Kos, Bodrum, Desperate Refugees and a Dying Child
By Andre Vltchek
July 31, 2015 "Information
Clearing House"
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Para gliders are flying over the stunning
emerald sea. Summer hordes are descending on a Greek island of Kos
from all corners of increasingly aggressive European Union. On the
faces of visitors, there seems to be no regret, no shame, that
Europe just raped and humiliated Greece, forcing its government to
cancel democracy, instead succumbing to dictate of the mighty
Germany and other dictatorial powers.
Tourists are busy frying themselves, stuffing
their stomachs with seafood and boozing up in countless cafes, bars
and restaurants of the old city. Hotels and eateries are packed. It
is yet another hot and sunny day. Crisis? What crises? Yes, it is
somewhere… there, maybe in Athens, or maybe just outside the city
center.
A few minutes away, in a local hospital, which is
part of Greek collapsing national healthcare system; an Iraqi child
is suffering, perhaps dying, from cancer. He is only 3 years old.
His mother most likely passed away trying to reach Kos.
“We found him in a park”, explains Hara, a
receptionist from Triton Hotel. “He looked terribly sick. We took
him to the hospital, but there, nobody wanted to do anything. We had
to scream and demand that this poor child would be attended. They
put several IV tubes into his tiny body, and then… nothing else. We
called Medicine Sans Frontiers in Athens, but they said they
couldn’t deal with such a complicated case. We have no idea what to
do. If action is not taken immediately, he will most likely die.”
In Kos, refugees are literally everywhere, but
most of them are forced to sleep in the parks, or hide behind the
bushes. There is no “official” camp here. Immigrants have been
coming from Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and several other
countries that got destabilized by the Western interventions,
sanctions and foreign policy.
At a provisory refugee center, based at a former
hotel “Captain Elias”, several hundreds of mostly South Asians are
now living in appalling conditions, with no drinking water and only
on one meal a day. Here only 3 social workers come to help, for a
few hours a day. Only one doctor pays regular visits to the facility
where people suffer from countless serious diseases, as well as from
exhaustion and constant stress.
“This is not a living”, I am told in one of big
tents inhabited by several Pakistani men. “We don’t know how long it
will take to get registered. I am already waiting for 15 days and it
may take much longer. People here are desperate. There is hardly any
help. We feel that we are on our own.”
Camps across the water, in Turkey, are much better
and much more humane. They count with decent sanitation, food and
water, even sports and recreational facilities. But these are just
temporary refugee camps, for those fleeing regional conflicts, not
some “waiting rooms” for entering the European Union. For those who
want to go West, Turkish refugee facilities are basically useless.
Tension in Kos is high. One taxi driver began
insulting me, right after learning that I am heading for Captain
Elias provisory refugee center. He obviously hated the idea that I
will be exposing plight of the refugees. “Are you a journalist? You
journalists already destroyed local economy!” Journalists? I wonder
aloud. Not Germans, not the European Union? As far as he, and some
others, is concerned, Kos Island should be only promoted, as a
paradisiacal tourist destination; it should not be defined as yet
another part of the country that is now heading for almost
inevitable collapse.
Some Greeks show solidarity, by bring food to the
refugees, but others treat them badly, and even stubbornly denying
that there are already hundreds, perhaps thousands of them on the
island. In fact, around 7.000 refugees crossed the sea and landed in
Kos in the first 5 months of 2015. More than 2.000 died or are
missing at sea, trying to cross Mediterranean to Southern Europe, in
the same period of 2015.
Stories told by the refugees are inconsistent, and
each testimony different. Refugees are scared or desperate or both.
Some say that police is harassing them but that local people are
“not bad”, while others blame local people but insisting that police
is “OK”, mainly because “it does nothing”.
Lena, a young Russian lady from the Altai
Mountains who already lives in Greece for more than eleven years, is
working in a small inn located just down the road from the Captain
Elias facility. She says that refugees who come to Kos are
desperate, but decent human beings:
“There is no increase in crime rates since they
arrived. We are not scared of them, but the entire situation is out
of control.”
