Now Ye're Talking - to a refugee camp volunteer

Boards.ie: Niamh

Our next AMA guest spent some time volunteering at a refugee camp in Greece. He worked as part of a larger team helping families in the temporary dwellings that they were housed in.

If you have some questions, ask away!

amcalester

How many are truly refugees as opposed to economic migrants?

I'm a refugee camp volunteer, AMA

Hey guys,

Thank you for the opportunity. It's an honor.

Just for a little more information. I was in Athens, Greece working as a volunteer mainly for one major refugee camp. I was also involved in helping out the refugees/homeless on the streets including a public park where families stayed. I was there during winter, which is the absolute worst for families because, of course, they don't have adequate clothing, shelter, or proper food.

amcalester wrote: »

How many are truly refugees as opposed to economic migrants?

I really wouldn't be able to give you an accurate number, I'm afraid. But in the camp that I was staying in, almost all of them where from countries involved in some sort of a war. Some of the people may not be directly affected by the war in the country they where from, so they could probably be called economic migrants. However, this is a very small percentage in that camp.

GLaDOS

What is the attitude of the locals to the camp/refugees?

diomed

Are the numbers in refugee camps increasing/decreasing/steady?
Do people move out of the camps, and if so, to where?

What form of help were you actually giving? Was it day to day things? Trying to find food and items for them? Or were you in some way trying to re-skill or integrate them into the new country?

There is a user around boards who was working in Germany with refugees from Syria to train them in software and web development to integrate them into the work force. Seemed successful and a great project from what I read.

They were looking to set up chapters of this in other countries too - as the resources are mostly there to do so if the volunteer teachers were there to do the work.

Richmond Ultra

Do many adults try to use fake id such as being a child to enable a quick movement out of the camp? I'm only asking it as people's fear in the media when the refugees landed in Mayo was what if they were all adults but by being children they got accepted better in the area.

Gloomtastic!

Good to see people who actually do it as opposed to just talking or writing about it, fair dues to you.

Did you go there alone or with some friends?

Before Athens, what other things have you volunteered for?

How did you fund your trip and how long did you stay??

Did you bring anything from home as a treat for yourself?

What was the WIFI like?

I'm a refugee camp volunteer, AMA

GLaDOS wrote: »

What is the attitude of the locals to the camp/refugees?

Most of the Greek people that I've worked with and talked to regarding the refugees weren't very welcoming. I felt that the people that I've worked with (paid greek workers, non-volunteers), were really just there for the sake of being paid. They just had to do what they were doing, didn't care, couldn't wait for the end of the shift. The local Greek people that I was talking to wasn't too happy about the refugees either. They're not necessarily doing something aggressive towards them, but they're really not doing them any favours.

I personally think that if there was any reason at all for the Greek people to hate the refugees, it would be due to the likeliness of the refugees contributing to the downfall of the economy in Greece. Then again, I'm just a volunteer and a braindead when it comes to politics so what do I know :pac: :pac:

diomed wrote: »

Are the numbers in refugee camps increasing/decreasing/steady?
Do people move out of the camps, and if so, to where?

When I was there, it was constantly increasing. My answers may not be very accurate to today's as I was there quite a while back, but I think it would still be quite close. When the camp first opened, around 20 buses full of refugees came in. Count at the end of the day was around 500. The whole camp facility was meant to accommodate 350. On the second day, buses were still arriving. End of the day count was 800. By the end of the first week, we were serving 1300 but they had to stop the flow of refugees coming in.

During my whole stay, the talk of everyone involved in the refugee situation, either refugee, workers, or volunteers, was the Macedonia border. Whether the Macedonian government was allowing refugees in, or not. Whenever there's hope for the border opening at a certain date, the refugee numbers in the camp went down. They went for it. Roughly 700km travel. Whether they got in or not, I wouldn't ever know. All I know is that around half of them come back saying that the news was false. Where they want to go? Here's a picture to get an idea:

Deleted User wrote: »

What form of help were you actually giving? Was it day to day things? Trying to find food and items for them? Or were you in some way trying to re-skill or integrate them into the new country?

There is a user around boards who was working in Germany with refugees from Syria to train them in software and web development to integrate them into the work force. Seemed successful and a great project from what I read.

They were looking to set up chapters of this in other countries too - as the resources are mostly there to do so if the volunteer teachers were there to do the work.

