© Nikos Mamoudis, 2019
The Moria refugee camp is bursting at the seams. More refugees are arriving on Lesvos every day. At the end of August 2019, medical care has been suspended*. SAO Association is seeing an increased need for medicines on the ground in Greece. The situation on Lesvos is dramatic. The Moria camp is currently hosting around 13,000 people, with no end in sight to the surge of new arrivals (twice as many as in the same period in 2018). First heavy autumn rains further aggravate the situation.
The tent camp in the olive groves around Moria is bursting at the seams - the first heavy autumn rains further aggravate the situation.
However, the camp still only has about 2,800 beds in containers. The sanitary facilities are designed for just under 1,800 people. The number of arrivals has reached a level not seen since 2015. On average, 105 people arrive on the shores of Lesvos every day. Half of them are children. In area C1, where the women who have fled alone and are in our care are accommodated, 22 women are currently sleeping in an isobox (living container). There are no common rooms or shaded areas. The situation is only marginally better for the mothers who have fled alone.
© Nikos Mamoudis
"Lesvos post" reports that even though over 4,000 of Moria's residents have the correct papers to move on to the mainland, increased arrivals and the August holidays have exacerbated the huge backlog recorded by the bureaucratic processing of transfers. In the meantime, makeshift camps spread far into the olive groves to cope with the bloated capacity. In the camp, fingerprints that should be taken on arrival are taken months later. The initial reception centre in the camp struggles with technical malfunctions and staff shortages.
Camp Moria on Lesvos stopped medical services at the end of August. SAO is challenged.
On 22 August 2019, all nine contracts for medical staff at KELPNO, the state medical actor in Moria, expired. KELPNO is the only actor allowed to provide health screenings and vulnerability assessments, as well as hospital transfers and appointments for specialists and terminal patients on the mainland. Once again, a humanitarian catastrophe is looming on the horizon, which civil society, i.e., small aid organisations like SAO Association are absorbing as much as possible. The cases of women desperately seeking health assistance from us are piling up.
© Iham Abassi
A week ago, the organisation, renamed EODI, resumed operations; unfortunately, the three doctors, four nurses and two midwives, are not nearly enough for special medical assessments.
The psychological team consists of four psychologists and two social workers. Only six translators assisted both teams.
Due to additional expenses for medical issues at the Bashira Centre on Lesvos, your contribution is needed urgently.
*Source: https://www.lesvospost.com/2019/08/blog-post_147.html
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