“Refugees are being smuggled by gangs, or they
come on board tiny inflatable boats. When they are crossing from
Turkey to Greece, they carry small knifes. If intercepted by
coastguard of police, they destroy their boats and jump to the
water. Greek authorities then have to rescue them and to take them
to the island.” Lena has a boyfriend who is a policeman; she is well
informed.
***
Bodrum, Turkish luxury resort and a historic city,
shows no signs of economic hardship. It is well-organized, beautiful
and confident city.
Just half an hour from Kos on board a Turkish
high-speed catamaran (or one hour sail using slow Greek ferry),
Bodrum is elegant, even hedonistic.
Bodrum does not have any refugee camps either, but
many immigrants use it as a departure point for the European Union,
namely Greece.
Turkey is flooded with refugees, who are coming
from all over the Middle East, destabilized or out rightly destroyed
by the West. Many immigrants are travelling all the way from
Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and numerous other places.
Officially, from Syria alone, there are almost 2 million refugees on
the Turkish territory. Refugee camps are located in the Southeast of
the country (near Hatay), in Ankara and other areas, but not in and
around the tourist centers like Bodrum.
At Bodrum central bus station, on the second
floor, several Syrian, Bangladeshi, Afghani, Pakistani and other
immigrants now inhabit almost entire market area. These are those
who had chosen to go either to Greece/EU or to Turkey’s largest city
– Istanbul. Turkish police is closing its eyes, or it simply does
not know what to do.
“Here in Turkey we can easily register and get
help”, explains an Afghani man in his early 30’s. “But then we would
have to go to one of the official camps, and stay in Turkey.”
Alternatives are horrific: unsafe, mostly
nocturnal travel over the sea to Greece, to one of the 15 islands
that are near the Turkish coast.
I am told that the going rate per person/crossing
is around 2.000 euro, and if one wants to travel all the way from
Pakistan to Germany, the price could easily go as high as 5.000 to
6.000 euros. Some economic refugees get backing from their clans and
villages back home, but for genuine refugees escaping war in places
like Syria, such prices are simply astronomical.
I am then told a story: several Afghani and
Pakistani refugees tried, recently, to cross from Bodrum to Kos.
Their flimsy boat was intercepted by Greek armed vessel. I was told
that the boat belonged to coastguard and that the refugees were
pulled on board and attacked, severely beaten.
“They beat us up, hit our faces, and kicked us all
over. Then they demanded 100 euro from each person. “
A man had exposed ugly bruises on his arms, legs
and back.
I have no way of confirming the story. Was it
really Greek authority or some maritime mafia that attacked the
refugees? It is a testimony of several people who tried to cross,
but did not make it.
I know that they will try again, soon.
Is it worth it?
“Many of us prefer to stay in Turkey,” I am told.
“They treat us much better here.”
But others are not giving up. To some, Europe
means money. To others it means safety and future. They are trying;
they are getting caught, trying again. Reception they get in Europe,
not just in Greece, is horrific. But they are still ready to go.
Back there, where they come from, there are burned villages and
nightmares, wars, conflicts, destitute.
Whole countries, entire regions, are destroyed,
ravished, by the West. Syria is at war provoked by Washington,
London and now fed by Ankara and other NATO and regional allies of
the West. ISIS armed and supported by the West are on insane
rampage. Pakistan and Bangladesh are economically and socially
ruined. Afghanistan and Iraq destroyed by direct attacks and
occupations of both the United States and members of the European
Union.
Most of inhabitants of Kos do not seem to
understand the concept. Or they don’t want to. They see their own
hardship, that of Greece. There is very little space left for
suffering of others.
Flying from Kos to Athens, a Greek traveller had
been reading my piece from his back raw seat, shamelessly. After
landing, he began protesting:
“Bodrum is a Greek city, not Turkish!”
Then he went further:
“You write about the refugee crises? So why don’t
you give us some solution?”
“Because I still did not finish my piece”, I tried
to be patient.
“So what is the solution?” He insists. It all
feels rough and confrontational.
“The United States and European Union should stop
murdering people all over the Middle East and elsewhere. Then the
refugees would have no reason to come!”