Basically, I was involved in manual labour. The camp had food coming in with the help of the Greek army, so that was great great help. We just had to prepare servings for the massive ~1000 queue. We also had the task of the upkeep and maintenance of the whole camp building. Covering up glassless windows, toilet duties, cleaning in rooms and other housekeeping chores. Security duty was also our responsibility.

That is definitely a great idea. Germany is certainly a great location to do it. However, I would think that Greece would not be very ideal for such an idea because it may just be 'too early' in their journey. Most refugees there are trying to get out of Greece. However, I believe teaching english would be absolutely fruitful work as most of them can't communicate a single word.

Richmond Ultra wrote: »

Do many adults try to use fake id such as being a child to enable a quick movement out of the camp? I'm only asking it as people's fear in the media when the refugees landed in Mayo was what if they were all adults but by being children they got accepted better in the area.

Entering into Greece as a refugee is quite a task from what I've heard from their stories. It's a must to have some sort of identification, and they're quite strict about it. The organisation on the islands involved in (somewhat)documenting the refugees is of course government run so there was close to no leniency. If you didn't have identification, let's say you lost it out at sea during a cramp, wet, and dangerous boat ride, you don't get a refugee ID. Meaning no benefits of going into camps, harder time at the border, and an almost impossible status in Greece itself due to having to live on the streets.

Now going back to the question, to get such an ID, you would have to steal it from a kid. An innocent kid. I haven't heard of it happen, and didn't see such a thing in the camp and I pray to God that it absolutely does not happen. But if someone tells me that it did, I don't think I would doubt them due to the levels of sheer desperation that I've witnessed.

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Good to see people who actually do it as opposed to just talking or writing about it, fair dues to you.

Did you go there alone or with some friends?

Before Athens, what other things have you volunteered for?

How did you fund your trip and how long did you stay??

Did you bring anything from home as a treat for yourself?

What was the WIFI like?

I went alone. When I got there, I was volunteering with an organisation of about 4 volunteer members that were also involved with refugee/homeless work.

I did not really volunteer a lot. I did volunteer work experience for an IT company rebuilding computers to send to third world countries, and feeding for the homeless in the Dublin City Centre. I'm also a volunteer as 'the audio guy' in a church that I attend.

It was funded by a fund-raising event with the help of my church. Friends and family contributed as well. However, there wasn't a lot to be funded for as when I get there, it was already planned that I was going to stay with a family from our church's 'branch' over in Athens itself. Travels were only €30 a month, so it wasn't bad either. I stayed for 2 months. December - January, passing through Christmas, New year and my birthday. It was a quite an experience.

Didn't really have treats as such. Being completely honest, I just didn't have time to. All I had time for was to think about how bad the situation is. Being a big guy like me, it's hard to admit it, but tears were shed quite a few times. That's how surreal it was.

gramar

Basically, I was involved in manual labour. The camp had food coming in with the help of the Greek army, so that was great great help. We just had to prepare servings for the massive ~1000 queue. We also had the task of the upkeep and maintenance of the whole camp building. Covering up glassless windows, toilet duties, cleaning in rooms and other housekeeping chores. Security duty was also our responsibilit

Surely among the 1000 people queueing there were some able-bodied enough to do the same tasks as you as well as the maintenance jobs that needed doing so that volunteers wouldn't be needed other than for organisational and administrative tasks?

JCX BXC

Has your opinion on this sort of migration changed since you went to Greece as a volunteer?

I'm a refugee camp volunteer, AMA

gramar wrote: »

Surely among the 1000 people queueing there were some able-bodied enough to do the same tasks as you as well as the maintenance jobs that needed doing so that volunteers wouldn't be needed other than for organisational and administrative tasks?

Of course. Some of them were in a healthier state than myself. :pac:

We did ask for some volunteers to help us out. Generally around 10 people get involved in a day of tasks around the camp. It would be like their activity of the day to pass time. At the end of the day, we give them skip meal queue passes, chocolate bars, or extra meal portions for the next meal. They were very appreciative. However, most of them actually declined. The message that I got from them through a translator said that it's an honour for them to help out as it's their 'house', too.

I found it a little bit weird though, that, when we asked for lady volunteers to deal with the women's toilet duties, only two ladies volunteered. That was after asking around 300-400 women. And the two ladies who volunteered were mother and daughter, who also declined the incentives.

