Memorandum of Understanding between the EU and Greece: Civil Society Organisations condemns the plans to build closed camps on the Greek islands
Last week the Deputy Director-General in charge of the “Task Force Migration Management” in DG Migration and Home Affairs, Beate Gminder, presented the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the EU and Greece to the EU Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE).
Civil Society Organisations such, as Europe Must Act condemn that the signed MoU as well as the facilities already under construction and in planning, for example on the islands of Lesvos and Samos, do not contribute to a humane asylum and migration policy in the EU.
Jacob Warn, Field Coordinator from Europe Must Act: “As employees of NGOs who have been working on the ground in the Aegean for years, we see every day that people in these camps cannot be accommodated in a humane way. Closed camps would only aggravate the situation of refugees on the islands. It cannot be that people who have already been traumatized several times have to live in closed camps where they are traumatized once again. Our campaigns will therefore focus on showing alternative solutions with humane accommodation and distribution of people among EU member states as soon as possible.“
Europe Must Act and their city chapters across Europe are initiating a campaign #NoMoreCamps against the proposed closed structures in the Aegean Islands. They announced on Sunday that they will campaign through action days, social media, press updates, webinars and more to advocate for humane reception of asylum seekers in Europe.
In addition, they are planning a Europe-wide action day on March 18. Together with their city chapters they are campaigning for meetings with MEPs and MPs. They will also release another Aegean Grassroots report, which will build on years of experience working closely with the affected refugee and host communities to predict the realistic outcome of the new camps. Further actions will be announced throughout the year.
Read more here.
Picture by Europe Must Act: The new closed structure in Samos, Greece.