fyi, a letter to colleague:
Karlovasi, Samos Island
October 11, 2015
Dear Sarah,
What I witness here yesterday evening and night is simply incredible, as yesterday was, and the day before. I write you today because I found a time window for that.
Refugees, we have families with new-borns (the youngest was of 1 day as the mother delivered on the inflatable boat during the crossing), we have children with or without parents or relatives (I saw one 16 y. old boy alone, totally afraid yesterday sleeping on the port of Samos town), we have pregnant women, we have all Syria from rich to very poor (and they are by far the most) facing a dangerous sea-crossing because they have no choice anymore.
Yesterday in the port of Karlovasi, we had around 300 refugees including 8 new-borns, 7 pregnant women (certainly more as only these ones were obviously pregnant and confirmed it, some are under 18 y old), 80 children. Refugees came exhausted. They wait hidden in Turkey for several days before. Some didn’t have food for days. Frontex had to rescue boats that get lost on the rocks. They lost all what they could take and they cannot anyway take much.
You have people with chronic diseases without treatment, you have war wounded, crippled but they are still afaraid and they don’t want to make problems so they don’t report unless you have are not a kind Arabic speaker. We hopefully have two in our small team.
The rain was coming. Volonteers from the island (mainly habitants) rehabilitated a small house but we couldn’t shelter in this house all families with children. Not a single baby or children was crying, I noticed it as a very strange fact. Volonteers organized food, clothes for them. My team was providing health care to those the more in need.
As I met the Mayor the day before, I SMS him that we face a critical situation and that we are urgently in need of a shelter. You have plenty empty bulding around. One of them is a former disco-club just next to the house rehabilated by volonteers. It has 8 toilettes, a big space etc. In town a temporary school that was used before and which is now empty.
After my SMS, the Mayor immediately called me and told me that he gave instruction to either open a place for the refugees or to move them from Karlovasi to Samos Port. I can’t describe you now the situation in the port of Samos but I the situation there is even worse than in Karlovasi. So I told him that they need to find a solution here in Karlovasi. The Deputy-Mayor came. He first told me that he wants to move them in the empty school. That he needs to find the keys. Then came back. He had with the keys but he decided to move one group of refugees in Samos Port. I tried my best to convince him that in this case, it’s better to stay here as volunteers found some space on the port, open to all winds but at least with a roof. It’s next to a huge ferry that stays there, occupied by the workers because they did not get paid for months (years?). I also need to assess the situation there because I’ve been told that they are starving.
When three buses came, I gave instructions to my team to stay away as we cannot be involved to what is a form of forced displacement (Police don’t really need to use violence as the refugees are shocked and they don’t want to make any problem, they just want to move forward). Anyway, we are only four for now, and two of us were providing health care at about 150 m.
All in a sudden, one policeman came to me super angry: ‘look what they are doing, the bus driver ask 10 euros to each refugee’. I came to him and asked him: ‘why are you doing that?’ He told me:’I didn’t get paid, I need to survive somehow’. These buses are from Ktel (a public company I think).
I then decided to move to Samos port to see the situation there, when they will arrive. One of the volunteer that stayed in Karlovasi called me, she told me that now the chief of the port police came and that he was shouting on the refugees in order to get them in the bus. I will get the full story today, but from what one refugee told me, several habitants came to stop this displacement of refugees.
In the Port of Samos, you have 20 shelters boxes for an average of 800 refugees coming every day. On Fridays, you don’t have ferries so you have even more refugees in the port and around. In these boxes, you don’t have water, no beds, no toilets, nothing. On the port, you have only 4 toilets and you can imagine how they looks like.
While I was waiting the buses, the Mayor called me to told me that apparently 3 persons are trying to fetter the process of moving the refugees. I told him that it’s not my team and that I’m not presently in Karlovasi. I told him that most of them cannot anyway take the bus as they don’t have money to pay the 10 euros. He told me that they made several surveys and that the Syrians have the money to pay. I told him that it is not what I have witnessed (now the families are coming, they have sold all what they have or get in debts, of course few rich refugees but they don’t sleep in the port, they get an room in an hotel). I asked him why they don’t at least get a receipt? He told me that it is not is business as it is a private company operating the buses. But he organized this transportation.
Before the bus came, we find here mothers with babies without baby milk (some are not breath-feeding, some have no milk anymore after the sea-crossing). It was already late but my colleague managed to find milk in town. I get some as well from volonteers.
The bus came. I will never forget the gaze of a young mother with her new-born, lost and afraid. I will never forget this about & years old girl exhausted and traveling with her grandmother. Lost, afraid, with no shelter, in the middle of the night.
I went back to Karlovasi to check the situation of a group of refugees that arrived in the meanwhile.
When I get back home, it was 2 am. this Sunday, October 11, 2015. In a way, this situation is much worse that what I have seen in Africa because we have plenty empty building all around us. Together with the volonteers, we will provide food, we will rehabilitate buildings if needed, we will provide blankets, we will get decent toilets and showers, we will warm the refugees as our brother human. During WWII, some people of Samos on their way to Egypt, stopped in Syria, in Palestine. They were refugees there at this time. They don’t forget how warmly they were hosted. They want to help but the authorities do their best to stop/slow them and the number of tourists is slowly decreasing.
I need to rush as the ferry from Samos Port is stopping in Karlovasi this morning. Don’t have time to reread and correct errors. Sorry for my poor English.
Take care,
vn
