Report on the situation in Lesvos: the Moria Family Compound, managed by the UNHCR and Mercy Worldwide, written by 4 independent volunteers working on site. Please SHARE,
Report on the situation in the Moria Family Compound, managed by the
UNHCR and Mercy Worldwide, written by 4 independent volunteers working
on site. Please SHARE, UNCHR and Mercy are spending YOUR money and they
need to be held accountable!
*** The Moria Family Compound***
The Family Compound is a section in the Moria refugee camp on the island
of Lesvos for the most vulnerable individuals and families. Mostly
children and their parents, old people, disabled people, and single
women are accepted in. The compound intends to offer a protected area
behind a fence with controlled access. It is the only place in the camp
of Moria where people can sleep in a building instead of outside or in a
tent. The compound opens daily between 5 and 6 pm depending on the
availability of volunteers, provides people with a sleeping spot and
food. At sunrise, people are woken up again, receive a humble breakfast
and then the compound is vacated until it reopens again in the afternoon.
There are around 25 rooms or barracks spread over 3 buildings. Some of
the rooms have bathrooms. The facilities are managed by the United
Nations (UNHCR) and the day-to-day operations are currently managed by
Mercy Worldwide, an NGO. In practice however, the place is mostly run by
independent volunteers working within the compound. As independent
volunteers we recognize several urgent issues regarding the
infrastructure and the services offered. Almost on a daily basis the
Family Compound does not provide sufficient protection nor do its
services cover the basic needs of the most vulnerable refugees in Moria.
Below a list of big and small but equally important and relevant errors
is presented. This list illustrates a serious flaw regarding the
management of the compound both by the United Nations and Mercy
Worldwide. Volunteers feel they cannot count on either Mercy Worldwide
or on the UNCHR as even despite continuously addressing the issues
listed, no action has been undertaken by either party. As a consequence
of these issues, a general sense of “chaos” and disorganization is
prevalent, causing many volunteers in the compound to last no longer
than a day or perhaps two.
The list below has been prepared by volunteers who have endured the
chaos and the situation a bit longer, respectively 26 and 10 days at the
Family Compound in Moria. We find it important to mention this
explicitly as this detail makes it very clear that it is easy even for
short-term and relatively inexperienced volunteers to point out some of
the stunning failures in the management, infrastructure and coordination
of the Family Compound, causing it to fail to fulfill its promise to
provide a safe and quiet space for the most vulnerable people suffering
in this humanitarian crisis.
***Facilities & infrastructure: responsibility of the United Nations
(UNHCR)***
Electricity:
o In many rooms there is no lighting or heating, despite the fact that
temperatures are starting to drop down towards 0 degrees Celsius at
night. A place without light and heating cannot provide security for
families with children and babies, the elderly, sick people, pregnant
and single women, and other vulnerable people.
o In many rooms the electric installation is damaged and bare wires are
present, a clear danger especially for children who don’t recognize it
as a danger.
o There is no way to charge phones, which for refugees is extremely
important to be able to contact their families after their very
dangerous crossing from Turkey in a small rubber boat.
Stairs and guardrails:
o The stair railings are suitable for adults but are outright dangerous
for children as they lack knee height railings, making it all too
possible for young children to fall down. Given the superfluous amount
of barbed wire at the compound, there are places where children could
fall into the barbed wire. According to Mercy Worldwide children have
fallen off the steps, however nothing has been done to secure the
guardrails.
The bathrooms
o The compound has about one bathroom for every 3 rooms. This is very
little given that on a daily basis each room will host up to 40 people
(or sometimes even more). Every day, the bathrooms are incredibly dirty.
The cleaning of the bathrooms (outsourced to a local company) is totally
inadequate, as the cleaning staff gets very little time to do their job.
As a consequence, many rooms constantly smell of sewage. Refugees report
that in these rooms people get nauseous and frequently have to leave
their room to get some fresh air.
o The sinks in the bathrooms are very dirty, causing people not to wash
their hands, which should be the most basic measure to prevent spread of
disease under these crowded circumstances.
o On several locations outside of the rooms, sewage water is
overflowing. Although up to present this can be witnessed only on a
small number of places, it is a point of concern for the future as this
could quickly become a major health risk.
Emergency prevention
o On 2 of the 3 floors the gates to exit the compound are closed at all
times with padlocks and no keys are present. This means that in case of
an emergency evacuation two-thirds of the refugees in the compound will
have to climb two stairs to get out of the compound. In case of an
emergency this could prevent the evacuation of people and the access for
fire fighters and ambulance crews.
o Similarly, there are no signs to indicate emergency exits. Given that
the compound looks and has been built like a prison, it is not an easy
place to get out of. In case of an emergency clear signs are necessary
to guide the large amount of people to the exits.
o Many of the fire extinguisher distributed throughout the Family
Compound are empty and have no use other than bringing a false sense of
security.
