Greek? Tragedy

This is part of a report published on March 11 by a campaign working to support refugees giving some news of the current position in Greece.

It was circulated to supporters of the Greece Solidarity Campaign in the UK. Their website offers more details and sources of further information.

More than 700 refugees arrived today on ‪#‎Lesbos. Camps will be full in 2-3 days of good weather, volunteers claim. There are around 3000 refugees currently at the port of ‪#‎Piraeus, which saw more than 2000 arrivals today. Refugees continue to be put on buses and moved from the port to the camps in and around Athens. For example, at least 1,000 of them were moved today to new camps in ‪#‎Larissa, ‪#‎Trikala (castle), near the village ‪#‎Koutsochero next to Larissa and in ‪#‎NeaMakri close to Athens. Piraeus is able to keep, ideally, between, 2,000 and 4,000 refugees, yet new refugees land to Piraeus every day. Seeing this, refugees need to be transferred to other camps, yet these are reaching their capacity as well, and Greece is facing a problem of not knowing where to put newly arriving or awaiting refugees. Volunteers also report that Afghans stationed at port, some of whom have been there for as long as two weeks, are often uninformed about the option and the possibility of moving to one of the camps. Although volunteers do their best to disseminate the information, the amount of people is incredibly large and new refugees are constantly arriving, which makes it difficult to properly inform refugees about their rights and options. Volunteers are still urgently needed every day, especially during nights in the port, and every day 10-18 in ‪#‎Elliniko warehouse.
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Some 35,000 people have been stranded in Greece since Austria and several Balkan states began closing borders, barring access to thousands of refugees hoping to settle in places in northern Europe. In ‪#‎Idomeni, near the Greek-Macedonian border, scores of refugees struggle for free food and water, oftentimes, pushing each other to seize eggs and bread thrown from a truck (Balkan Konvoi) at them. The truck today was late, as the organizer was detained for hours, by which police placed many lives at risk. Aid workers are warning that infectious diseases could soon spread due to the unsanitary conditions in the makeshift camp. Authorities in northern Greece say some 70 children living at a camp on the Greek-Macedonian border have received hospital treatment over the past three days, for fever and diarrhea. Medics are already treating conditions one could see in WW1 trenches. Refugees are losing toes to gangrene; children have severe trench foot. Escaping the war in their homelands, it seems, refugees only arrived to face another war, the one Europe is leading against them. People are huddling inside tents to get away from the rain as the ground has turned into mud. One can see countless shivering barefoot children in the mud. Absolutely everything and everyone is soaked to the bone. All the camping tents in the fields are flooded. Almost all of these tents have children in them. At night, the sound of children coughing and babies crying rises through the pouring rain. People are sleeping-or trying to sleep-on the soaking wet blankets they use to line their tents. There is nowhere for anyone from these tents to seek shelter to warm up; the large UN and MSF tents are completely packed. No one has socks. No one has dry clothes. Everyone's shoes are broken and soaking wet. A father clutched volunteer’s hands. He was crying. "I have lost everything. 3,000 dollars for my family to come from Turkey. This was the big dream, Europe was the big dream. We just want to be safe. And this. What is this?" A shivering refugee woman said, "I can't do this anymore. We came here because we were dying, and what, people will die here. Shame on your country, I'm sorry, but shame." The rain stopped during the day but new one is expected from Saturday on.
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In the evening, a big demonstration took place in ‪#‎Thessaloniki with around 1500 participants. People took the street in solidarity with the refugees and against the racist European migration policies that leave people to a slow death in camps like Idomeni. Solidarity groups from Athens repeated “Refugees, Welcome!” protest at ‪#‎Victoriasquare which they held yesterday, and will continue until necessary. This is ongoing protest against the racist exclusion of refugees from the public and against manipulations of police. Public spaces must be opened for everyone, the protesters say. Today they shared food to hundreds of refugees, played with children, cleaned the square. All of that in spite of constant police threats that they have to move. At the same time, 240 refugees detained in Greece are being returned to Turkey. 81 refugees (61 Pakistanis, 13 Moroccans, 7 Algerians) were returned today from ‪#‎Athens and 160 are planned to be retuturned on Friday and Monday from ‪#‎Xanthi and ‪#‎Drama detention centers. They will be transferred to the border crossing ‪#‎Kipoi at ‪#‎Evros and given to Turkish authorities.
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On Lesvos, police observed and halted the selling of tickets from Piraeus port to Idomeni, after dozens of refugees and migrants were sold invalid tickets. The service is provided free of charge by Greek authorities. Another violation of refugees’ rights as consumers comes as essential goods, such as food purchased by refugees in Athens and Thessaloniki, are being sold at exorbitant prices. To counter these, the General Secretariat for Commerce and Consumer Protection implemented several controls with results yet unknown.