Letter: Europe Express
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This week, Saad Nabhan enjoyed his first two-year-old bath.
The Syrian asylum seeker was one of the first to arrive at EU-sponsored openings this week on the Greek island of Samos with the aim of addressing the plight of many migrants.
Since returning from Turkey last year, Nabhan had been confined in a makeshift camp near the so-called “forest” port, sleeping in a bed without a bed and bathing in buckets of cold water.
“Now we have air conditioning, a kitchen, and a bathroom. I feel like a human being, ”said a 55-year-old journalist working for the Syrian finance office before his home was destroyed in the civil war. “This was the first time in two years that I had heard that I was sleeping in my house.”
The Samos camp is the first of five places in Greece to spend € 276m on building applications for entry into Europe via the Aegean – one of the most popular means of moving contractors from Asia and the Middle East through Turkey.
It offers the best of both worlds, from the ancient, unconventional camp where Nabal and hundreds of others live to this week. Sanitation and, in recent years, often overcrowded, have failed to provide even basic necessities such as toilets and have been infested with rats, say Manos Logothetis of Greek immigrants and refugees.
After escorting reporters around the new venue this week, she took pride in her comfortable beds, bathtubs and hot tubs, storage lockers and free Wi-Fi. The new basketball court needs only players and the football field is being built.
NGOs have expressed concern about weaving fences and surveillance cameras that make prisons look like unsafe prisons. Citizens picked up their fingers and had to show entrance cards to enter through the closed gates from 8pm to 8am.
Logothetis defended better security. “We need to know who they are, where everyone lives in the camp, what their history is, when their conversations will take place and what their role is and their papers,” he explained.
Logothetis does not know the needs of those seeking rescue in Samos: before coming to power, he spent four years as the only doctor in a former camp.
His concern is that the numbers in the new camp should not exceed 3,000. The fear is that a sharp increase in migration could lead to a recurrence of 2015 as the influx of immigrants from Syria and elsewhere disrupted Greece’s ability to deal with them.
“We believe that we do not have many residents and that we have been forced to do what we did in 2015, when the migrants were so old that we did not care about the law. [Then] we just give people tents and say ‘stay wherever you want’, “Logothetis said.
His fears are unfounded because the old camp, designed to accommodate 680 people, was once home to about 9,000 people – more than the people living near Vathy, the island’s capital.
Not everyone is happy with Samos’ new location. Giulia Cicoli of the I Rise, an activist who came to the island five years ago to help the migrants, said the new facilities were too small and should not be considered a success.
“What he had in the past was a crime. Human dignity was taken away. The situation was a violation of human rights, ”he said.
Syrian family awaits relocation, offering container houses and kitchens and bathrooms © Louisa Gouliamaki / AFP via Getty Images
At the moment, the new location is limited. Many of those who have been rescued on the island have been taken ashore and newcomers have fallen sharply since the outbreak began. A total of 10,545 asylum seekers entered Samos in the first eight months of 2019; the number for the same season this year is 111.
In Vathy, the occupants contributed greatly to the building.
“Moving to this new camp will be beneficial not only for those who want to survive but also for us,” said shopkeeper Alexandros Giokarinis. “They will be protected in the winter and live in a better environment and we will not be afraid to walk the streets at night. The town will be clean and tidy. ”
A family of six Ghadiri members from Afghanistan have moved this week from an old camp and moved into a machine house with kitchen and bathroom.
While accepting it is a big change, all they really want is paperwork that will allow them to start a new life; the couple’s request was denied three times.
Ghadiri’s family has moved from the old camp to the new container house © Eleni Varvitsioti / FT
“I want my passport, I want my husband to start working, I want a house here in Greece and I want my children to go to school,” said Nadia Ghadiri, 39, whose last son was born in Samos.
For Hamad, 23, an Iraqi-born, who spent three years sleeping in a tent, the move this week was fun.
“When you see something like this, it breaks your heart,” he said, looking out the window at the bus that escorted him to the high street, giving a spectacular view of the clear white water around Samos.
“I know we are going to a good camp. . . but you want to live, you want to work and you want to help your family back home. Here my strength is gone and I regret to forget who I am. ”