Ritsona camp visit after the wildfire, 10.12.2023

On 10 of December, a group of 8 solidarians visited the Ritsona camp.

The decision of this urgent visit was made the night before when there was an outback of news regarding the fire situation inside the camp. Νο news for the causes of the fire by the state administration. The fire destroyed people’s belongings and documents. The groups gathered a noticeable amount of clothes and blankets from free shops, which filled up 3 cars. Regarding the news, 12 containers have been affected by the fire, and among them, 7 containers have been burned down completely. Beforehand, it was communicated through the comrades inside the camp that the families that had been the most affected by the fire, to come outside of the camp. On the arrival of solidarians, about 20-30 families were already waiting outside the camp.

The main issue was having enough warm clothes for everyone. solidarians have been informed that all the belonging of the residents of the seven containers has been totally burned down, including clothes, legal documents (asylum card), medicine, food, phones, etc.

But still, the need was much bigger than the delivered items. Moreover, they all required blankets, warm male clothing, warm children’s clothes, and shoes. Noticeable points: 1- Solidarians have been informed that there was absolutely no support provided by authorities, including containers and clothing. The authorities simply told them “Go and sleep in other people’s containers.” the residents told the solidarians “You are the first people who are bringing help to us.” 2- one of the residents of those burned containers had an injury on his leg due to the fire. He has been taken by the authorities to emergency care.

However, when the treatment after some hours was done, he was told: “now get a taxi and go back to camp!” he told them, “I have no money, no phone, no asylum card, all my life has been burned down in the container” they insisted that they won’t give him a ride back to camp. The situation escalates up to the point that an elderly interferes and pays for his taxi.

He received no support and accommodation solution when he arrived at the camp. 3- Other affected residents by the fire breakout pointed out that since their asylum card had been burned down, they now have problems going outside the camp or receiving food inside the camp. 4- Solidarians have been informed about the situation of a lady who hasn’t been registered inside the camp but was in need of a place to sleep. With the help of her friend, she decided to jump over the wall in order to sleep in the camp. but while jumping down from the other side of the wall, her leg broke in a very bad way. She has been transferred to the hospital, but there, they decide to cut off her leg! So now she is back inside the camp, still with no registration paper.

This means she can’t get outside of the camp (because she has no proper paper for going back in again, and also because now she has restrictions of movement due to her medical condition). On the other hand, the specialist doctor is not entering the camp. She is experiencing limbo in Ritsona. 5- also, other residents approached the solidarians with their medical condition. In one case, a man was suffering from constant pain; he said that when he was in Lesvos, it was decided by the doctors to do surgery. But since he is in Ristona camp, his medical issue is totally neglected by the authorities and the camp general doctors, which leaves him in so much pain while walking.

Update on refugee camp in Malakasa.

Update especially from Afghan women of the camp. We recently visited the Malakasa camps and the Ritsona camp, here is an update on Malakasa. First, we went to Malakasa 2. Many people expressed to us their need for warm clothes and about 20-30 people started gathering at the fence of the camp, to receive clothes that we had brought. After we gave the first bags and boxes, the guards changed their minds and tried to stop us from giving anything. We were told that we should leave the clothes with them and the camp officials would take care of the distribution themselves. When we arrived at Malakasa 1, about 50 women from the Afghan community were already waiting for us. We spoke to several women from the Afghan community who gave us the following information: – There are many pregnant women inside, who are expecting soon and they do not get blankets, warm clothes, not enough food and no milk from the camp. They worry about their babies.

– The container-rooms are not insulated at all, they get very cold and the roofs leak when it rains. – They saw containers inside the camp full of clothes, but as the residents of Malacca inform us, they were not distributed, despite the great need for such a thing. -Recently there was a journalist who entered the camp. The camp manager promised them better conditions if they didn’t complain in front of the reporter, so the reporter gets a positive image of the camp. Therefore, people remained silent, but after the journalist left, nothing changed in the situation. – Some cannot come to Athens, the trip to Athens is considered too expensive for many of them. (a single person receives an allowance of 70 euros and a couple approximately 120 euros/month) – Many of the children are trapped inside the container, day and night. Because it’s cold and they don’t have warm clothes for the kids.

So parents are afraid to let children go outside. In addition, they are often sick and access to medical assistance is very poor, almost non-existent in the camp. For our part, apart from distributing clothes and communicating with the migrant women and men and women, we pressed to know how they deal with the situation of pregnant women in the Malakasa camp. We were told to just come during business hours to talk to the camp manager.