Background
Asylum seekers stranded on Lesbos Island have three main options: a) obtaining a refugee status in Greece, b) deportation to Turkey, c) deportation to their country of origin. Different nationalities were categorized under the so-called “high (Syrian and to a lesser extend Afghans) and low (Congolese) asylum recognition rate”. Countries with a low asylum recognition rate were for the most part detained upon arrival and almost exclusively had their asylum claim rejected. Much of their fate depended on their nationality rather than their risk of persecution. Vulnerability status according to the categories as defined in Greek law influences who is obliged to stay on the island for the asylum process. All people arriving on the islands have to undergo a vulnerability screening before their asylum seeking claim will be examined by the Greek authorities. Through vulnerability identification, migrants are allowed to move to the Greek mainland and have their asylum claim examined there, while gaining better access to services they might require. However, the process for the identification of vulnerability was subject to prolonged delays and continuous modifications. Therefore large numbers of migrants were not recognized as vulnerable, and consequently remained stranded on the island. |
Methods
Study design
Code Name | Interview Type | Nationality | Gender | Average age | Camp name | Language | Number of participants in each FGD |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SMM1 | FGD | SYRIAN | Male | 35 | Moria | ARABIC | 3 |
SMM2 | FGD | SYRIAN | Male | 40 | Moria | ARABIC | 3 |
SWKT | FGD | SYRIAN | Female | 30 | Kara Tepe | ARABIC | 6 |
SMKT | FGD | SYRIAN | Male | 45 | Kara Tepe | ARABIC | 9 |
AMM | FGD | AFGHAN | Male | 45 | Moria | FARSI | 7 |
AMKT | FGD | AFGHAN | Male | 40 | Kara Tepe | FARSI/URDU | 7 |
AWKT1 | FGD | AFGHAN | Female | 30 | Kara Tepe | FARSI/URDU | 7 |
AMKT2 | FGD | AFGHAN | Male | 40 | Kara Tepe | FARSI | 6 |
CMM | FGD | DRC | Male | 30 | Moria | FRENCH | 7 |
CWM1 | FGD | DRC | Female | 30 | Moria | FRENCH | 6 |
CWM2 | FGD | DRC | Female | 30 | Moria | FRENCH | 6 |
Study setting
Specific study setting
Study population and methodology
Code Name | Gender | Working with migrants in Greece |
---|---|---|
KI1 | Male | 5 years |
KI2 | Female | 2 years |
KI3 | Female | 3 months* |
KI4 | Male | 2 years |
KI5 | Male | 2 years |
KI6 | Female | 2 years |
KI7 | Male | 2 years |
KI8 | Male | 1 year and 5 months |
KI9 | Male | 4 years |
Data collection
Data analysis
Ethical considerations
Results
Systemic or institutional abuse
Fear and un-safety: “… the Arab had a big knife (…) everyone that was coming closer they cut them…”
“Even to the toilet (…) we go all together. I am afraid for my daughters, there are many young men, the camp is not as safe as it was in the beginning”. (SWKT).
“We got very scared. We lock ourselves in the containers but with the fires we were scared that we will burn in here, we thought we will die in here”. (CWM1).
Living conditions: “Moria is for animals”
“The room in the iso box is full of people, it’s even hard to breathe so if you stay there you wait for everything”. (CWM).“…and they [RIC] put me in a tent with other 200 people to register me, now for more than 8 months…”(SMM).
Uncertainty and lack of information to make future decisions: “They are keeping us in darkness”
“Things are changing every day even for us, we have to be updated week by week if not twice a week, sometimes people know more than us.” (KIHP6).“I see people, they arrive and they are moved, but we are the ones staying here, while we are the ones that arrived many months ago” (SMKT).“There is no organization to provide any information” (AMM2).
Intimidation, insults, de-personalization: “…You are only addressed with two words: “no” and “wait”…”
“…so they see us like refugees, like animals, like we don’t know how to live…” (AWKT1).“I expected people to welcome me, they will know what I’d gone through, but instead they [camp service providers] call me “hey…you” and put me in a tent…” (SMM1).“…when I see people on the barbed wire waiting for food what is the difference with me and sheep? When I see the police beating people in order to wait in line….” (AMM1).
