The missing people of Moria

When the fire destroyed Europe's biggest refugee camp Moria on September 8th, over 12000 people, were once again displaced and found themselves out on the streets.

A week later Greek authorities started to push the refugees into the newly erected camp, another prison of sorts. It was built hastily within only a few days on the polluted ground of a former military shooting range. Many people refused to enter the new camp and were instead demanding 'Azadi' – freedom and to be transferred off the island. The police used tear gas, violence and blocked the distribution of food and water and thus over the course of several days slowly more and more refugees, who were completely exhausted and worn down, gave up and registered in the new camp.

The makeshift tent city soon had a population of over 9000 residents. Most unaccompanied minors were flown out and some people transferred to the mainland, but the numbers never added up. Hundreds, probably thousands of refugees are not 'accounted for'. The justified fear of the new camp and the experience of the structural abuse by authorities led many to stay out of the new camp “Moria 2.0”. Some found shelter with friends, but many were forced to seek shelter in the burned remains of the old Moria or in the forests of the surrounding countryside. They are completely cut off from any kind of support in hellish surroundings: No food, no sanitary facilities, no medical care. They are living as ghosts – to the outside world they don't exist.

This is what life looks like at Europe’s external borders, where people are degraded and dehumanized to the point that they disappear.

And this is not the first time. In March the camp Moria reached a population of nearly 22.000. Half a year later, when the fire took place there were 10.000 people less. Many transferrals happened in this time but not to that extent. Countless refugees ended up on the streets of Athens and saw themselves forced to continue on the Balkan route, where many faced extreme violence and even torture by border police, private security companies and fascists that organized 'refugees- hunts' via facebook groups. The situation for many former Moria residents on the Greek mainland was often so unbearable that many decided to return to Moria – the place that many had wanted to leave so desperately.

As long as there is no fair und humane Asylum system in the European Union which doesn't dump most of the responsibility on their southern member states, the situation will remain a dehumanizing disaster. This creates a situations where hundreds of people 'disappear' or choose a life as ghosts because the system is too cruel to live in.

Show solidarity with people on the move! Organize! Build up pressure!