Asylum seekers living in Greece's largest camp have fewer rights than animals, migrant volunteer groups said Wednesday in a scathing Christmas letter to European citizens and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen.
More than 7,000 people have been living in the 32-hectare Kara Tepe tent camp on the island of Lesbos since September, when the permanent facility of Moria burned down.
"We wish you a Merry Christmas from the new refugee camp in Lesvos. We hope you can celebrate despite the hardships we all face due to the... pandemic crisis," the Moria Corona Awareness Team and the Moria White Helmets said in the open letter.
The makeshift camp flooded last week, and a three-year-old Afghan girl was found semi-conscious and bleeding in the camp lavatory, with authorities saying she was raped.
Though security has improved, "in many ways the situation is somehow even worse than before the big fire," the migrant groups said, noting that they have not been able to organise themselves to provide leisure activities and schooling for their children.
And despite millions of euros in aid, there are not enough hot showers, poor lighting, insufficient medical attention and no heaters, they said.
"If we get sick, we wait hours for medical treatment and although the food we receive is enough, it is not very healthy," the groups said.
A view of temporary refugee tents at the Kara Tepe camp in Lesbos. Source: Sipa USA Danilo Campailla / SOPA Images/S
"We studied the laws to protect animals in Europe and we found out they have more rights than we do... So we just ask you to grant us (the) simple rights animals have."
"None of us are able to live normally, because all day we struggle to get some water to clean, food and a warm place and we all live in fear and distress," they said.
The migration ministry says that the Kara Tepe camp, built within days under emergency conditions to house thousands left homeless by the fire, is temporary.
It will be replaced in 2021 by a new, permanent camp for up to 5,000 people created with EU assistance.
On Wednesday, the ministry said the EU had provided an additional 10 million euros ($16 million AUD) to build 10 health units in camps.
Refugees wait in a line to be transferred from the new Kara Tepe camp to the mainland. Source: Sipa USA Danilo Campailla / SOPA Images/S
The migrant volunteers said they were eager to help improve living conditions in the camp.
"Many of us are engineers, electricians, doctors and we know it does not need very much money to fix such a camp," they said.
"We are ready to help and work hard, if you let us and trust us to make this place better".
Bosnia camp burns
Meanwhile, fire engulfed a refugee camp in Bosnia on Wednesday minutes after the site was closed because of its poor condition, deepening a crisis over where to house thousands of migrants during winter.
The centre's former residents looked on as thick black smoke billowed from the site, which the UN migration agency had started withdrawing from earlier in the day because it lacked proper heating, electricity and other essentials for winter.
There were no casualties but the infrastructure of the site was destroyed, police spokesperson Ale Siljdedic told AFP.
Police believe the blaze was started by former residents of the camp, which sits near the northwestern village of Lipa.
Officials are deadlocked over where to shelter some 3,000 migrants in the area, a base for those making attempts to enter neighbouring EU member Croatia.
The Lipa camp was set up in April as a temporary solution, with humanitarian organisations warning that the site was not equipped for winter.
"For several reasons, mostly political, it never got connected to the main water or electricity supply, and was never winterised. And now, with this fire, it never will be," Peter van der Auweraert, the head of the country's International Organization for Migration mission, said in a statement.
"This is a nightmare scenario: these people should be inside in warm conditions, just as the rest of Europe is doing at this holiday time," he added.
