Moria: The EU's failed refugee policy | DW Documentary

it was the night of september the 8th when refugee camp moria on the greek island of lesbos went up in flames the fire was probably started by people driven by just one wish to get out the following day large parts of europe's largest refugee camp lay in ruins what was the reason for the fire the maurya is next gaston and moria hasn't just recently become a problem the conditions in the camp had been a problem for four and a half years a fire like that was foreseeable but for hezeba in many german cities citizens demanded that refugees from warrior be taken in they called upon politicians to put a stop to the humanitarian catastrophe on the greek islands the people stranded here have placed all their faith in europe but does europe have an answer we cannot be content with our european migration policy we don't really have one what the eu has delivered to date is an absolute disgrace to european values absolutely september 2020 three days after flames engulfed moria thousands are huddled on the streets outside a discount supermarket we are looking for fayugu she's only 11 and has spent the last year with her parents and two siblings in the moria refugee camp like most people here she and her family fled afghanistan now after the fire they don't have a roof over their head [Music] the camps residents take to the street they want freedom they want out [Applause] the police try to contain the situation but it spirals out of control it said that stones were thrown the police respond with tear gas [Music] they fired tear gas even at the small children their eyes were full of tears two adults three children are on the street everything was on fire in front of us behind us there was no way out we haven't had anything to eat for the last two or three nights we're all hungry there's no clean water we drink dirty water at night the children cry out they're so hungry mummy give us something to eat no food no water the strategy of the greek authorities they are intentionally starving these refugees to force them into the new camp that's being set up nearly half the people here are children most are from afghanistan fewer from syria or africa [Music] like many the nausae family has suffered an exhausting journey to get here four years ago they fled from afghanistan to iran fairget could only visit illegal schools her father was deported three times then he placed all his hope on europe he's the one who brought us here now he regrets it but there's nothing we can do we've been here for over 12 months one year nothing has happened things have only grown worse i can't go back to afghanistan i was in danger there and in iran things were very bad for us afghans after the fire the villagers and warrior try to regain their stride maria marieles witnessed the fire 100 of her olive trees burned down that night to her an immense loss we lost our sleep because we are fair my opinion is that is better to close camp i think so that is will be not a present the new camp is now also in view of her restaurant fire's family is worn down they're parched and starving even though they fear they won't be let back out they venture into the new can after the fire destroyed the first camp many refugees hoped they could leave the island to continue their journey towards a better future instead a new camp is set up many feel afraid and the facilities are even worse than before clara annabunga is a german lawyer who's spent years fighting for refugees rights on the greek islands we receive reports from people on site saying there are very limited water resources and only the situation is even worse than it was in moriah but now the eu wants to turn over a new page two weeks after the fire the eu commission introduced a new pact for migration and asylum in brussels it was designed to end years of bickering among eu member states four years previously european governments had already attempted to reach an agreement on how to handle the crisis with no success countries like hungary rejected any obligation to take in refugees uva johansson is the european commissioner for home affairs as the politician responsible for the new pact she calls for a measured approach of course it's natural to be emotional because we're talking about people as human beings and many of them are in a crisis situation and of course it it's good that you have emotions towards people in a crisis but to solve the problem and to be able to find a a political solution i think that we should try not to dramatize migration i think that's really part of the problem we have seen too many drama queens in this debate actually and i think that we should be a little bit more sober and pragmatic and so the proposal is full of technicalities it calls for a maximum of five days screening at the eu outer border during which security and identity checks are to be conducted in most cases this is to be followed by a fast asylum procedure within 12 weeks member states unwilling to take in refugees are instead obligated to support the process of returning rejected asylum seekers to their country of origin no state is to be obliged to take refugees in but it remains unclear if these provisions are enough to bring the skeptics in budapest warsaw and prague into line the basic approach is still unchanged because they would like to manage the migration and not to stop the migrants that's two different kind of approach they still on that bank saying how to manage well the migration eu parliamentarian from hungary's ruling fedesh party says the proposal doesn't go far enough the real breakthrough would be if the commission had said that illegal migration must be stopped altogether and they didn't say that so let's see what the negotiations will will bring but our position together with a number of other countries have been clear i think but even those willing to take refugees in are skeptical eu parliamentarian tineka streak from the netherlands green party says the new regulations won't really change anything what is very clear is that the biggest obstacles that we face now will remain an important obstacle is the principle the rule of the current dublin regulation that the first member states where the asylum seeker enters europe is responsible for the application and for the whole procedure and this will stay in practical terms that means the countries along the mediterranean such as greece