For Greece, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said, 2021 is the hottest summer in 30 years and the fires – which are burning the woods around Athens and have forced thousands of locals and tourists to flee. island of Evia – are “a natural disaster of unprecedented size”.
Even in Lesbos, a few kilometers from the Turkish coasts, it is very hot: the wind that until a few days earlier was blowing strongly on the island and swept away the scorching temperatures of the day has subsided, leaving the stones on fire until the evening. The heat is unbearable for the 4,200 refugees hosted in the new Mavrovouni camp (Monte Nero). The facility was opened in September 2020, after the great Moria camp fire. The refugees who were not transferred to the mainland were moved to this 34-hectare land overlooking the sea and to them, in April 2021, the authorities added the refugees who were housed in the Kara Tepe camp, which many considered a positive experience. But the structure is destined to grow further.
Greece has recently received € 272 million from the European Union to build new Reception and Identification Centers and activities are fervent, both internally and externally: after the one in Mavrovouni, another one will be opened on Lesbos, but in a more internal area, and others will rise on the islands of Lero, Samo, Chios, Kos. They are “closed and controlled structures” that according to the Greek immigration minister Panagiotis Mitarachi will gradually have to take the place of the old camps and guarantee better living conditions for the refugees, even if the contingent exits cause a lot of discontent. Even the European Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, expressed some perplexity at the beginning of May, asking the Athens government to review the reclusive nature of the new structures: “I am concerned that they may lead to a deprivation of liberty on a large scale scale and long-term, which would have harmful effects on the mental health of refugees, especially children, ”Mijatović wrote.
Pending
The centers are born as temporary structures waiting for the asylum application presented on arrival by migrants to follow its course: for this reason, for example, to minors (23 per cent of the population of the camps of all the islands of the Northern Aegean, most under the age of twelve) the right to attend public school is not guaranteed. But often the practice lasts months, if not years, and for many the time of uncertainty becomes a time of despair. Also because most of the questions are rejected and, in the event of a negative response even on appeal, they end up on the list of people to be brought back to Turkey.
Since the beginning of 2021, 1,498 people have landed on the islands of the Northern Aegean, of which 1,112 in Lesbos: a drastic decline, given that in the previous two years more than fifty thousand had arrived. Today 45 per cent of refugees come from Afghanistan, 23 per cent from Somalia, 10 per cent from the Democratic Republic of Congo. And it is precisely from Afghanistan, where the Taliban offensive has rekindled the conflict and the fears of the inhabitants, that new arrivals are expected. At least five provinces are now beyond the control of the authorities in Kabul and it is above all the Afghans of the Hazara, Shiite ethnicity who take the path of exile: Iran, then Turkey and finally a shipment to the Aegean islands, first European landing.
According to the agreement made in 2016 between the European Union and Turkey, Brussels paid Ankara six billion euros to “manage” the flow of refugees, something that the Turkish government has done on and off, depending on the temperature of international relations. Today the maritime border is closed, controlled by the Turkish and Greek coastguards, supported by the ships of Frontex, the European agency that patrols the narrow stretch of sea that divides the two countries. At sunrise and sunset their silhouettes stand out against the Aegean landscape.
Corridors
Just outside Mytilene, the capital of Lesbos, on the sides of the seafront, you can see the tips of some red awnings: some call them “the circus”. Every morning about fifty children play, draw and have lunch before returning to their home in the field. Not far away, as many children and adults are following an English lesson attentively. These are some of the activities that for the third consecutive summer the Community of Sant’Egidio offers to asylum seekers from Lesbos. Sant’Egidio has already transferred 101 refugees from Lesvos, making them complete their asylum requests in Italy or other European countries where members of civil society have committed themselves to guaranteeing reception and integration paths, at no cost to governments. It is the practice of humanitarian corridors, the concrete proposal of a safe journey for refugees, also active from Lebanon and Ethiopia.
In the afternoon, the red tent turns into a center for the distribution of food or a meal, a place to eat with the family around a table, something unusual for those who are refugees, and often refugees are born. While waiting for their turn, some adults play backgammon, children in an improvised playground with slide and swimming pool. Individuals and families arrive, Afghans and Congolese, Somalis and Pakistanis. Some don’t even know a word of English: the only ones they learn and repeat are those who point to their tent or container in the camp. They can’t say their name, but they can tell the number they are registered with.
Frames
On the promenade, under the sun, a young African couple advances: he has dreadlock hair and muscular arms, he is holding a white towel, she follows him with a weary expression. They want to get to the stop and take the bus back to the camp, but neither of them can run. The driver, a woman, is waiting for them. She is Annie, he is Joseph and in her arms she carries her seven-day-old son, who will be called Wisdom.
Sayed is 17 and a bicycle with which he often rides six kilometers to Mytilene. For the Greek authorities, however, he is over 18 years old: this is why his asylum application was rejected and he is still here while his parents and seven younger siblings managed to obtain permission to leave the island. He hopes to join them soon.
In front of the now burnt entrance to Moria there is a man, probably Bangladeshi: together with his tent he also lost his head and decided to stay there, he doesn’t know what else to do: he built a hut next to the old walls on which it reads: “I’m so sorry refugees, this is not Europe”. Say hello to everyone who passes by. A Greek woman who lives nearby brings him food once a day.
Ali is in the Mavrovouni camp: he is Syrian, he comes from the surroundings of Damascus, he is eight years old and the sound of bombs is still in his ears. Often at night he comes out sleepwalker from the tent, the mother has to gently lead him back inside.
A woman, also Syrian, is sitting nearby. She is dressed in black, is 95 and has a pearl necklace.
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