Issue No.
13362
Despite being kept in awful conditions,migrants at the detention centre on Lesvos give Minister Sp.Vouyias a spirited welcome
AFTER visiting one of the country’s most criticised migrant detention centres, Spyros Vouyias, the new deputy minister for the protection of the citizen, condemned the state of the overcrowded facility using language surprisingly harsh for a government minister.
“I apologise for the lack of humanity in this warehouse of souls where Dante’s Inferno pales by comparison,” Vouyias said after his visit to the Paganis detention centre on Lesvos last week.
Speaking to reporters, he described conditions there as “appalling, inhuman, a violation of basic human rights”.
The deputy minister was accompanied by representatives of the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), Pro Asyl, a rights group from Germany and the local Ecumenical Refugee Programme.
Emphatic
No other Greek government minister has ever spoken out so strongly against the country’s migrant detention policy. His stance on the matter was welcomed by human rights advocates, who have long criticised the state’s indifference to the deplorable conditions in detention centres for undocumented migrants and would-be asylum seekers in Greece.
A former transportation professor, Vouyias was quick to reveal the socialist Pasok government’s plan for a U-turn in the country’s immigration policy and announced the closure of the Paganis centre and plans to create “human” and “dignified” facilities.
“It is necessary to change the way we receive migrants,” he said.
This is in line with the policy overhaul already announced by Prime Minister George Papandreou. As leader of the opposition last June, Papandreou had stressed the need for a “drastic overhaul” of the country’s asylum and immigration policy.
Last summer, the former New Democracy government passed controversial legislation allowing authorities to detain undocumented migrants for up to one year. Plans to transform dozens of disused military facilities into detention centres were also on the cards.
Karl Kopp, a spokesman for Pro Asyl who accompanied the deputy minister to the detention centre, said everyone was shocked by the conditions at Paganis.
“It was really awful,” Kopp told the Athens News. “It was hell, just like the deputy minister described it. There was a lot of dirty water on the floor where the women and children are being held. It was very smelly.”
He said 250 women and children were being held there.
Health risks
“It was terrible,” Kopp added. “From a medical point of view, the situation is dangerous.”
It is important that a Greek government official finally announced the closure of Paganis, Kopp said.
Volunteers from the Greek branch of Doctors of the World have visited the centre regularly over the past two months. In a statement, the group said more than 70 children, including some as young as 12 months old, are currently at Paganis and sleep on dirty mattresses laid out on the floor.
The doctors reported that the only two toilets at the centre do not flush properly and that the two showers are broken.
“It’s become very difficult for us to help them,” said Martha Falk, a psychologist with Doctors of the World.
The Paganis detention facility has recently made international headlines after migrants staged a demonstration and rioted to protest the deplorable living conditions.
“Nobody can live there,” Kopp said. “Hopefully, this awful place will close very soon. And, hopefully, this is a starting point to rethink the entire detention system in Greece. The current situation is unacceptable.”
The detention centre’s maximum capacity is 300 people. There are currently more than 600 men, women and children being held there. There have been as many as 1,200 detainees in the past.
According to news reports, the Pasok government will order the immediate release of almost 100 migrants held at Paganis. Officials are to issue them pink cards (rose kartes) - a temporary residence and work permit for asylum seekers.
“We will find ways to speed up the bureaucracy so that they do not have to stay here for so many days,” Vouyias told reporters. “And, of course, we will [create] better facilities where they can stay for as long as is necessary.”
Let me go
The migrants at Paganis appeared pleased to see the deputy minister. Some pleaded for their release. Some have been detained there for more than four months.
Vouyias publicly apologised to the migrants for the conditions at the detention centre.
“I was by the minister’s side during the visit and he apologised continuously to these people,” said Efthalia Pappa, director of the Athens-based Ecumenical Refugee Programme, an organisation established by the Church of Greece.
“He walked into the cells, which, believe me, are so terrible that you wouldn’t want to go within 10 feet of them. But he went in and he spoke to them and showed a compassion which I believe was sincere.”
“We met with six pregnant women,” she told the Athens News. “We also saw children, babies and newborns - all packed into the crowded cells. We saw people with serious health problems like heart conditions and diabetes.”
According to Pappa, Vouyias stressed the government’s desire to work with non-governmental organisations.
“This is very positive,” she said. “Up to now, it has been extremely difficult for us to help these people. The doors have been closed and we have even been accused [by officials] of inciting riots. We are here to help, not to throw oil onto the fire. I believe the minister understands this.”
Allegations of abuse
THE ATHENS office of the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) issued a press release on October 26 expressing “serious concerns” over the alleged abuse of migrants at the Paganis centre on Lesvos.
“Police officers guarding the centre abused and beat detainees, including a 17-year-old, who was taken to hospital,” the UNHCR claimed. “He was diagnosed with lesions on his head, back, waist and arms... the incidents were triggered by the tension generated in some of the wards where groups of detainees were protesting against their protracted detention.”
ATHENS NEWS 30/08/2010, page: 14
