#asylum-seekers

Image: Behrouz Boochani, asylum-seeker, citizen-journalist, photographed by Hoda Afshar on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea

Manus is a notorious off-shore immigration detention centre funded by the Australian Government.

Afshar’s photograph won the 2018 Bowness Award.

The deterioration has occurred even though far fewer refugees are arriving on Lesbos now than at the height of the influx to Europe in 2015 and 2016.

The first thing you notice is the smell: the stench from open-pit latrines mingling with the odor of thousands of unwashed bodies and the acrid tang of olive trees being burned for warmth.

Then there are the sounds: Children hacking like old men. Angry shouts as people joust for food.

And, finally, the sights: Thin, shivering figures drinking water from washed-out motor oil jugs. A brown-haired girl of no more than 3 clutching a fuzzy toy rabbit and smiling as she repeats to all who will listen, “I love you. I love you.”

For years, the turquoise-ringed vacationer’s paradise known as Lesbos has been on the front lines of Europe’s struggle to contain its part of a global refugee crisis. But conditions at the Greek island’s vastly overcapacity, razor-wired main camp have rarely if ever been as bad as they are this winter.

The deterioration has occurred even though far fewer refugees are arriving on Lesbos now than at the height of the influx to Europe in 2015 and 2016.

[On Lesbos, endless waves of boats and fears of a more treacherous voyage]

That seeming paradox has led aid workers, island officials and human rights activists to a disturbing conclusion: The appallingly bad conditions are no accident, but rather the result of a deliberate European strategy to keep people away.

“There’s no reason why 5,000 people in a camp in Europe cannot have access to basic shelter, health care, toilets and hot water,” said Aria Danika, Lesbos field coordinator for the aid group Doctors Without Borders. “The fact that they have to endure this tells me it’s part of a broader plan.”

That plan, she said, comes down to a single word: deterrence. And the message being sent to asylum seekers by the camp’s Greek operators and European Union financial backers rings clear.

“ ‘Don’t come here, or you’ll be stuck on this horrible island for the next two years,’ ” said Eva Cossé, Greece researcher for the advocacy group Human Rights Watch.

“It’s urgent that people be transferred to the mainland,” Cossé said. “But they don’t want to do that.”.....

Packing asylum-seekers off to a different country or hinting about doing it is the most favourite pastime of politicians these days. Britain’s former prime minister Rishi Sunak used to talk about sending asylum-seekers to Rwanda. Italy has now sent 49 refugees to the Balkan nation of Albania. This is despite the November 2024 court ruling that denied permission to detain them in Albania. The…