The government paid workers were the ones 'in charge' of the camp. Including the organisational and administrative tasks.

I'm a refugee camp volunteer, AMA

JCX BXC wrote: »

Has your opinion on this sort of migration changed since you went to Greece as a volunteer?

My opinion towards all this situation has never changed. It was always based on my belief that:

Given decent quality of life, decent opportunities, or maybe even just enough opportunities to survive, no one would ever want to leave 'home'. Home is home. Even my definition of a 'refugee' is based on my belief. A refugee, for me, may not necessarily be from a country involved in a war, but they may be involved in an economic war/struggle which still involves the lack of opportunities for themselves or their families to survive where they are.

Most of the refugees that I came across left home. Most of them had to leave family members because they could not afford the travel costs to move the whole family. Would anyone actually choose that situation for themselves? Being away from family? I would find it very hard to believe so.

Of course these are all my own personal opinions, so I'm not imposing these beliefs to anyone

miamee

What was the camp like, where did people sleep, etc.? Were they in tents or temporary buildings or pre-existing buildings re-purposed for refugees?
How difficult is it to organise that amount of people for meals?

Were the refugees there biding their time to hear about a border opening (something you mentioned above) or did they have definite plans to move onwards or was there any kind of advice or information being given to them about what they could realistically or legally do next like claim asylum or move to another country or whatever? I'd imagine a lot of them were in a kind of limbo trying to make a plan for 'whats next'.

I'm a refugee camp volunteer, AMA

miamee wrote: »

What was the camp like, where did people sleep, etc.? Were they in tents or temporary buildings or pre-existing buildings re-purposed for refugees?
How difficult is it to organise that amount of people for meals?

Were the refugees there biding their time to hear about a border opening (something you mentioned above) or did they have definite plans to move onwards or was there any kind of advice or information being given to them about what they could realistically or legally do next like claim asylum or move to another country or whatever? I'd imagine a lot of them were in a kind of limbo trying to make a plan for 'whats next'.

The camp was the Olympic football stadium building. Abandoned after the 2004 Olympics. There were 4 big rooms that we were able to utilise. Two rooms occupied by families and women upstairs. Army supplied camping style foldable beds were in these rooms. Single men was the majority of the camp. They occupied the two rooms downstairs and there was also two massive tents outside the building itself for the overflow of single men. They were using sleeping bags on the floor. Sleeping bags were their own, I'm guessing given to them from the islands where they went through. Most of the people in our camps went straight into our camp from the islands. One family came straight to the camp traveling all the way from Turkey. Their journey was around 36 hours. The family was a mom, and 4 kids. Absolutely gruelling thought. (Getting sidetracked a bit, sorry). The rooms accommodated around 60-70, absolutely cramped in.

Regarding meals, the absolute hardest was communicating to them on how the process was gonna go. It was families and women first, then single men, initiated by some of them that had disabilities such having to use crutches for broken whatever-it-may-be.

The main issue is that most of them didn't speak English. There were a lot of languages involved, too, not just one foreign one. Farsi, Arabic, Urdu, Pashto, Dari, Persian, and possibly a few more that I can't remember. We had around 5 translators who were non-volunteers. Some of them, as mentioned earlier regarding some locals, just wanted the day to be over. So there were times that we couldn't even find them on the grounds. But when we do get them together, the steps were to let translators know the procedure is, then go into each room/tent, have 5 translators speak one at a time, sometimes one of them twice for two different languages.

There was also a rule that if they didn't have their food ticket, they couldn't get their meal. This is to stop people queuing twice for two portions of meals. We were pretty strict about it.

After all the translations of procedures, we go into families rooms first, call them down to the back to queue up, then call everyone else to queue up. The families could just nominate one person to collect the family's food. As most are Muslims, this was the preferred options so that the women don't mix much with the men.

All these probably finish within around an hour. Next task then for us would be cleaning up.

These were the outdoor tents. They had massive heater blowers plugged into them which were quite loud so it could've been hard to sleep in these tents. At least they were warm during the nights.


Here's a pic of the main building with the two big white tents in front of it. Yes, we had to walk this distance from the guarded gate. Everything was fenced so you can't walk direct into it either.


Here's their prepared meal. One of our tasks was to stack them like this from pallets so that when the shutter is open, the servers outside can just keep taking and giving to the people at the queue.


