Why we cannot wait for a European solution to the Moria refugee camp
We need a ‘Coalition of the Willing’ for a better and more humane European asylum policy which focuses on human rights and the individual right to asylum, argues Erik Marquardt.
Source: Alamy
15 Mar 2021
Nobody familiar with the situation on Lesbos was surprised by the fire six months ago. The European Commission promised there would be “No more Morias” after the fire, but the Greek government has built a new, even worse, Moria, with EU funding.
When the camera teams left the island, all of the promises suddenly vanished with them and everything catastrophic remained: children cannot go to school, the food distributed in the camp is rotten, people live in unheated tents and have hardly any freedom of movement at all.
. To what extent do you feel that you are carrying the load? What do you say to other donors, like the UK, who have recently cut their aid budgets as well as slashed budgets to places like Yemen?
Lenarčič: If ever, this is certainly not the time to cut the aid budget; this is the time to increase it. We have increased the European Union’s humanitarian aid budget because we want to show leadership. Leadership is based on deeds more than words, and we want to show by example.
We already are, together with European Union member states, the number one humanitarian donor in the world. That is in spite of the fact that the United Kingdom left us. And that was a big loss for European Union because the United Kingdom has been traditionally one of the most generous humanitarian donors.
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When the first surge of migrants into Europe took place after the rise of ISIS, Ms Merkel took what was hailed as a bold stance. We can do this, she declared. Wir schaffen das. At the time, it was seen as a reference to the capacity of the German economy to absorb the costs and burdens of a whole new strata of society.
It has since become clear that she foresaw a full scale embrace of the new German citizens.
This started almost immediately with dignified housing solutions and naturalisation advice. All new arrivals were provided with German language training. There was also technical training to prepare people for the demands of German employers.
His arms, already covered with scars, were sliced open with fresh cuts.
He told her: “I can’t live in this camp any more. I’m tired of being afraid all the time, I don’t want to live any more.”
He is 11 years old. Glatz-Brubakk, a child psychologist at Doctors Without Borders’ (MSF) mental health clinic in Lesbos, tells me he is the third child she’s seen for suicidal thoughts and attempts so far this year.
At the time we spoke, it was only two weeks into the new year.
The boy is one of thousands of children living in the new Mavrovouni (also known as Kara Tepe) refugee camp on the Greek island, built after a fire destroyed the former Moria camp in September.