New York.- The UN Refugee Agency and Amnesty International condemned the serious violence that broke out in the municipality-run refugee camp at Souda, when tents were burned and two activists beaten by suspected extreme-right supporters. A Syrian refugee at the camp was seriously injured on Friday, when a stone thrown down from the walls surrounding the camp hit him on the head.
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, expresses its serious concern over the recent incidents against refugees and migrants at the municipality-run Souda site on the island of Chios. Following an attack against the residents of Souda with Molotov cocktails and heavy stones on Thursday night and other violent incidents earlier this week, several tents burned and serious damages were caused to the shelter of many men, women and children escaping from war-torn countries.
In total, some 100 people lost their places to sleep, mainly families. They told the UNHCR team that they are scared to return and sleep in the site. “I strongly condemn any acts of violence, resulting both in the local population and the refugees being seriously hurt”, said Philippe Leclerc, UNHCR’s Representative in Greece. “All perpetrators of such acts should be found and brought to justice”.
UNHCR calls on the authorities to prevent any future acts of violence by reinforcing security in and around the site. Efforts to find alternative accommodation to enable the closure of Souda should also be increased. Currently, UNHCR is already providing places to sleep in hotels and apartments for over 300 highly vulnerable men, women and children, whose asylum procedures are ongoing. UNHCR continues to assist the authorities to transfer asylum-seekers with asylum cards to the Greek mainland. Since the end of September, UNHCR helped identify, inform and transport almost 400 people from Chios to the mainland, in close collaboration with the authorities.
To protect the nearly 100 refugees and migrants who have lost their shelter in Souda in the last two days, UNHCR has started setting up UNHCR family tents with flooring. Through UNHCR partners, the victims of the attacks have also received medical and psychosocial support, as well as blankets, sleeping bags, sleeping mats and hygiene kits.
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Gauri van Gulik, Amnesty International’s Deputy Europe Director, said:
“These shocking attacks against refugees cannot be permitted to continue with impunity. For the last two nights, suspected right-wing extremists have thrown petrol bombs, stones and rocks down on the camp from castle walls, causing injuries and panic. At least one refugee was injured by a stone just this afternoon.”
“Police and judicial authorities must not only take urgent measures to investigate these hate crimes and bring the perpetrators to justice but as a third night approaches, they must act to ensure the safety of the refugees on the island.”
For the last two nights, suspected right-wing extremists have thrown petrol bombs, stones and rocks down on the camp from castle walls, causing injuries and panic. At a meeting on Chios 13 November, Parliamentarians from the far-right Golden Dawn party called for deportations.
As of Friday morning, no one attacking the camp, which is in a downtown area close to Chios port, has been arrested. An eyewitness told Amnesty International: “I do not know what will happen tonight. If another attack happens and the police is not present. We are very scared.”
BALAFAS
Deputy Migration Policy Minister Ioannis Balafas said the government wants to close the camp in Souda on the island of Chios and transfer refugees and migrants in a new camp outside the town.
“We do not want to create new camps, but replace the accommodation center in Souda which has these negative characteristics with a much better one, in an area outside the town, in the area of the former landfill where the UNHCR has secured the money and the environmental study to create much better conditions, and services can do a much better work,” the minister said during a visit on the island and the burned camp at Souda.
“Soon we will be able to transfer people there and close Souda,” he told journalists, adding that the State will not tolerate violence against refugees.
