Improvements in camp conditions camouflage abject failure of response to migrants

In March, the UN's special representative on migration and development, Peter Sutherland, said Europe's response to the migrant need had been completely inadequate. Addressing a meeting of 80 nations he said the crisis was "essentially a moral issue and there is not enough moral leadership, politically, to deal with the crisis we now face".

At that time, when I last visited Athens, about 7,000 migrants lived in tents in Piraeus, Europe's largest passenger port. Now that number has been reduced to about 2,000 but whether or not this represents progress is questionable. Athens still has about the same number of migrant visitors.

Now they're dispersed to camps around the Greek capital. The new camps are better. The migrants live in reconditioned containers with bunk beds, hot running water and electricity. Critically, given the intense heat, most have air conditioning. The camps are not of consistent quality but the largest, Skaramanga, in the city's old port, has hundreds of new units, a reasonably equipped school and a Red Cross medical centre. About 3,000 of those who lived in tents in Piraeus are there and they appreciate the improvement. It may, though, not be as positive as it appears. It suggests, if not permanency, a longer stay than the migrants had counted upon and which they believe Europe had promised. Their movement is being controlled and, unlike the situation in Piraeus, the camps are enclosed with fencing, barbed wire and a significant if "light touch" police presence.

Organised

The migrant community in Skaramanga is organised. It has made demands that are being met by the Greek authorities and the volunteers who continue to commit time and energy to the cause. It has a school with more than 600 pupils. While attendance levels can be poor, its importance cannot be overstated as more than half the camp’s population is younger than 18. Mustafa, whose column has appeared in this newspaper, and his friend Ahmed were among those who promoted the need for its establishment. Without the Hope School, the days would offer little for the young.

Ahmed is 26 and was doing a master's at the University of Aleppo when he had to flee. He has committed himself to providing an outlet for the young in the camp. "In my family, education is everything – my brothers are doctors in Syria and I've a cousin who teaches in Dublin. I feel a duty to put my energy into working with the young here. There are many of us who see that need because we know that, without some direction, without lessons and structure around their day, the children here could be lost. Most are already in Greece for months already and with only a trickle of families being relocated it's inevitable that the majority will be here for some time yet. Lost time in a young person's formative years isn't easily recovered."

The night before I arrived there had been a fight in the camp. Five people were hospitalised. Those I know well and trust express concern about increasing tensions and claim evidence of politicisation and of attempted radicalisation. In his diary, Mustafa had talked of having confronted a group of Salafists. A number of Syrians claimed these groups were in the camps and say recent fighting in Skaramanga had been sparked by one such group providing members of the Yazidi community with copies of the Koran, knowing they would be dumped and this would provoke a reaction. It’s an account Mustafa and Ahmed consider credible. This is, at once, Europe’s nightmare scenario and the migrants’ ultimate leverage for the EU to act. Each knows the longer the camps are there the greater the risk that their occupants become restless and prone to be led towards a life that would be mutually destructive.

So no modest improvement in conditions should camouflage the abject failure of our response to the migrant need. There’s a dearth of leadership in a continent with an ageing population that needs migrants to meet its anticipated economic growth of the next 50 years.

Struggling

Ireland, which should understand the migrant cause, is

either struggling with the failure of the overall process or lacking public pressure to act and does not have the political will to meet its commitments. The former appears to provide our Government with cover for the latter.

Sara lectured in the University of Homs and is in a smaller camp in Athens. “I’m an educated woman. Is this it for me? We appear to be a nuisance. What would people have expected me to do? My husband’s life was threatened, my boys are teenagers. Our neighbourhood’s destroyed. Europe promised to help. Living like this for a period would be alright but not if we’re to be abandoned for months on end. We are forgotten and unwanted. My boys have nothing to do. It might have been better to risk death at home.”

Those worries are representative. The system meant to manage the situation is broken. At the front line, people who lived lives as normal as most Europeans are caught in a situation not of their making. Peter Sutherland is correct: this is a moral issue and requires political backbone. And that appears in short supply in Europe. Fintan Drury is chief executive of Platinum One, a sports management business. He is a former RTÉ journalist and public relations adviser