Europe is all of us, anonymous citizens
The measures to contain the virus are: washing hands, not sharing hygiene or food materials and social distancing. Little question: How can these measures be implemented in places where there is a drinking water point for around a thousand people, where sanitary and hygiene conditions are practically non-existent?
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As in all situations of deep crisis, whether wars or natural phenomena, the first victims are always the most vulnerable.
Those who already lived in precarious conditions, those who did not “exist” in statistics, those who were on the margins of social systems, those who did not have identification, those who made the street their home, the elderly and abandoned, children without family, people with disabilities and so on.
Last week, we were faced with the situation of asylum seekers and some refugees, living in hostels without conditions that would provide social distancing, essential in this pandemic time in which we live. Apparently, the matter was cut short in time, but it left some questions that must be analyzed clearly and without weaknesses.
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It is known that matters that depend on more than one structure or organization rarely work. Perhaps it is time to put into practice one of the government's proposals on this matter.
But, if this situation occurred in a country where reception, whether for migrants or refugees, has (so far) been a positive reference, imagine what will happen in the large refugee camps in Greece!
When we talk about European solidarity and when we hear some statements that are, to say the least, regrettable, made by leaders from Northern Europe, we cannot forget that it is the countries of the South, especially Greece and Italy, that hold the external borders of the Union and that, faced with the flow of migration resulting from the disintegration of States such as Libya and Syria, have been left somewhat to their own devices.
To this state of affairs, there is also the profound economic crisis that has devastated everyone, but which was naturally felt in countries with more fragile economies. Once again, Greece is part of this sad package.
We cannot let these refugee camps, which the EU has not yet managed to deal with or respond to, turn, by force of circumstances, into natural extermination camps.
For these reasons, a group of citizens last week filed a petition in the European Parliament demanding that protection be guaranteed to the most vulnerable people staying in refugee camps on the Greek islands; that the rapid relocation of unaccompanied minors be carried out and that the necessary resources be guaranteed to implement an emergency plan, capable of containing the Covid-19 outbreak.
But, because there will be a “day after COVID“ and so that the framework of the New European Pact for Migration and Asylum is nothing more than a document, the same petition also demands that a search and rescue mechanism be established in the Mediterranean after the deactivation of Operation Sophia; ports for disembarking refugees are opened and identified and, finally, the most difficult, but the most urgent of all measures: that a relocation mechanism be established supported by the shared sharing of responsibility by all Member States.
If nothing is done, we will have failed as a Union.
We cannot continue to shy away from our responsibilities as European citizens. Europe is all of us, anonymous citizens who see, read, hear and, as such, cannot ignore.
By MANUELA NIZA RIBEIRO, from the International Center for Migration Policy Development. Originally published in Vision
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