I started
writing this post from the departure lounge of Athens airport. It was a
stunningly beautiful day, 20 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, gentle breeze and
I was seeing my husband in a few hours, but my heart was heavy. Heavy because I’m
leaving my most excellent colleagues and will miss them dearly, heavy because I loved
every minute of working here and want to keep doing it, heavy because I don’t know
what will happen to the wonderful people I’ve met and heavy because saying goodbye to
someone who’s future is so uncertain is a deeply unsettling thing. What do you
say? All the best…good luck… I hope things work out for you…Inshallah.
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| Some of the team on the last night out |
There are still 24 people in Souda camp split
into 4 main families and I feel over the past couple of weeks I’ve become their
family doctor. Every morning we’ve been spending the first couple of hours in
the day in the clinic and those who want to see us in the camp can come for
consultations. We’ve been averaging around 8 consultations a day meaning we’re
pretty much seeing everyone in the camp every 3 days. Although its been strange
to adjust to such slow days after the manic times a few weeks ago, its been
really special to get to know some of our patients properly. They’ve been in
such good humour, inviting me for coffee in their Ikea houses and showing me
photos from their lives back home and making judgements about how many children
I should have and when. One woman Rafah,
has 4 children and is pregnant with the 5th. She told me that
everyone she has met in Souda has been so kind to them and she loved us all
dearly, then she hugged me tightly and said that I had entered her heart and
would always be there. Saying goodbye to them yesterday was really difficult
and I just wanted to scream with the injustice of it all.
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| Iman, Rafah and her daughter Khadija |
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| Samar and her 5 beautiful children (and Hamed) |
As the new team were doing most of the
clinical work this week, I spent a couple of days catching up with some of the
patients we had referred to hospital. One man is very unwell following a major
abdominal surgery and Hamed and I visited him in hospital. He was so happy to
see us but I saw a familiar look of fear in his eyes. As a doctor its something
that you see often in your patients who are vulnerable and scared but I can’t
imagine how it must feel to be so sick, so far from home and have no idea what
will happen to your wife and your unborn child if you don’t make it. We stayed
with them for half an hour and he held my hand tightly the entire time. When we
left, they prayed for both Hamed and I to have long and happy lives, thanked us
so deeply for everything we’d done for them and it took all my strength not to
break down in front of them.
The new team also performed some
consultations in a children’s home in the north of Chios, nestled deep in the
mountains where 22 unaccompanied minors have been housed by the Greek state.
The Ark of the World is a state run care home where there are another 30 Greek
children who live their currently. The centre is beautiful and so peaceful but
unfortunately the refugees have been completely separated from the Greek
children. Apparently they are waiting
relocation to a permanent centre in Athens where there is a plan for them to be
integrated into the social system including schooling but at the moment these
kids are stuck in limbo.
Every day the Greek children attend half a
day of school and then have structured homework time in the afternoon plus
extra activities organised by the centre staff. The refugees there are housed,
clothed, fed and seem well looked after but there are no organised activities
for them. They have literally nothing to do all day except for entertain
themselves. They were all desperately bored when the new team went to do medical
consultations they begged them to bring books and asked for a teacher so they
could occupy their minds. They are all teenagers and mostly very bright and
acutely aware of their education passing them by. The next day the 2
translators prepared an afternoon of language lessons for them and they said
they had never experienced more attentive class. One thing I think about often
is the generation of children wrapped up in this crisis. The Syrians haven’t been
to school for 5 years but for the Afghans some have never been to school. They
crave stimulation, new experiences and desperately need to be in school. They
need for this to be over and for them to have the chance to be children and
learn and flourish.
The weather got better this week and the sea
between Chios and Turkey looked like a lake most days. As predicted more people came. Only one or 2
boats a day compared to 30 or 40 a day before the deal, but around 200 people
arrived in the past week. Vial was built to have a capacity of 1200. Our latest
estimates suggest there are over 1500 refugees contained inside and the
situation there is getting more tense. As I was leaving yesterday, I had a
strong feeling that things are going to implode soon.
I didn’t have to wait long for my feeling
to be justified. I had news this morning that because Vial was too overcrowded
they have placed some people into the Port camp without registering them and it
is chaos. The MdM team are there to provide medical care but who knows what
will happen now. The majority of NGOs that were providing food distribution and
clothing have all left to help in Idomeni or Athens so for any new arrivals the
situation is terribly precarious. Technically all of these people should be
returned to Turkey but under international law all should have their claims for
asylum individually assessed. There’s no infrastructure to do it and Greece is failing
to meet the demand that grows every day with new arrivals. It seems that the
number of new arrivals will continue to increase as the weather continues to
improve and the Turkish coastguards fail in their task to keep their borders
closed.
There are reports from amnesty
international that Turkish border guards have shot dead 16 refugees trying to
enter Turkey at the Syrian border. There is video evidence of Turkish coastguards
trying to sink refugee boats as they attempt to cross. How can we be complicit
in sending refugees back to Turkey claiming it’s a safe country when we hear
stories like this? Let alone how badly managed the camps are and the fact that
we’re depriving thousands of people of the prospect of a real future.
Its very hard to express just how bad the
situation is right now and how much worse it’s going to get. The MdM team in
Chios may be moved to another part of Greece where the situation is even worse
than Chios. Many of the refugees that had accumulated in Athens and in Idomeni
are being relocated to makeshift camps across the country where there is currently
no infrastructure and definitely no healthcare. Given we have the mobile unit
at our disposal we’re really equipped to respond rapidly in this evolving context.
There’s just so much need and the state is failing to meet it on every level.
As I said before it’s really not that difficult of a problem if there was
political will as the numbers are still under 55,000 in Greece to date, but
this new deal has created a complete shit storm.
I’m back in the UK, it’s great to be back
with Bob and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone and spending some time
decompressing. But I’m ready to go back out before I start GP training again in
August and if MdM call for me, I’ll be on the next flight. Chios already feels far
away for me having spent 6 weeks there so I understand that people in the UK
find it hard to empathise or understand what’s happening. But it’s not far away.
This is Europe. This is our problem. This is our responsibility. We have to
pressure our governments to act in a humane way and find a workable solution.
We have to speak out against the xenophobes and stop them dictating the current
political landscape. We have to combat the fear that’s ripping through Europe
and humanise the people that have lost everything and are seeking refuge here.
We have to have difficult conversations down the pub and with our colleagues
and families and fight the culture of fear. I’m trying not to be dramatic but
this really is a pivotal moment in our history and we have to be unified to
fight for those who need us to most.
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| © Guillaume Pinon |