A picture of the building from the other side. It's quite eerie at night.

galwaybabe

I have also spent a lot of time volunteering in Greece and just wanted to show you guys what the picture is like on the island of Chios where thousands of people are stranded in horrendous conditions. It is very hard to believe one is in Europe when you see scenes like this


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gramar

Where do refugees go after leaving the camp?

Could you estimate how many will find the better life they left their family and country for?

galwaybabe

gramar wrote: »

Where do refugees go after leaving the camp?

Could you estimate how many will find the better life they left their family and country for?

It depends on what status they are awarded. Some are sent back to Turkey and the rest of them are generally stuck in Greece because all the borders are now closed and the option of resettlement only applies to people who arrived before 20th March 2016. They can be on the camps for over a year and then have to fend for themselves and end up in overcrowded accommodation on the mainland. There is very little support.

I think for most of them, anything is better than getting barrel bombs and chemical weapons dropped on their heads or being tortured or killed by ISIS, the Taliban or other unsavoury characters in their home countries. Nearly everyone I met would go home at the drop of a hat if it was safe to do so.

I'm a refugee camp volunteer, AMA

galwaybabe wrote: »

I have also spent a lot of time volunteering in Greece and just wanted to show you guys what the picture is like on the island of Chios where thousands of people are stranded in horrendous conditions. It is very hard to believe one is in Europe when you see scenes like this

Thanks! Great photos to show the reality of the situation.

I was actually meant to be sent there as well, however, there was much more need for manpower in Athens at the time as camps were reopening.

gramar wrote: »

Where do refugees go after leaving the camp?

Could you estimate how many will find the better life they left their family and country for?

As I've mentioned, I'd say 90% of the refugees at the camp were all about the Macedonian border. None of them left without a slight hint of the border opening. They got on buses that go from the port all the way to the border. Some of the refugees made it through, most don't at the time that I was there. Those that don't, either go back to Athens to go back into the camps, or stay at the border where they wait for it to open.

Success rate of getting a better life? I'd like to believe that probably 98% of refugees are genuine refugees who are willing/eager to work for what they need. They will absolutely sweat through the pains as long as they get what they need for themselves and for their families. I really could not be sure how many of them will be successful, but hopefully, they get blessed enough to get the slightest opportunity that I know, true to my heart, they will definitely do their best on.

galwaybabe

Can I add that if any of you would be interested in volunteering in Greece, in particular on the islands, give me a shout by pm

Nokia6230i

About the sleeping issues; how regulated are things?

Like you're saying, I think, about 1k population (transient by nature).

Is the camp a bit like our DP Centres (Gulags I call them) and Prisons/Jails?

I.e. You eat your 3 meals at a certain time whether hungry or not and it's lights out and noise down from say 10pm til 8am?

Also with that amount of people on site what's the sanitary situation like?

I can't imagine there's not a day goes by without toilets backing up for example so Dyno Rods Greek cousin'd need to be on call 24/7.

I'm a refugee camp volunteer, AMA

Nokia6230i wrote: »

About the sleeping issues; how regulated are things?

Like you're saying, I think, about 1k population (transient by nature).

Is the camp a bit like our DP Centres (Gulags I call them) and Prisons/Jails?

I.e. You eat your 3 meals at a certain time whether hungry or not and it's lights out and noise down from say 10pm til 8am?

Also with that amount of people on site what's the sanitary situation like?

I can't imagine there's not a day goes by without toilets backing up for example so Dyno Rods Greek cousin'd need to be on call 24/7.

Apologies for the massive delay in replying.

The meals were on offer for the three times during the day. This is mainly due to the fact that there wasn't enough people to just stay in the kitchen and wait for people to get hungry. Most times, when people do say that they are hungry, we try our best to accommodate and give chocolate croissants or similar type if snacks.

Lights out isn't really enforced, but at the rooms with family, it was almost like they all talked and agreed to a time because it was usually quiet before volunteers leave at around 11pm-12am.

Toilets in the rooms were quite bad. This was usually due to the 'women's items' that were flushed into the toilet. As I've mentioned previously, I got the impression off the women in the camp that they simply didn't care about anything. Not entirely sure why that is. Although, there are other toilets in the camp anyway. As it was a football stadium in the past, there are also showers that footballers would've used before.

