 90 €/each person (I assume to cover their monthly expenses: food, clothes, medicines etc.).
The children were quite a lot and they were barefoot walking in the dirt, they welcomed me happily thanks to their childhood unawareness. I could also find some unawareness among adults who seeing my unbelief asked me “Is it better than this in Italy?”.
That was the second to last day of my holiday so I couldn’t analyse the aspects linked to the management and the agreements of the centre.
But I think these photographs speak for themselves.
P. Luke Gregory, the Franciscan priest of Rhodes who helps the refugees in Rhodes and Kos with both Caritas office and the association “The Custody of the Holy Land” in Rhodes, wasn’t available.
So the next day, with all my photographs from the centre, I left determined to bring out this situation of degradation which has no excuses to be kept like that by the institutions in Rhodes and by Greek government.
People, families, women, men and children (around 70 people) are living in a state of abandonment and degradation, clearly unhealthy and unhygienic.
Nicole Bonfanti
