Employees at Greece's migrant and refugee reception centres have issued a joint-plea to the country's migration minister Giannis Mouzalas to take drastic action to help deal with the ongoing crisis affecting the mainland and the Easter Aegean islands. A recent upsurge in migrant arrivals from Turkey is pushing the islands to the limit.
A recent upsurge in migrant arrivals from Turkey is pushing the islands of Chios, Lesvos and Samos in particular, to a breaking point. 2,800 people have landed on the islands' shores in September alone. The employees dealing with both the backlog of asylum seekers and new influxes of people have expressed their complaints to migration minister Giannis Mouzalas about rapidly deteriorating conditions in all facilities. Frequent outbreaks of violence are causing tension, they say.
"For around a month during the summer in Kos there was not a single nurse for a population of 850," the letter states. "Yes there may be plenty of money from European funds being announced but the distribution of those funds is painfully slow."
Workers criticize government for ending cooperation with NGO's
In the letter, workers criticized the government's decision to terminate its cooperation with some NGO's and humanitarian organizations to pass on responsibilities to the Health Ministry, stating that since then there have been dangerous shortages in medical personnel. "The problems for us multiply on a daily basis and any "solutions" provided so far are not curing those problems. What we are claiming are not rights or vouchers: The workers then provided a huge bullet list of "obstacles" concluding with a further list of rhetorical questions demanding answers.
"Who will design the complex implementation of the policies to deal with the problems? Who will be fully responsible for the political, administrative and operational guidance of the Reception and Identification Service? When will the strict hierarchical command line be adhered to, without the interference of politicians or any other "officials" so that we no longer work in a state of ambiguity, confusion and legal uncertainty?"
According to local media, the letter and the issues it contains will be subject for discussion at an emergency government meeting chaired by Prime Minister Alexis Tsirpas this week.
Letter follows similar plea from Lesvos
The letter from reception center works comes hot on the heels of a similar open letter sent by Lesvos mayor, Spyros Galinos, last week to the European Commission and the Greek government. Galinos pleaded with the government to act after a huge spike in migrants arriving on the islands shores. Around 2,800 undocumented migrants have arrived from neighboring Turkey in the past month, the majority of which have landed on Lesvos. Camps on the island are now massively overcrowded with over 6,000 currently staying there. An estimated total of 13,042 people are currently accommodated on the islands according to official figures.
Violence returns
Violent outbreaks at camps are also back on the agenda as tensions flare between rival ethnic groups who have been stuck in reception centers for months on end. Last week on Chios two Iranian migrants sustained knife injuries after a brawl which broke out at the Souda reception center, which is supposed to be winding down but is still hosting some people. According to police, the two men were inside a tent when they stabbed each other but no reasons have been given as to why.Both were treated in hospital for their wounds and police, who have increased their presence at the camp, said that they would be charged following their release.