Refugees in Greece denied asylum

Through the Flüchtlingsrat Berlin, of which we have been members for years, we learn about the problems of people in collective accommodation in our country. They have problems to keep the rules of distance, but the situation of the people arriving with us is not comparable to the situation in camps.

• in Hungary, which are run like prisons,
• on the Serbian border, where people have to survive without food and shelter,
• in Greece, where the camps are completely overcrowded and people are deprived of the right to apply for asylum.

Pro Asyl and WeMove.EU report:

Imagine you have fled war and violence at home, you have crossed international borders on foot or by the even more dangerous route by sea. Now you are waiting in a refugee camp and threatened by the pandemic - and the country you are in does not allow you to apply for asylum.

This is what the refugees in Greece experience in the overcrowded camps. They are subjected to the most difficult conditions and, as there is no asylum procedure under way, they cannot do anything about it.

The idea of the European Union was born after the Second World War and is based on a common commitment to human rights. This basis of values is currently being called into question. We want to counter this now in order to quickly restore the human rights of refugees. This protects the refugees and defends the values on which the EU is based.

We want to initiate contractual proceedings against the Greek Government and have found a team of specialist lawyers who will support us free of charge. In order for the lawyers to work efficiently, we must now quickly gather and secure evidence on the ground.

The situation in Greece is still dramatic. People are still dying on the way to safe areas. But the camps themselves are not really safe either. The oppressive confinement leads to quarrelling and violence, and people are powerless in the face of unhygienic conditions and the threat of infection.

WeMove.EU added:

"The current situation is a challenge for all of us. However, some groups of people are suffering particularly badly from the Corona crisis. This applies to people seeking protection in Greek slums, where washing their hands is already a luxury - but also to refugees in Germany.

Corona infections occurred in several mass accommodations. The reactions of those responsible were often shocking: hermetic sealing of the camps, while the virus can spread almost unhindered among the inhabitants - because there is a lack of concepts and information and the supply is often inadequate. Do German authorities set a lower standard of prevention measures in refugee accommodation than outside? One can get the impression. But there must not be a two-tier society. Not when it comes to infection prevention and not when it comes to human dignity!

That is why we have focused in recent weeks on providing legal assistance to those affected in specific cases and giving a voice to all those who are far too seldom heard. We have supported proceedings at German and European level and have been successful in doing so..

As we can all imagine, legal support requires financial resources and the organisations ask for donations. That legal proceedings can be not only laborious but also successful is proven by 8 cases from the EU camp in Moria. The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that eight out of 20,000 are now allowed to leave there.

At the end of April, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that eight particularly vulnerable refugees had to be transferred from the slum camp in Moria. A seriously ill Afghan with family, a torture victim from Syria, and an infant and its parents from Afghanistan are entitled to dignified accommodation. However, this should not only apply to eight people, but to all 20 000. The hope is that such costly individual complaints will generate the urgently needed political pressure to improve the situation for all!

Read more https://WeMove.EU
and https://proasyl.de

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