The Greek government neglected thousands of asylum seekers andrefugees after the Moria camp burnt

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One year ago, the night of September 8, 2020, the Moria Refugee Camp burnt to the ground. At the time, the camp confined approximately 13,000 asylum seekers and refugees, amongst them 5,000 children, who, after the fires, were left destitute on the rural roads of Lesvos for several days and nights, until the Mavrovouni Refugee Camp was erected.On September 13, 2020, Fenix Humanitarian Legal Aid conducted a quantitative survey from 126 asylum seekers and refugees throughout the Moria and Kara Tepe Areas, regarding the emergency response provided by the Greek government from September 9 to September 12, 2020.

During a press conference, the Greek Minister of Migration and Asylum stated that “there wasn’t one day people did not eat or drink water” and called the emergency response “a big success”. Contrary to this statement, the informationgathered through the survey revealed an inadequate response by the authorities, which resulted in hardship and deprivation for the refugee population, who did not have access to food or water, to sanitation facilities or hygiene items, nor to medical attention, for several days; and evidences that no measures were put in place to safeguard this vulnerable population from the risk of contagion of COVID-19.‍

Today we are sharing with you a REPORT with the results from the survey. Here are a few key takeaways:

• 65.9% of the respondents did not have daily access to food;

• 34.9% of the respondents had no access to food in four days;

• 52.2% of the respondents had no water in four days;

• 93.7% of the respondents did not have access to sanitary facilities;

• at least 49.2% of the respondents did not receive medical attention in four days.

A SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO THE FENIX SURVEY COLLECTING TEAM ON THE GROUND MANY THANKS TO THE FENIX FIELD TEAM FOR THEIR HELP AFTER THE FIRES REPORT ELABORATED BY MELISSA BARNETCHE GIRARD IN COLLABORATION WITH INÊS AVELAS NUNES & ANA LIZ CHIBAN

Fenix Humanitarian Legal Aid holds the copyright on the report