News of a confirmed case of Covid-19 on Lesbos has sparked fears of the impact of an outbreak at the overcrowded Moria refugee camp, where refugees live in dire conditions with appalling hygiene and little medical care.
The troubling conditions in the camp have worsened this week, and tensions on the island have seen several NGOs forced to reduce or close services over safety fears.
Over the past week doctors and journalists have been attacked by vigilantes as anger has grown over the number of migrants arriving by sea and the continuing growth of the camp. Parts of the camp, including warehouses storing food and a school set up by volunteers, were destroyed in fires.
The situation for the 20,000 people living in and around Moria camp was already dire. With almost half the camp’s population aged under 18 and many families living without tents or any form of shelter, even a short closure of basic services leaves many vulnerable people in danger.
On Monday when the Guardian visited some NGOs had only just returned after days of closures, with other services still suspended.
Sherzad, 30, who preferred to use only her first name, cradled her 22-day-old baby son in a hut at the top of a hill in the olive grove next to the camp. “Last week when lots of the services were closed I couldn’t get nappies and I wanted to try and get some medicine but everything was closed and there wasn’t a lot of food,” she said. She tries to cook for herself as much as possible because otherwise she find it hard to breastfeed. “The camp food here is no good, and when I eat badly I don’t have a lot of milk and my son starts crying as he’s hungry.”
Médecins San Frontières (MSF) was one of the organisations to suspend their services in the camp for two days in the wake of the violence. Mie Terkelsen, nurse activity manager for MSF in Lesbos, said that following the brief closure they had been “overwhelmed” with patients. One of the main concerns for MSF over the past year is how the lack of hygiene in the camp is contributing to ongoing health conditions. Terkelsen said MSF keep seeing the same issues: “It’s scabies and lice, things like that, which are because of the bad sanitary conditions.”
Things are getting worse, she said: “This is my second time with MSF on Lesbos and I’ve been really impacted this time by the situation for unaccompanied minors. I’ve seen 13-year-old boys sleeping outside underneath the olive trees with pneumonia.”
Last month a senior doctor told the Guardian that working in the camp had left her fearing a pandemic could break out in a population already suffering from untreated respiratory conditions.
Dr Hana Pospisilova is a consultant cardiologist who regularly volunteers on Lesbos.
She said: “I am an experienced doctor, I have seen many patients in my life, but what I saw there had me crying.
“I saw many people with respiratory problems and even though it’s cold, it’s winter, we are sending these people back to wet tents in an overcrowded camp. I am worried about a pandemic breaking out. They don’t have hot water, they have to wait three hours in the cold for food, they aren’t getting enough vitamins so many have bleeding gums.
“If you read about Spanish flu it was exactly like this that it began to spread, in overcrowded facilities where people had a viral infection that became a bacterial infection that killed them.”
The reduction in already very basic services in the camp takes a toll on everyone, but serves to make the most vulnerable even more so. Anis Nouri, 30, originally from Afghanistan, is eight months pregnant. Sitting on the doorstep of her makeshift hut in the olive grove she explained how the disruption to last week’s services contributed to the uncertainty of her life here.
“Last week there wasn’t a lot of food handouts and so we just cooked chickpeas,” she said, but added that regardless of how many NGOs are in the camp, she constantly feels unsafe. “If I need to go to the toilet in the day I try and go alone but I often need the toilet and in the night I have to take my husband, as I’m scared to otherwise.”
Diabetes is another issue in Moria as camp residents struggle to manage their symptoms in the chaotic surroundings. Masoume Rezaei, 49, from Bamiyan province in Afghanistan, takes insulin injections to manage the condition. She has been told her medicine must be refrigerated, but has no access to a fridge. “I don’t even know if the insulin is working properly,” she said. “I haven’t been able to clean the syringe properly so for the past two days I’ve used the same one; I know that’s not healthy. I’ve also lost part of my eyesight in the past month since I arrived here.”
Kahlid Salad, 26, a former IT technician, said he was shot in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, and has constant pain which means he cannot walk without a stick. “I went to the doctor in the camp,” he said, “and he just told me to drink a lot of water. This wasn’t even close to what I was expecting in Europe: I thought I’d be able to build a future.”
Moria camp is full of stories like these. Most medical organisations are overwhelmed and access to healthcare for asylum seekers and refugees in Greece remains challenging. The Greek government removed AMKA (the Greek social security system) for refugees and undocumented people last July. It introduced new legislation in November, which will give asylum seekers temporary access to healthcare, but this has not yet been implemented.
The Guardian also understands that there are currently hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers detained on a military vessel in Mytilene port, among them pregnant women, with poor sanitary conditions and limited access to healthcare. At the time of publication the Guardian had not had a response from the Greek migration ministry regarding this.
Tensions on the island remain and the humanitarian community continues to be a target, now with the added concern that fears about Covid-19 will add to distrust and anger at the refugee and NGO community.
Even without the added threat of Covid-19, for the thousands in Moria the future is more uncertain and insecure than ever.