and italy will still shoulder the biggest burden and the past years have already shown that this approach doesn't work migration expert gerald knaus from the european stability initiative also has his doubts it's smart and sensible to aim for faster asylum hearings for anyone arriving at the eu's borders but if you don't look at why that hasn't worked in the greek islands in the past or ask yourself what's missing if you keep tuning that out and simply insist on faster hearings then the next attempts will fail just as much as the previous attempts have then people will once again be trapped in camps for months and conditions will stay as bad as they have been [Music] there are five such camps on the greek islands on lesbos kiosk samos leiros and koss they're all just a stone's throw from the turkish coast at the height of the crisis nearly 42 000 refugees were stuck there waiting for their hearing when the corona pandemic began in early 2020 the moria camp on lesbos was placed under quarantine twenty thousand people locked up in a camp designed for 2 800. inhabitants spoke of height and aggression fights and stabbings they weren't allowed to leave the camp when the authorities started building fences around moria the inhabitants food was in short supply as were blankets heaters electricity some had been living here for almost two years they felt that europe had forgotten them in march 2020 several eu member states offered to take in a mere 1 600 unaccompanied minors and other vulnerable individuals out of the camps one month later the first migrants traveled to luxembourg and germany to understand the idea behind camps like moria and how they even came to be built we need to look back at 2015. back then hundreds of thousands of people headed west for europe they were fleeing from the wars that had destroyed their homes in syria iraq and afghanistan the situation in refugee camps in neighbouring countries had become unbearable looking back at 2015 i think it's important to point out that that year was a complete exception to the norms the mediterranean hadn't seen anything like it for the past 50 years that's because the world's largest refugee crisis in decades had unfolded right in front of europe's gates from that perspective it's a bit unprofessional to say we're preparing ourselves for the next time a million people come our way there won't be another 1 million migrants within a year in the foreseeable future whoever claims there will be is just trying to stoke up fear and that steers the debate in the wrong direction for years germany too had opposed the distribution of refugees among eu member states citing the dublin regulation that made the country of arrival responsible for incoming refugees then in 2015 chancellor merkel decided to let hundreds of thousands into the country for humanitarian reasons the vast majority of people in germany are still willing to take in refugees and other vulnerable individuals i think that shows that a large percentage of the population does not consider this to be a disaster but even back then merkel's decision evoked mixed emotions in europe i really admired merkel by taking that initiative and making clear also to other member states we should do that we we should offer protection to refugees and it's really to blame for the other member states to shy away and leave merkel alone with her attitude many blamed brussels for not creating european consensus on how to deal with refugees but the root of the problem lies much deeper hungary took a different approach its government stated they would not tolerate the eu or fellow member states dictating terms to them and forcing them to take in refugees mass migration can change a country in a number of ways in a relatively short time it can change it socially it can change it culturally linguistically etc you cannot force upon economic migration and mass on on countries countries and people have to have the liberty to say yes or no to that question hungary respects other member states who may wish uh to live with mass migration and want to welcome uh hundreds of thousands millions of people coming in it's that's their decision but we expect that they also respect our decision in the german state of north rhine west failure thousands of refugees arrived in the fall of 2015 in the city of dortmund or the railway station at dusseldorf airport [Applause] people in dusseldorf were so eager to help at first we couldn't even engage all the people offering their help i kept telling them to please bear in mind this was a marathon not a sprint we'd most likely still need their help in a few years it was challenging for all of us but we knew we were doing the right thing other european countries also opened their doors to refugees but most some nine hundred thousand came to germany but amidst germany's open arms other voices could also be heard the loudest were right-wing groups protesting predominantly against muslim refugees since then many european politicians have feared these movements could attract more followers the foreign policy spokesperson of the cdu csu parliamentarian group is jurgen hart he knows just how sensitive the subject of refugees is in his circles yesterday someone turned to me and said we really needed to be careful with how we dealt with refugees to make sure we didn't get into the same situation as last time he was scared of being branded as right wing simply for worrying about the refugee situation he doesn't sympathize with the right wing and has no issues with foreigners or people in need he just wanted everything handled in an orderly fashion i think that's an opinion well worth being heard in order to reduce the number of migrants entering the eu several states took action bit by bit the so-called balkan route was closed making it harder to reach the eu via turkey on dry land in september 2015 hungary closed its border to serbia in march 2016 other countries including slovenia and croatia followed suit babies so-called hot spots had already been set up in italy and greece they were designed to identify and register refugees directly at the eu border where they could then proceed with their asylum hearing maurya on lesbos was one such hot spot in retrospect a lot went fundamentally wrong in 2015. the hot spots on the greek islands were supposed to act as distribution centers they were meant to enable rapid processing newcomers were to be registered