Less than 10 days before Greeks go to the polls, the prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has sought to emphasise the impact of his centre-right government’s “tough but fair” migration policy.
In a campaign trip to Lesbos, the Aegean island bearing the brunt of Europe-bound migratory flows, the leader claimed he had kept his promise to protect land and sea borders, with the arrival of asylum seekers radically reduced.
“The hellhole of Moria, as it would become known abroad, is no more,” he said, visiting the site of the notoriously squalid camp outside the isle’s port town, Mytilene, that had housed more than 20,000 refugees before it was ravaged by fire. “It belongs to the past. And of that I am especially proud because I kept the promise I had given to local society, particularly local communities … We enforced a tough but fair policy on the migration issue.”
Mitsotakis, who is seeking a second term in office in a tighter race than expected, has faced considerable criticism for policies believed to have included the controversial practice of “pushbacks” at sea as part of a broader strategy to keep would-be asylum seekers at bay.
The UN refugee agency, rights groups and aid organisations have deplored the forcible expulsions, describing widespread evidence of the practice as a flagrant violation of international law.
Mitsotakis has argued that the Greek coastguard has a right to “intercept” boats that illegally enter sovereign waters, and that instead of criticism, the country deserves praise for saving “thousands” of people at sea.
Greece, a magnet for people fleeing war, poverty and increasingly climate change in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, has witnessed a dramatic drop in asylum applications since Mitsotakis succeeded his leftist predecessor, Alexis Tsipras, four years ago.
On Friday, Mitsotakis rammed home that point, saying the arrival of “illegal migrants” had dropped by “well over 90%” compared with the peak of the refugee crisis, in 2015, when close to a million Syrian refugees crossed from the Turkish coast in flimsy dinghies to Aegean islands en route to Europe.
Under Mitsotakis, open camps on frontline outposts such as Lesbos have been replaced with EU-funded, barbed wire-encased, “closed controlled” access centres. The government has also pledged to extend a border fence along the Evros land frontier with Turkey. For his conservative constituency, both are welcome steps.
But it is a rosy picture that corresponds neither with the experiences of migrants held in the new centres, nor with the stories of those who have been awarded refugee status and under Greek law are forced to fend for themselves, often in extremely precarious conditions. Tales of the new holding facilities falling far short of basic standards are rife.
This week, claims emerged that the centres, frequently likened to prisons, failed to provide even basic safeguards for the most vulnerable, not least unaccompanied minors.
An estimated 86,600 asylum seekers and refugees were resident in Greece at the end of last year, according to the UNHCR. In Athens, where many are congregated, food insecurity is such that NGOs speak of a mounting hunger crisis among women and children trying to survive on handouts.
“The pain of these people cannot be hidden behind the walls of so-called model camps or brushed under the carpet as the government would like,” said Dr Apostolos Veizis, the general director of Intersos Hellas, a humanitarian organisation that distributes food to thousands of refugees every month.
“What we have seen is shocking: women being forced into sexual exploitation to make a few euros that can buy food for their relatives, entire families going hungry and having to choose days when they will eat, and children being put at mental and physical risk because of the lack of adequate, nutritious food; things we should never see in an EU state.”
