Donforty

Malakasa 2019

ΑΝ ΕΙΣΤΕ ΠΑΡΑΠΑΝΩ ΕΝΘΟΥΣΙΑΣΜΕΝΟΙ ΑΠΟ ΟΤΙ ΘΑ ΕΠΡΕΠΕ ΓΙΑ ROCKWAVE2017 ΚΑΝΤΕ ΡΙΜΠΛΟΓΚ. 

Mismanagement and a lack of planning has resulted in an inefficient response to the migration crisis in Greece, according to a confidential report by an international organization seen by Kathimerini.

The report points to signs of financial mismanagement, claiming for instance that a new reception facility in Malakasa, northeast of Athens, which was funded by the European Union, was overpriced.

The document says the Migration Ministry attributed the higher price to the fact that it was an emergency intervention, "however a similar project was carried out within seven days, while the average cost was 270 euros per beneficiary, compared to 3,900 euros per beneficiary in Malakasa.”

It also accused the new ministry of not trying to create a competent administrative structure, but instead creating a “parallel system” of civil servants who are not specialized.

The report also accused the ministry of heralding unrealistic measures such as the mass transfer of migrants to the mainland amid the coronavirus pandemic, the fact that all new facilities should be “closed,” or the closure of reception facilities by the end of the year.

It added that the government has no plan for thousands of migrants who have secured asylum and are to leave facilities in due course.

A male migrant died of COVID-19 on Sunday, the first reported death of an asylum seeker since the pandemic broke out in Greece in late February, a government official told Reuters.

The 61-year-old Afghan, a father of two children, who lived at the migrant camp of Malakasa north of Athens, was treated and died at a hospital in Athens, the official said, adding that authorities were tracing his contacts.

It was not immediately clear how long he had been at the hospital.

The Malakasa camp, which hosts about 3,000 migrants, has been quarantined since Sept. 7 after positive tests for the new coronavirus.

Many other migrant facilities in Greece have been sealed off or movement has been restricted to stem the spread of the virus.

Greece has been the main gateway into the European Union for people fleeing conflict in the Middle East and beyond. More than a million people reached its shores from Turkey in 2015-16.

At least 110,000 people currently live in migrant facilities - 40,000 of them in overcrowded camps on five islands.

Vulnerable migrants in the Malakasa camp north of Athens are being forced to live in poor conditions unable to register for asylum. One Gambian national who arrived in March has been telling InfoMigrants of frustration among residents.

Robert* is only 33 years old, but his life has practically ground to a halt. For the past six months, the Gambian has been at the Malakasa camp near Athens. Not long after he arrived, the camp went into full lockdown after a resident tested positive for coronavirus.

Malakasa is divided into old and new sections. Robert is in Malakasa 2, a military facility alongside Malakasa 1. Both sites are officially run by the Greek authorities, with the support of the UN migration agency, IOM.

The migrants are accommodated in shipping containers and tents, which are extremely hot, and Robert worries they will not give enough protection in winter.

“The Red Cross is doing its best to provide medical services…The authorities gave us masks and soap.  (But) the food is extremely bad, so that we only take what they bring on Sundays and Wednesdays," he wrote to InfoMigrants.

“On Wednesday is chicken and rice. The other days it beans throughout. So people don't collect it. We are going hungry most of the time.

“We have told them to give us the money, we'll prepare our food. However we don't have any (cooking facilities) and they are preventing us from cooking because we are in military installation.

Six police officers were injured and five citizens were detained, after residents of Malakasa blocked Athens-Lamia national highway to protest the presence of two refugee and migrant reception centers.

According to police protesters tried to break the police chain protecting the camp and threw stones and other objects at the officers thus injuring six of them.

Police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.