Continuous traumatic stress (CTS)
Permanent emergency “there is no day without a fight”
“I have seen 5 fires and 5 funerals” (SMM2).
“Every night fires broke out in Moria and we were running in the woods with our packs to save ourselves. We didn’t have a single day of calmness. My clothes, they are still in the bags since 1 year” (AWKT1).
Preoccupation with realistic threats on present and future: “They gave us two choices, you stay here or you go back”
“I cannot stand it, there are times that I get disappointed that I will never see my children [in Germany] I will never manage to hug my daughter” (AWKT1).
“They announced that whoever gets a refugee status will have six months until the money will stop. I have all the necessary documents. What am I going to do? Even looking for job is very hard, I see the locals most of them are unemployed” (AWKT1).
“I wonder how Turkey is a safe country for me (…) the Turkish bombarded my own village, how is Turkey safe for me” (SMTK).
Recurrent absence of protective measures
“When I went to police and told them that this guy threatened us with a knife they told me that when the drugs go off he will be ok again”.
“Do you think this guy with this health will die suddenly, he was 19 years old, no smoking, no drugs, his age was only 19 years” (SMM1).
Obsessive pursuit to obtain a vulnerability status: “I went to the doctor in a hospital to change this word [vulnerability] to make it a yes”
“We wake up we sleep and we wake up with just the EASO interview, our papers, this is our thinking” (SMKT).“So, this despair, many try to manipulate you to get documents, anything that can help their case (…), they want to hold on to something” (KI2).“They all seek for a reason from a doctor to be sick, to have a paper, the thought came also to me (…), I reached there and started to think what reason shall I give(…)” (SWKT).
A directive that was applied in April 2017 instructed that vulnerable migrants cannot leave the island before their 1st asylum interview. This is practically translated into a minimum of six months of island restriction. During October 2017 the population on Lesbos Island had reached 5800 migrants, a number far beyond island’s reception capacity. Due to this, it was temporarily allowed to the transfer of 1100 vulnerable migrants onto mainland lifting their geographical restrictions before the 1st asylum interview. However, immediately after the transfer, the directive of April 2017 was reinstated. The un-clarity and rumors around the advantages of being vulnerable makes migrants obsessively preoccupied with the pursuit of a vulnerability document. This results migrants living in a state of permanent emergency. Besides this, project staff identify that vulnerability status does not always guarantee a better treatment. For the migrants, it seems that this vulnerability obsession is a copying mechanism which keeps their hope alive, while for the authorities is nothing more than a way to facilitate and manage the overpopulation on the island. |
Isolation, cognitive impairment, substance abuse, self-harm and suicide attempts: “if I don’t drink alcohol I can’t sleep”
Self harm
Substance abuse
“The difference that I have noticed is that all people when they first arrived were healthy, now they have started smoking or drinking, they came for a better life and they ended up alcoholics”(AMM1).
Suicide attempts
“My husband committed suicide 3 times. All these months I am here I have become so angry that I harm myself” (AWKT2).
Cognitive impairments
“When you are attending Greek lessons you feel that your mental ability or capacity is low, I have two university degrees, it is completely different now…” (SMM1).
Isolation
“….he does not want to be social anymore, he just sits and thinks…” (AMKT).
MH service provision: “… so, I am a psychologist, how do I treat this?”
Delays in appointments: “You go again and they don’t see you”
“They give me an appointment (psychiatrist at Public Hospital) 4 months later. I will become crazy after that long” (AWKT2).
Lack of psychiatric care:
“There’s one psychiatrist at the hospital (public) and one working in private, on Lesbos…” (KI1).“…things are getting worse, suicidal attempts, self-harm. The past three weeks we have had like 15 people on that list [psychiatric care], (….) when usually it’s about 5” (KI3).
Perception of mental health: “Is there a solution for a psychologically sick person?”
“In Afghanistan you have a problem the doctor gives you medication and you go, they don’t have this idea of psychotherapy, they take the pills” (KI1).“…what they [Afghans] are facing is beyond a psychologist. If you use the standards of Europe all Afghans will need a psychologist”. (AMKT).