He does not understand the concept. He does not
know what am I talking about:
“But as it is, Europe has no more space for the
refugees!” he protests.
“Other countries do not have patience tolerating
Western invasions”, I reply. “Refugees are coming only because their
nations were ruined by the US and Europe! Before that, Syria, Libya
and Iraq were rich countries. They were absorbing migrant workers
from the entire region.”
Greece, itself battered, damaged, humiliated and
destroyed by the European Union, does not seem to be able to
translate its own experience to some global context.
Few hours earlier, a lady receptionist in one of
the hotels in Kos suggested, “several leaders in the Middle East
should get assassinated by Europe or the US.” That was her idea how
to end the refugee crises.
***
On June 15, 2015, the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR
produced Briefing Notes:
UNHCR is stepping up its field presence in the
eastern Aegean islands of Greece where in recent weeks sea arrivals
from Turkey have been averaging some 600 people a day, straining
limited (and in some cases non-existent) local reception capacities.
In the first five months of 2015, over 42,000
people arrived by sea to Greece, most of them refugees. This is six
times the level of the same period last year (6,500) and almost the
same as the total for all of 2014 (43,500).
More than 90 per cent of the people arriving are
from refugee-producing countries, principally Syria (over 60 per
cent of arrivals this year), Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Eritrea.
All countries mentioned in this briefing are
either totally destroyed or economically and socially damaged (often
through crippling sanctions) by the West.
It takes great discipline not to see who is
responsible for this crisis.
Greek people were, for years and decades,
bombarded by mass media propaganda. Like most of their counterparts
in Western Europe, they are now conditioned to blame victims, not
the real perpetrators.
Even in the neighboring Turkey, there are loud and
clear voices declaring: “We wanted to be ‘big boys’ of the Middle
East, we helped to damage our neighbors, then it is now our
responsibility to feed those who were forced to leave”. Editorials
like this are allover Turkish newspapers.
Most of Greeks that I encountered do not see such
connection: NATO – EU – and destruction of countless countries that
is triggering the refugee crises.
They should see. Greece is still both NATO and the
EU member. What was done to Greece, very recently, only shows that
it is both a victim and a victimizer.
As a victimizer it has to take full responsibility
for those whose lives were damaged by the “organizations” of which
it is a full member.
As a victim, it should raise and fight against
those who insulted and harmed it (and many others) – the EU, the
NATO, the IMF – instead of throwing its wrath and spite against some
poor, defenseless people who had lost their country, their home;
everything except the bare lives!
***
Great cultures are not only based on their past.
Great cultures have to be great now, and to be built on true
internationalism, on humanism, on solidarity, generosity and
compassion.
This little Iraqi boy, fighting for his life in
the hospital in Kos, should be a rallying cry for the Greek
humanists.
He should be helped by all means, instead of being
abandoned to his terrible fate. But until now he is receiving very
little help! He should be assisted especially now, when the Greece
itself is in distress. Solidarity is the most precious during the
most difficult times!
Wake up, people! The boy is not just some “Iraqi
refugee”: he is a fellow human being. He is just 3 years old boy,
damn it, and he is suffering from terrible pain, and soon he may
die.
Battle for his life would be the real battle for
great Greece; a country that could show how big is her heart,
elevating herself well above that morally declining West!
As a child lies in agony, thousands of tourists
nearby are downing expensive food and drinks. While Greek social net
and medical system is basically collapsing. Something is breaking
right in front of my eyes, breaking irreversibly. What is left of
“Western culture” is smashed to pieces. Europe, how dare you, shame
on you!
Remember, this “Iraqi” boy in the hospital, he is
your child too, Greece. But if you don’t act, he will turn to your
specter!
Greek patrol boat returning to Kos.
Refugees transiting in Bodrum.
These lucky few Syrians just given papers to
go to Athens.
After great pressure, bureaucracy gave way to
humanism. Little Mohammed was cleared to get officially
admitted to Greece and he is flown from Kos to Athens to
receive medical treatment.
They say he was beaten by Greek coast guard.