***Day-to-day operations: responsibility of Mercy Worldwide***
Food
o On a daily basis, rations are scarce or very scarce and on multiple
occasions the independent volunteers have had to go out to buy food or
water with their own funds in order to be able to offer anything at all
to the refugees. When we take into account that often people who have
crossed the Aegean sea have not eaten for 1 day or more, and that the
compound hosts only vulnerable people (including lactating mothers,
babies and children, sick people, elderly people, etc.) this inadequate
provisioning of food is inacceptable. There have been days that the only
food offered was a croissant, a banana and a bottle of water.
Water
o Mercy Worldwide has announced that due to unspecified budget cuts,
bottled water is no longer provided. Mercy Worldwide states that the tap
water available in some rooms is drinkable for adults, although there
are no signs to inform people about this. Refugees are unaware that they
can drink it and given the filthiness of the bathrooms and sinks, people
logically are not prone to trying this water. Currently the provision of
safe water in bottles is made possible by donations from volunteers
working in the Family Compound.
Beds
o Blankets are a necessity given the dropping temperatures and the lack
of heating in many rooms. But frequently the compound opens without
having any blankets to hand out, as the coordination of Mercy Worldwide
has not organized for any blankets to be brought or taken to the
compound from its warehouse or other warehouses on the island. If we are
lucky we can offer 1 blanket per person, but frequently people have to
share a blanket or simply go without. The available blankets are often
very dirty and may constitute a health risk for vulnerable people. Due
to the shortage and the cold, sometimes refugees end up fighting over
blankets. Sadly, within the Family Compound there is a warehouse of the
UNCHR where many blankets are stored, but these are not given to the
people inside the compound.
Beds and mattresses
o In several but not all rooms some bunk beds are available, with a
maximum number of about 8 bunk beds, despite the fact that each room
often has to accommodate 40 people or more. The few bunk beds often lack
mattresses, while most of the mattresses available are incredibly dirty
and often damaged. A limited number of very thin mats are available. As
proper mattresses and sleeping mats are obviously lacking, volunteers
try to improvise with other materials available, for example offering
cardboard for sleeping on. On busy days even the cardboard runs out and
we can offer nothing to late arrivals. Very elderly persons, very young
children, pregnant women and traumatized men will have to sleep straight
on the floor, frequently without a blanket.
Doctors and medical room:
o A physician or medical should always be present in a facility that
houses the most vulnerable refugees in Moria. In practice, frequently
patients or people with health problems have to wait a long time to be
helped by a doctor. There are plenty of doctors on the island of Lesbos,
but Mercy Worldwide and the UNCHR are not adequately coordinating for
permanent presence of a doctor during the limited opening hours of the
Family Compound.
o Until a few days ago medicines were stored next to the garbage and the
sink in the Volunteer Room, a completely dirty and inadequate space for
medical supplies. Independent volunteers proposed to clear up a small
room to turn it into a medical room, where now at least the medicines
are stored. This improvised medical room is still very badly equipped.
Staff & Volunteers:
o Almost all of the volunteers working within the compound have little
to no experience, yet they are left alone during large part of the
evening and night without any supervision or professional guidance.
These volunteers are expected to take care of a very large number of
vulnerable people (often reaches 800 people), without any kind of
professional supervision.
o Staffing and volunteer numbers are not properly coordinated, meaning
that all these people are sometimes served by only a handful of
volunteers or less. On occasions, during night shifts there was only 1
volunteer to start the shift.
o Basic protocols of what to do do not exist and no-one properly
instructs the new volunteers. Due to the serious lack of organization,
independent volunteers have begun to establish basic norms and protocols
of action for the different shifts.
Taking all of the above in consideration, it is very clear that the
current situation does not conform to regulations for public buildings
and that changes need to be made very soon in order to establish a basic
level of safety and protection for the most vulnerable refugees on the
island.
Is it really necessary to wait for an epidemic, or a child that needs to
be cut out of the military-style barbed wire ?
***Final note***
Following this report that was written by 4 volunteers on the 22nd of
December, AT LAST knee-height railings were installed to provide more
security on the many stairs of the compound. This means that the
pressure from independent volunteers is already generating the first
major changes. We need to support these volunteers, sharing this message
until UNHCR and Mercy Worldwide take their job seriously and act on each
and every single one of the issues outlined in this list. They are
spending YOUR money. Keep them accountable, share this post!