quickly and distributed within eu member states but this did not happen and in march 2016 to deter more new arrivals the eu struck a deal with turkey where several million refugees were stuck in transit the main idea was that turkey was to stop these people from finding their way into the eu anyone who wrongfully entered greece from turkey would be sent back for every refugee returned this way one syrian refugee living in turkey would be allowed to enter the eu in return turkey was promised free visas for all its citizens and fresh association talks with the eu along with 6 billion euros but the deal was only successful in parts if we ask ourselves what we can learn from the eu turkey declaration then i think the answer is supporting refugees in a third country paying out 6 billion euros for syrians in turkey significantly lowered the number of syrians trying to enter the eu irregularly that part worked what didn't work has now become our main challenge although the numbers were low although one year after the deal in april 2017 only 6 000 people were waiting on the greek islands for a decision on their applications we still that was mostly a question of political will and a strategy of the greek authorities this created dire conditions in the camps an international dilemma in april 2016 the pope visited lesbos to offer comfort to those stranded on the island back then many had already been waiting for months for a decision on their asylum application today waiting periods can extend to over a year is this by design in this case there's only one explanation for why people are still stuck on the island deterrence it is illegitimate illegal and immoral to instrumentalize human beings as a means to that end [Music] we first visited moria in october 2019. the camp director rarely allowed journalists to see how the refugees were living so we filmed with a hidden camera to see for ourselves what the situation was really like [Music] we met and muhammad by chance they had just arrived three days ago and was still new to it all yesterday was very cold we didn't have any blankets at night we switched locations [Music] we spent the night by the wayside then it started to rain so we moved to the large camp where the africans stay we didn't want to come here our parents did this is where they slept the past nights right next to the entrance there's a sleeping hierarchy at the camp newcomers have to make do with mats then they can graduate to a tent with often four families in one finally they can move up to a container with 15 people together this is where they line up for food they have to wait here three times a day many go hungry new arrivals don't receive any cash for the first six months so they have no choice but to line up here these are the smelly toilets this is the state of our hygiene and if we see a doctor because we have a cold he tells my parents accompany me to the toilet but it's still dangerous their mental condition deteriorates they attempt suicide they have self-harming tendencies when we see their parents as well they have lost hope completely they have an incredible sense of guilt for having brought their children to europe they had hoped this would be a safe place that would provide education and then they have to cope with the reality of the maurya camp where none of this is available for them and they fall into a total depressive state parents and children and children across the valley lies the small village of moria some 1 000 people live here alongside their new neighbours what used to be empty streets are now lively opinions in moria are polarized few can still agree yesterday they took our cable right out of the ground they stole my animals and slaughtered them they've ruined everything i suppose we're expected to leave to make room for them i doubt there's any other way that's the problem we can't stand it here anymore should i arm myself and take to the streets they've taken everything from me these people have rights they're in pain they've lost their homes i'm on their side this isn't their fault there are others who are to blame to make it to europe many are willing to risk their lives in persian they say we're playing the game it's like the hunger games if they lose the game they lose their lives some new refugees have just arrived they played the game and made it this far in turkey we were crammed in a delivery van and they didn't fit in this time they played the game and now they're in the bush in west failure in 2015 some 6 000 refugees were taken in here airfan was just 12 when he made his way to germany from afghanistan through turkey and greece he traveled alone without any relatives he was born in iran he hasn't seen his mother in five years she too is on the run and has been trapped on lesbos for about a year with her two small daughters he looks at their pictures every day she didn't know how long it would take she thought she'd be able to continue on to germany she thought it'd take about a month maybe 5. she also witnessed the fire in moria on the 8th of september it was awful she grabbed my two sisters and ran everything else all their clothes and belongings it all burned christine naman from the aid organization arbeit's cries azul helps reunite families but it's not easy the authorities examine each case very carefully some parents deliberately send their children ahead to germany alone in the hopes of being allowed to follow in erfund's case greece has now issued a takeover request the german government the federal office for migration and refugees has rejected greece's request they argue that this is not a case of hardship separation from your family apparently does not constitute a hardship case we definitely want to challenge this decision before court and we've already requested an injunction with our local court of claims we want the court to rule that the authorities responsible for reuniting the family must do so well i want to be able to help my and if i mother i don't know what i'll do i just want to help my mother i hope her application is processed faster and that she'll be allowed to come to germany and indeed the authorities do give their consent three days after speaking with airfun we receive word that his mother and sisters have been allowed to come to germany february is freezing cold so two in moria fayega and mohammed have been in the camp for five months now i'm fine did you sleep all right it was