Thousands of refugees at mercy of ‘freezing cold’ temperatures as winter grips Greek islands

‘There has been little running water and electricity for the past week’, one refugee tells Matt Mathers

Temperatures dropped to freezing in Lesbos and Chios last weekend (Refugee Biriyani & Bananas)

For the thousands of refugees and asylum seekers stranded in squalid camps across Greece, the new year has brought little hope or respite from the increasingly desperate conditions they face.

“There has been little running water and electricity for the past week,” Afram* an African man in his late 20s, tells The Independent. He has been marooned in the Vial Camp on the Aegean Island of Chios for over a year.

“We have to collect water from streams and without electricity, the situation is very bad”, Afram adds. Last weekend, temperatures on the island dropped to refrigerator levels, adding to the already dismal conditions there.  

“It is freezing cold. You can’t charge your phone, there are no heaters and no way to cook food unless you find firewood to make a fire,” a demoralised Afram explains.

“When it is raining or snowing and the wood is wet. We can’t even do this”. Afram is among some 50,000 asylum seekers from Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, fleeing poverty and war, who are stranded in Greece.

Some 38,000 of those are on the mainland and a further 18,500 on the islands of Chios, Kos, Samos, Leros and Lesbos, where a huge fire destroyed the majority of the Moria camp, leaving thousands of its inhabitants on the streets without shelter.

Over half of those stranded in Greece are women and children, while a further 3,000 are travelling alone. Heading into the depths of winter, they have nothing more than flimsy tents and well-used sleeping bags for shelter in the overcrowded camps.

In June last year, Greece cut spending on a programme aimed at housing the most vulnerable in the camps. Many asylum seekers who had been placed in temporary accommodation have been left with no option but to return to the islands camps.

Pregnant women, newborn babies, people with disabilities and chronic illnesses, elderly people, survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, single women, single parents and separated children are among those left to fend for themselves, rights groups warn.

Those in the camps saw Greece as their entry point to Europe, but that route was blocked following an immigration crackdown by the European Union.

Around 2,235 people were transferred out of the camps between April 2020 and January 2021 under a scheme set up by the UN Refugee Agency and Greek authorities.

Due to its struggling economy, Greece says it cannot afford to house anymore of those in the camps. That means those remaining are stranded and have nowhere to go.

In an attempt to ease the burden on Greece, some 16 EU countries — including France and Germany — have agreed to take part in the UN’s relocation and admission initiative.

But the UK has so far refused to join EU countries in helping Greece tackle the problem, saying it is focusing on “resettling people directly from dangerous conflict zones rather than from safe European countries”.

The campaigning group Europe Must Act (EMA) is calling on the government to pull its weight in helping to relocate some of those stranded in the camps using the UK’s Resettlement Scheme.

Isla Kitching, of EMA’s UK branch, told The Independent: “Greek authorities and the EU have repeatedly shown that they are unprepared to take action to resolve this crisis in a humane and sustainable way.  

“We may have left the EU but we are still in Europe. The UK government must play its part in resolving the crisis.”

In September last year, 71 MPs signed an Early Day Motion calling on the government to “participate in relocating asylum seekers and refugees from the Aegean Islands to local authorities in the UK and to provide the necessary support to enable that relocation”.

On Thursday, a cross-group of MPs and peers issued a fresh plea to the government, urging it to reconsider its approach to refugees and asylum seekers trapped in Greece.

Liberal Democrat leader and MP for Kingston and Surbiton, Ed Davey, told The Independent: “The conditions in many of the refugee camps across Greece are unsafe and inhumane. We wouldn’t leave our own children to live there, and we mustn’t leave these children to live there.

“We cannot stand by and do nothing. The goverment must step up and do the right thing by reopening the UK’s refugee settlement schemes. It must start by bringing unaccompanied children to safety in the UK.”

Former Green Party leader and peer Natalie Bennett echoed the sentiment, urging the UK to take swift action to support refugees facing the bitter winter months without shelter.

“With very limited resources, Greece has been bearing a hugely unfair burden of trying to provide for refugees who have often been forced to flee from countries whose state the UK's foreign policy very often helped to create,” she told The Independent.

“Now mid-winter conditions are dire, many of the refugees are children and otherwise vulnerable. The UK does not welcome anything like its share of refugees under normal conditions, but in this state of emergency, our failure is particularly stark.

Conservative MP for Croydon South and minister for immigration compliance and the courts, Chris Philp, responded to the criticism saying the “UK has been the top resettlement country in Europe” in recent years.

“We’re fixing the asylum system to make it firm and fair, providing compassion to those who are fleeing oppression or tyranny. That’s why we’re honouring our commitment to those refugees who’ve been invited to the UK, and why we will roll out a new global resettlement scheme which will welcome people through safe and legal routes,” he told The Independent.

But according to Stuart McDonald, SNP MP for Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch, who tabled the motion, this focus on a unilateral approach falls woefully short of the needs of the world’s most vulnerable.

“The desperate conditions on the islands will only be resolved by responsibility-sharing and other European States showing solidarity through the relocation scheme — as called for by UNHCR,” he told The Independent.

“A failure to take part would be yet another indicator that 'global Britain' is nothing more than an empty slogan”.

* Names have been changed