Apostolos Veizis, the director of medical operational support at the Greek unit of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), told Sputnik that the coronavirus pandemic, despite its severity, should not be an excuse to abandon migrants' struggles in overcrowded camps on Greek islands
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th April, 2020) Apostolos Veizis, the director of medical operational support at the Greek unit of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), told Sputnik that the coronavirus pandemic, despite its severity, should not be an excuse to abandon migrants' struggles in overcrowded camps on Greek islands.
Designed for only 6,000 refugees each, the camps for displaced persons on the islands of Lesbos, Chios and Samos in the northern Aegean Sea are hosting migrants far beyond their capacity, exceeding the limits by tens of thousands of people. Due to the lack of proper shelter, food and basic sanitation, migrants are exposed to all types of viruses and infections. Despite that, no cases of COVID-19 have so far been registered on the islands. However, two migrant camps on mainland Greece have already been quarantined after some of its residents tested positive for the coronavirus.
"It's important to remember that we cannot use the excuse of COVID-19, that this is a difficult moment now ... We need to bypass this as a barrier, because theoretically and practically European states were able at this time to evacuate their own citizens to their countries," Veizis said.
The MSF health official noted that the measures taken by the EU governments to protect their nations from the spread of COVID-19, such as mandatory social distancing and curfews to stay at home, were impossible to implement in the overcrowded camps.
"The capacity of the camps on Greek island is for some 6,000 people and we have more than 40,000 people. Most of them are living in tents, and there are tents of less than 3 square meters, where you have six or seven people living. So the idea of keeping social distancing is very difficult," Veizis explained.
According to the official, the MSF insists that the number of migrants in camps should be reduced.
"As MSF, we've been calling for reducing the numbers of people in the camps - meaning decongestion. ... It's important to move the most vulnerable ones out of the camps; it's important to improve the water and sanitation facilities in the camps and you need to have medical services available that could do diagnostics and case management in case of an outbreak in the camp," the doctor said.
In Veizis's words, the coronavirus is not the real problem, it is the EU-Turkey 2016 deal that acts like a virus. "It is related to another virus, which is called the EU-Turkey statement," he said.
"After four years of the EU-Turkey statement [adopted in 2016], it's important that people are not living in the camps anymore," the official stated.
The European Union signed a landmark 6-billion-euro ($6.6 billion) deal with Turkey in 2016 to help stem the tide of migrants to the EU. According to the Turkish side, Brussels did not stand up to its promises.
