Every man has the right to a peaceful life without worries. Those that manage this have a duty to help those that have fled war and danger. Yet, refugees who find themselves on the Greek islands are denied basic human rights. We would therefore like to ask the refugees themselves, who have recently arrived in Athens from Lesbos, Samos and Chios, to tell us about the living conditions on those islands.
Ziaodin Feizi from Samos
When I was in Samos, the refugees were living in small tents that were unable to keep out the rain and snow. Every month, each family would receive an allowance of 90 euros for every adult and 50 euros for every child. This wasn’t even enough to buy clothes.
Akram Ali Ahmadi from Lesbos
There are nine of us in the family, yet our allowance was only 300 euros. If I wanted to buy clothes for just three of the children, there would be nothing left. The food in the camp was inedible, and because we were living in a tent, the cold of Moria camp made my children ill.
Zohre from Lesbos
We were not safe in Moria. Girls and women lived in a state of fear. We had to queue for hours in order to get food. There were some serious sanitation problems. Some young men would harass young women and small children.
Royayie Karimi from Lesbos
I spent nine months in Moria camp. My son and I had psychological issues. It was the men’s job to stand in the food queue. There were so many people queuing that as soon as we got round to getting our breakfast, it was time to start queueing again for lunch. The same thing happened with dinner and so on.
Nour Aya from Lesbos
Moria was a camp for 2000 people but there were around 8000 people living there. There were daily arguments and we felt unsafe. This had a bad effect on families, especially children. The police would not get involved in the disputes.
These are some of the problems faced by people in the various camps on the Greek islands. We would ask the noble Greek people to join us in demanding human rights for refugees who have fled their county because of war or out of necessity. It is not fair that they should find themselves in a similar situation here.
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