Idomeni Diary: Day 4

Day 4 at Idomeni

I joined a group of volunteer medics organised by Offtrack Health, a grassroots clinic set up by medics who wanted to quickly deploy to crisis areas. It's run from Britain, but has become an organising pole for all the volunteer medics and healthcare professionals coming to the camp.

New people come and go all the time, at present its a couple of British docs, German paramedics from Leipzeig who had been working in a refugee camp there, Swedish paramedics from Skane, an American medical relief group, a Norwegian medical relief group, and various administrative volunteers and translators.

They've rented a house in Polikastro which they are housing volunteers in, and the basement serves as a warehouse for medicines and equipment. We collected supplies from there then, and picked up one of the volunteer translators, Sherin, and drove up to Idomeni. Sherin is a Palestinian, from a town near Haifa, who came to Greece several months back to help translate for the volunteer relief efforts.

When we arrived the police would only allow one vehicle into the camp so we had to put all the equipment in one van and take that inside.

Idomeni Diary: Day 3

Day 3 at Idomeni - March 18th

Tried to do the food distribution in the morning, but we were delayed outside the camp; a government minister was visiting and no one else was allowed in until they left, also cleaning firms were going around with trucks emptying the portaloos and bins and we were held up for an hour and a half. We scouted around for other distribution points outside the camp, including around the old train station where lots of people camped, but none were suitable.

Eventually we were allowed in and set up on the far side of the camp. Few groups distribute on this side, so the need is greater. Due to the fact we were delayed by the time we started distributing most people had gone to get food elsewhere, or brought it from some of the private businesses which set up just outside the camp. We distributed 1000 meal packs then decided to go elsewhere as the queue was petering out.

Idomeni DIary: Day 2

Day two at Idomeni - March 17th

Today was slightly better than yesterday. There hasn't been any rain for two days so the camp has started to dry out. I assisted one of the coordinators with a tent check last night; they do this every night and it involves walking around the whole camp looking for individuals or families in obvious distress who needed a tent for shelter. The coordinator said the last few days had been horrendous with the constant rain and the border closure, thankfully with the end of the rainfall, and the fact hundreds had abandoned the camp, we didn't find anyone whose situation was too bad. A man needed a tent as he was sleeping outside due to lack of space in his tent (his wife and four kids were all in there) and another family were squatting in an old railway building and needed a tent for added protection against the cold, but that was it. We also dropped off a tent for a newly wed couple who were travelling with their extended family. They had married one week before they left Turkey, thinking it would be a short journey to Germany with their family. Six weeks later and still stuck in Greece they were desperate for their own tent for some privacy. We also put up a UNHCR tent to provide some better quality housing for the most vulnerable families. There are dozens of pregnant women in the camp, several of them 8 months pregnant and staying in appalling conditions. The volunteer coordinators try and identify vulnerable families and individuals to the NGOs like MSF who can then transfer them to the better quality tents. To give some idea of how bad things had been previously, the depth of need, and lack of resources; just to qualify for an extra tent a family or group had to have at least three or four children under two years old. Volunteers had to establish this fact before they would be given a tent to give to the family. Thankfully as things improve resources are less stringently managed, but it's still a horrible job having to ration resources only for the worst affected, when everyone is so obviously suffering. One coordinator put it that "we came here because of our hearts, but when here we have to think with our heads, and stop using our hearts".

Idomeni Diary: Day 1

From the 16th to the 21st March I visited Idomeni refugee camp in Greece to assist with the volunteer relief efforts. The following posts contain pictures of the camp and an account of my time there.

Hotel Polikastro, the unofficial volunteer center 

Warehouse for storing items for distribution at the camps

UNHCR tents, fresh shelters for vulnerable refugees