Pregnant women are sleeping on the streets, relying on sex work and eating from bins after seeking asylum in Greece. This is the report of a team of volunteers highlighting the plight of some women at the holiday hotspot.
The Manchester -based charity, supported by former Coronation Street star Julie Hesmondhalgh, helps 22 single women and their children in Athens. They provide seven flats for the families from Cameroon, Afghanistan, Syria, the Congo, Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone.
Many of the women seeking help fled a horrendous situation in their homeland. Hoping for a better life, some ended up in refugee camps where they were beaten, forced to cook in sewer water and eat mouldy food out of bins.
Sally Hyman, a language teacher from Saddleworth, launched CRIBS International in 2016 after helping at a camp on the Greek island of Euboea. Her lifeline charity also arranges health workshops, organises food distributions and runs a free shop where people can get clothes, sanitary products, nappies and toys.
Sally, 63, told the Manchester Evening News : “We aim to provide housing and social support to women in need, and help for women in childbirth. Otherwise these women would be on the streets, relying on sex work and eating out of bins. Just next door to us we have British tourists enjoying so-called idyllic Greece with no idea of what the government is putting these people through.”
Actor Julie, who played Hayley Cropper in Corrie, told the Sunday Mirror : “This isn’t a refugee crisis – this is a political crisis. UK and European governments are playing a game with human lives.
"My daughters turn 18 and 21 this year and the milestones made me take stock of how difficult being a mother can be, even with all the privileges I have had while raising Martha and Lyss. I can’t comprehend what pregnancy and motherhood is like in horrendous situations these women have been in.
"They have a spirit, bravery, resilience and determination I have never seen before. They have skills which can contribute to the Greek economy and economies across Europe. But government policies, including our own, are too small-minded and racist to acknowledge that.”
Rachel Summerscales, from Mossley , Tameside, is a volunteer for CRIBS and joined both Sally and Julie on an emotional trip to Lesbos this week. She said the charity operates on a shoestring and the situation for the women is dire. "We have one month's rent in the bank at any one time, with increasing bills," she said.
"They are forgotten about and that is in Europe - I don't know how it has got to such an inhumane situation. From a humanitarian position we can just help a few people."
In an emotional encounter, Julie met Ivorian Jennifer (not her real name), who was helped by a fund set up by Julie. Jennifer suffered serious diabetes and could have died while pregnant with daughter Aya, now two months old, but for medical care instigated by CRIBS manager Daphne Sinani, 44.
Jennifer, who escaped hellish conditions in Lesbos to gain asylum in mainland Greece, said: "I thought I was going to die. I was desperate. All my joy had gone.
"CRIBS helped me through my pregnancy. You’ve given me hope, and I now have the right to stay in Greece."