When we had an 'event' in the toilets, it took a while for the plumbers to arrive. Around 3 or 4 days. Not sure if this was due to queue of their jobs, or an administrative failure from the camp committees.

galwaybabe

This is an update from Chios island that was emailed to me a few days ago :-

Now that the refugee crisis in Greece has gone off the news, the situation in Chios has gotten markedly worse for refugees. While media attention has been drawn to other stories, high level political decisions have made the living conditions on the ground for refugees even more inhumane.

Boats are still coming as frequently as they have come since March of last year. They are totally weather dependent, and when the weather is good there is usually one or two boats a night, with an average of about 60 people per boat. The life jackets are stil totally unsea worthy, and people arrive trumatised, wet and hungry but hopeful. The most recent boat, Saturday 5am, had 25 men 15 women & 22 kids- Syria Iraq Iran. Other boats include people from Afghanistan, many African countries, and some from Yemen, Palestine & Kuwait. There are more children coming these days per boat than last year.


While there used to be two camps in Chios, accommodating up to 1,000 persons in each, now over 2,000 refugees are crammed into a camp designed for 800. We watched last year as it took authorities two months of winter weather to get around to providing electricity for heating tents in Souda camp. Now the process is repeating with hundreds of people in tents outside of Vial—and some people not even accommodated in tents at all, but sleeping outside in makeshift tents made of blankets—including pregnant women and babies!! And in the past three weeks there have been two major storms where rain bucketed down and flattened all but the most sturdy tents. We will only mention the food to say that the bulk of it is provided by the army and visiting doctors have warned about problems of malnutrition, especially for children.

Clothes are not provided at all at all by authorities. Precious few diapers, toiletries and other non-food items are provided. While the UNHCR has begun a cash card system where single persons receive E90/month, and families receive less per person, they consider this amount to be enough to cover all the needs of a person from clothes, medicine, toiletries, transportation (taxi to and from the camp to shops or the hospital costs E20) and all other incidental costs. It clearly cannot cover even the most basic provisions. The UN has cut back on the bus service they used to provide to Vial residents to get to Chios city, and on Dec 31 it will cease altogether. At this point people will be stuck in the inhumane conditions of camp with no way to even get to town to avail of the few volunteer and NGO run services remaining.

These services have also diminished as at least three centres have closed in the past two months. We are pleased to report that the Chios Eastern Shore Response Team (CESRT)--which has been supported for two years now by volunteers, as well as cash and clothing donations—has not closed its Language Centre. Nor has it closed the Parents and Toddlers Centre where families can come for a hot shower for their children, a monthly supply of clothes and toiletries, and a clean friendly place to play with their children. In the first three weeks that we kept records (Oct-Nov) we provided 303 families with 741 sets of clothes, 202 sets of monthly toiletries, 267 hot showers and 122 jackets for mothers. On average we serve 45 children per day and give out 25 packs of diapers per day. We simply cannot provide for the basic needs that institutions like the UNHCR and European Commission are set up and funded to do. We can only provide a slight relief from the suffering allowed by these institutions.

The apparent logic of these authorities is that if they abuse the human rights of refugees, then the refugees will stop coming. But still the boats still arrive, because the war and repression that they flee is far greater than we understand. And they come to Europe with hope—hope that our civilisation, which has enshrined the doctrine of human rights, will allow them to pursue a peaceful, productive and humane life for their families, their children. While our governments continue to betray these principles in the name of fear and the short term gain of populist politics, the response on the ground from people and grassroots teams like Road To Hope and CESRT, is to meet these refugees as fellow human beings with the full knowledge that they are us on the other side of a journey taken by all our families in other times, fleeing situations so bad that they had to leave. We meet them in very bad conditions, but slightly better than what they have left. We meet them as fellow human beings with dignity, intelligence, and fellow feeling. We lend a small hand that means a lot, we think, because we are fellow humans and we recognise what we ourselves hope for.

galwaybabe

I'm a refugee camp volunteer, AMA wrote: »

As I've mentioned previously, I got the impression off the women in the camp that they simply didn't care about anything. Not entirely sure why that is.

Women in camps are going through living hell. The camps are unsafe, there are no shower facilities, the toilets are dangerous - I could go on and on but suffice to say that life for women on camps is multiple times worse than it is for men. They lose all hope and become very very depressed, as do the men

Boards.ie: Niamh

It's time to close this one up now, thanks for all of the questions and to our vounteer for answering them. We'll have another one up shortly.