Muhammad Sator Massi, a 19-year-old Afghan youth, sits beneath the scorching solar on the street from Panagiuda in Lesvos to Mytilene, the most important metropolis on this Greek island. Near the seated younger man, utilities clear up heaps of rubbish: plastic luggage, bottles, cardboard containers. The sea is close by, nevertheless it would not scent like the ocean. The stench is all around the space. A few days in the past it was full of individuals – refugees from the burned down camp of Moriah needed to stay within the open for a number of days: with out meals, water and any sanitary situations.
Instead of Germany – to a brand new camp
Then some went on their very own to Athens as a way to attempt to get from there by any means to Western Europe, whereas others ended up in a brand new non permanent refugee camp, which was urgently constructed by the Greek authorities on the territory of a former army coaching floor. “We had hoped that the local authorities would send us from here to Athens, but this did not happen,” says an Afghan youth.
19-year-old Afghan Muhammad has been in Lesbos for greater than 9 months
He arrived in Lesbos together with his aunt, her husband and their 6 youngsters. They have been on the island for 9 months already. After the Moria camp, during which they have been all, was burned down, the younger man, together with different refugees, went to Athens, however the police blocked their manner, blocking this part of the route. Muhammad and his family members have been compelled to sleep within the open on the bottom, or at greatest on items of cardboard. This went on for a complete week. Then the police started to clear the facet of the street, on which the spontaneous camp had arisen, to take away dwellings from branches and cardboard. The flip got here to Muhammad. “We were just eating when the police showed up. They threw our things on the road and dismantled our home,” the younger man says.
Refugees do not consider the camp has good situations
Muhammad and his family members are moved to the brand new Karatepe camp, constructed to interchange Moriah. “They drive us to go there and keep there. We don’t have any alternative. But I don’t consider that it will likely be higher there than in Moriah. Everything might be precisely the identical,” says the younger man. He isn’t the one one who doubts that situations in Karapet might be higher than within the burnt-out Moriah, the place 1000’s of individuals lived in tents in a small space – with out meals, essential medical care and sanitation.
New Camp Karatepe in Lesvos
A spokesman for the Greek Ministry of Migration and Asylum mentioned that good situations have been created within the new camp. There are bogs and showers, water and electrical energy, further beds. But, in keeping with the tales of those that are already within the camp, there are too few bogs, meals is given as soon as a day, and within the tents which have been put in within the camp by the UNHCR and the Red Cross, there are not any mattresses or blankets for arriving refugees. In addition, at a former army coaching floor the place a brief camp is now positioned, troopers are nonetheless amassing the stays of ammunition and utilizing metallic detectors to seek for unexploded ordnance. But the island’s authorities guarantee that it’s protected to be within the camp.
For Muhammad and different refugees in Lesbos, the most important drawback is uncertainty. Nobody is aware of when they are going to be capable to go away the camp. Now a two-week quarantine has been introduced right here. In current days, greater than 200 instances of coronavirus have been recognized amongst refugees from the burned down Moriah. “We came here to get protection. We are not prisoners. I have been in Lesbos for almost a year. I can’t take it anymore,” says the determined younger man.
Better to go house than to a brand new camp
He rises and walks slowly to his family members. All of them should register to remain on the new camp. In addition to Muhammad and the staff of the municipal providers, who clear up the garbage, a number of different individuals are shifting alongside the road: one Afghan household and a younger man from Congo, who carries a grimy, torn-up tent with him.
Several dozen individuals are ready for his or her flip on the entrance to the brand new camp. Families are skipped first. After registration, everybody undergoes a coronavirus take a look at, after which results in the camp.
Muhammad takes out a cigarette. “I didn’t smoke before, I went in for sports. But now it calms me down,” the younger man says, depressed. “.
In Afghanistan, the younger man left his dad and mom. According to Muhammad, his father is a deputy within the native council of the Wardak province. Their household doesn’t want cash. But he continually fears for his life. The younger man recollects one incident that occurred to him. He was returning house from college. A automobile stopped subsequent to him, during which have been sitting individuals who launched themselves as buddies of his father. They demanded that Muhammad go together with them. He didn’t agree, in order that they tried to drive him into the automobile. The younger man, in keeping with him, miraculously managed to flee.
“Every time you go to school, you don’t know if you’ll come home alive,” Muhammad says. He didn’t wish to stay in fixed concern and, collectively together with his aunt and her household, determined to flee to Europe. But now he admits that he virtually misplaced hope of being in Germany, the place he wished to study the language, develop into a physician and play soccer.
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