Reading through my previous posts Dobova feels a million
years and miles from where I am today! I’m back out with DOTW, this time on the
Greek island, Chios. I’m going to be here for the next 6 weeks (if all goes to
plan) providing medical care to refugees who have just arrived by boat here.
The organization of DOTW here is a bit complicated. As we
all work within a network there’s many different branches involved in
responding to the refugee crisis. All of the work in Greece is being
coordinated by the Greek branch of doctors of the world. MdM Greece has been
providing medical care and support to Greek people for many years and has
increased its operations since the financial crisis for those who can no longer
afford health insurance. When there was a significant increase in numbers of
refugees coming to Greece last year, MdM Greece asked for the support of other
members within the network to help manage provision of healthcare for refugees.
In coordination with MdM Belgium, UK and Holland a plan has been made to
provide human and financial resources to respond to the ongoing needs of
refugees as they arrive on Greek Islands, which is how I’ve ended up here!
I’m going to be working as the only doctor this time with
one nurse, two translators, our project coordinator, Claire (who I worked with
in Slovenia) and Remi our logistician. The plan is very changeable, but at the
moment our remit is to provide care as a mobile unit using a Medibus which was
specially made for MdM. The aim is to move around the island and travel to
other islands to provide care where its needed most outside of the refugee camp
setting. Currently, we are providing cover for the Greek MdM clinic, as they
set up a new centre, within one of the refugee camps where people await the
ferry to Athens.
 |
| The Medibus |
There are several camps across the island but at the moment
there is a plan to open a new “hot spot” where there can be complete
registration of refugees on the island rather than only doing registration in
Athens. The clinic we are covering runs the same as the Dobova clinic, where
its open access and anyone who wants to can see a doctor. There are quite a few
organisations providing medical care in the camps and given the unpredictable
arrival of refugees, we are working in rotation with a couple of NGOs to
provide cover for the clinic 24 hours a day. Luckily we’ve got the day shifts
and have Sundays off, if there’s no major disasters.
The medical work is very similar to the clinic in Dobova but
the surroundings couldn’t be more different. We don’t have the same set up at
the Slovakian team and are operating more at a primary health care level with a
small pharmacy and the ability to do dressings and refer to the hospital if
needed. Again we are seeing lots of coughs and colds, chronic diseases and this
time more injuries as people have been crammed into boats and injured getting to Turkey.
 |
| Clinic in Souda Refugee Camp |
The camp here is organized by Norwegian Refugee Council and
has been completely founded with humanitarian principles at its core. There is
no military presence at all. Since I arrived I have not seen a single gun and I
cannot describe how differently the refugees are treated. The camp is
completely open and refugees are free to come and go as they please. On arrival
refugees are issue
d a coloured wrist band to show they have been registered,
after that they are free to leave the camp and walk around the island. They can
stay as long our as little as they want although the majority leave on the earliest
ferry to Athens. Information is sign posted everywhere to allow people to plan
their onward trip. |
| Information on the route through Europe |
 |
| Temporary "houses" built by UNHCR in collaboration with Ikea |
These temporary structures are allocated based on need and families with lots of children are given priority. The larger tents are where the rest of the refugees can sleep and are full of proper camp beds raised off the floor. There is a children’s play area equipped with staff providing activities like arts and crafts, music and an outdoor area to run around in. It is staffed like a nursery so parents can drop their kids off and not worry about them giving them much needed respite. I really couldn’t believe this was the same crisis I was involved in Slovenia and had to keep asking what the rules are about people coming to the clinic and being referred to the hospital despite their being no restrictions on the movement of people for medical needs. The multiple agencies here are working in complete cooperation with a whatsapp group coordinating all the volunteers working on the island and sharing information as much as possible. It’s very surreal driving and walking past big piles of life jackets discarded on the beaches all over the islands in the morning. Punctured rubber boats are washed up on the beaches and collected by diligent volunteers and piled up for weekly collection by the bin men.
 |
| Abandonned life jackets |
Chios is only 4km from the coast of Turkey and has been hosting
the second largest number of refugees arriving from sea after Lesbos. In the
first 4 days of this February, Greece saw 7483 arrivals by sea which was more than
the entire month of February in 2015. Everyone is predicting as the weather
improves the numbers will spike again up to thousands arriving every day as
there is no sign of hope that the situation in Syria will improve. Once people
make it to Turkey and want to reach the EU they cannot go by normal routes on
ferries to Greece as they require visas/passports to buy the tickets. Therefore,
they are in the hands of smugglers who charge depending on how dangerous the
route is. The most expensive option is to go to the islands closest to Greece
thereby minimizing the danger, for those who have less money then there are
cheaper options to travel to islands further away such as Kos. The translators here tell me that people have
told them they can pay anywhere from £400- £2000 each to get on these boats.
Today a young Afghani woman visited the clinic and I have to
share her story here. Her husband along with her extended family and her 3
small children had paid smugglers to get on a boat made for 45 people. When
they arrived at night to take the boat she said 60 people were being pushed
onto the boat. They refused to board the boat because they didn’t want to risk
their lives and could see it was dangerously overloaded, but they were forced
at gunpoint onto the boat. She got separated from her husband in the panic as
some people were thrown onto the boat and others were left on the shore. She
thought her husband had her youngest child were together and would get the next
boat behind her. When they arrived in Greece someone looked in the bottom of
the boat to check if there were any bags left and they found a child face down.
When they pulled him out she realized it was her youngest child and they were
rushed to hospital by the paramedics. She told us when they arrived at the
hospital their resuscitation attempts were futile and he was pronounced dead.
He was one and half years old and died from suffocation and being crushed at
the bottom of an over loaded boat. She came to the clinic complaining of
stomach ache but her entire body was reacting to this horrific tragedy. She
stayed with me and the Farsi translator Simin and we sat and drank tea and shared
in her grief as she told us her story. When we left her with the UNHCR staff
and local charities arranging the management of the child’s corpse and
reunification of her with her husband she told us she still hadn’t managed to
contact her husband who didn’t yet know what tragedy befell them.
The whole feel of the island and the refugees is in stark
contrast to where I was in Slovenia. Despite being surrounded by story after
story of immense human suffering, there is a feeling of calm here in Chios.
Young men swim in the sea and bask in the sun after being registered. Families
wander around and see the sights of the town, enjoy interactions with locals
and plan their next steps in contact with their families behind and in front of
them. The stress and anxieties that we saw in Slovenia seem to be far less prevalent
and when people come to the clinic it’s with specific medical problems rather than
for respite. The intense natural beauty of this wonderful island and the outpouring
of compassion and love from the local population and volunteer community
restores my faith in the goodness of the world and humanity. We will see how
soothing they remain after 6 weeks here.
 |
| The view from Souda Camp |
 |
| Claire and I enjoying some lunch in the sun |
 |
| Beautiful sunset looking out over Chios town |
 |
| This sign outside a restaurant says: "Salaam, refugees welcome, all food is halal, price is cheap, you can use internet and toilet for free, we speak arabic!" (according to Hamed our translator!) |
 |
| Happy team on sunday drive around the island |
No comments:
Post a Comment