Interview: Greece, EU need drastic action on refugee crisis, says MSF official

As Greece struggles with the arrival of the unprecedented influx of refugees and migrants, non-government organizations like Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) raise the alarm for drastic action by Greek and European Union authorities.

Constance Theisen, humanitarian affairs officer at MSF, was at the islands of the Northern Aegean Sea in Kos and Lesvos this summer. These days, she works at Idomeni in the border between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), where thousands of large groups arrive every day to continue their journey to central and Northern Europe.

In a recent interview with Xinhua, she explained how unprepared and unorganized the Greek authorities and the European Union were to face this crisis.

"The reception points in Greece are not organized and do not offer anything to the people who arrive," she stressed.

"In Kos Island, there is nothing at all for people who arrive. If they want to seek shelter they have to go to an abandoned hotel where MSF built up tents, toilets and showers. But the police have closed the hotel and now the people cannot sleep any more. So in Kos, we have 3,000 people who are forced to sleep outside," said Theisen.

In Lesvos, while there is reception infrastructure for maximum 900 people, they receive 10,000 people every week over the past two months.

Along with NGOs, local society has been mobilized immediately, providing help to refugees voluntarily. In Kos, there is a group that distributes water, another tries to organize food for everybody while locals distribute clothes. In Idomeni, there are local groups from the nearby cities of Thessaloniki and Polykastro which offer aid.

NGOs are calling on Greek authorities to take immediate measures to provide food, interpretation, tents and transferring those in need to hospitals.

Greece's interim government asked the European Union for about 700 million euros (791 million U.S. dollars) to tackle urgent needs for infrastructure. But NGOs are skeptical, fearing delays in procedures due to bureaucracy.

An emergency plan is being prepared in Idomeni, where rising numbers of refugees and migrants are expected because of the evacuation of Greek islands like Lesvos where 20,000 people left last week.

"In one night, we saw a big group of 8,000 people who crossed the borders of Idomeni to FYROM. Instead of 3,000 that we were having the last weeks, now we think that we will see 8,000 people crossing the borders in the next few days," Theisen told Xinhua.

"If we have really big groups, then people have to wait longer to pass the borders under difficult weather conditions like rain and cold," she added.

What happens in Idomeni is emblematic of a lack of common EU policy for migrants, Theisen said.

These standards say that a country has to offer shelter, food and medical screening, as long as this person waits to be registered by the authorities.

"People have always come to the European Union and they will continue to do so," Theisen said. "We need a European Union system that can work, because now we have one that it is not working. It has a certain number of rules that we see that do not work at all."

According to the latest figures by the International Organization for Migrants (IOM), an estimated 309,356 people had arrived by sea in Greece as of Sept. 10.

For Theisen, it is unacceptable and impossible for Europe to believe that a country like Greece can take care of all of these.

"We need a European system where everybody helps, contributes to solve the situation. We need a system to be for the long term because people will always come and a system for that would be ambitious," she stressed. Endit