cold last night what did you do i used several blankets otherwise it's too cold right now we shouldn't get there was a commotion at four in the morning that woke us up somebody had cut the front flap of a neighbor's tent open and was trying to get in tents being slit open muggings robberies the desperate stealing from the destitute it happens almost every night in a camp where 40 of the inhabitants are children besides security hygiene is another urgent issue this is the life the people are living instead of going to a toilet using diapers or using a plastic bottle uh instead of going to a toilet using a diapers or using a plastic bottle german doctored sensors from solingen is a voluntary aid worker he tends to fire and her family medical treatment is an exception to the rule here does the government have any doctors here not in this camp no the center for disease prevention sends doctors to give new arrivals preliminary checkups but it's basically to make sure they still have a poll but even if their bodies survived the ordeal it's nearly impossible not to succumb to the psychological strain that wears on adults and children alike the children argue a lot that means yeah so the grown-ups are frustrated and the children get into fights exactly even before the fire there were plans for a new camp out in the middle of nowhere it was to house seven to eight thousand people and to replace moria many locals wouldn't have it then i feel like yesterday our islands are not some prison for lost souls there are people who want to live their lives the refugees will destroy everything here it's going to be a long battle but i think we will win shortly after the battle over the new camp began some locals tried stopping refugees from even reaching the island of lesbos they confronted aid organizations blocked the streets to moria one unhcr camp went up in flames and amid all the chaos thousands of children including feyaga and mohammed is there anything good here no do you see anything good here the germans think it's quite nice here they spend their vacations on these islands you might like it but we don't you can come and go as you please we have to stay things are good there they say no fighting it's been five months since the nozai family has arrived and they still haven't been heard athens is like a far away dream meanwhile the new government there has tightened asylum regulations anyone arriving after january 2020 receives a decision within one month one out of two applications from afghanistan are approved but anyone who finally makes their way from lesbos to athens will most likely end up here in victoria park many sleep here according to the new asylum law approved asylum seekers are provided food and shelter for 30 days after that they're on their own how can you survive with a newborn baby in a public park we've been here for over a month now it's a broken life in this heat we can't find an apartment it's too expensive greece's government seems to be operating under the assumption that recognized refugees will continue further north even though that would be illegal hardly any want to stay in greece anyway and the poor conditions on the islands are meant to deter others living in moria makes you depressed [Music] what does that mean depressed um you lose your mind in late february 2020 tensions at the turkish greek border mounted and turkish president erdogan opened the border the greek government responded with an iron fist it suspended the right to seek asylum which is a basic human right for several weeks and it greece sealed off the border and left thousands of migrants stranded on the other side at the beginning of this year the greek government decided to close the border despite the fact that erdogan was using thousands of people as a bargaining chip that shows that we need to demonstrate strength at the external border keeping the aspect of human rights in the back of our minds we need to show that we won't let erdogan blackmail us then some six months later on september 8th moria went up in flames throughout germany people took to the streets to demand more refugees be taken in including in cologne dusseldorf bielefeld and other cities in north rhine-westphalia i don't think we are treating them fairly we are so privileged and we have the means to help but we don't we need to make clear that we are ready to take in refugees there's plenty of room here we're well off of course we need a european solution but if germany doesn't lead the way who will follow the city of cologne offers to take in 150 people other cities and towns also offer help [Applause] dusseldorf is also willing to take another 150 people they've had time to gather experience with helping refugees since 2015. our community accommodation facilities currently have several hundred spots available none are completely empty but all of them can make room for several more we can take in individuals as well as families if i were to be told that we had to take in several hundred people today we could mobilize enough resources at short notice to actually fit them all in as long as there isn't a european-wide solution and i don't think there's any in sight then each municipality should be allowed to decide how many they take we have been saying for years that we can handle more refugees but municipalities aren't allowed to make that decision without approval from germany's interior minister and he doesn't want germany going it alone if we do that then you can say goodbye to a european solution in the past years i kept hearing the same remark in brussels from other member states they say this is our problem and we shouldn't be bothering them with our problems one day after the fire 400 miners have flown from lesbos to the greek mainland ten european countries have announced that they're willing to take them in germany will take in 150 but this had already been agreed upon before the fire meanwhile the endless arguing between member states continues hungary and austria are not inspired when germany announces it will take in some 400 refugee families from lesbos once again their assumption is any humanitarian aid will simply create new incentives for more people to come to europe if we really did work together with the greek government to get people off the greek islands and bring them into europe i'm sure the camps would fill right back up again that would create a so-called pull effect and send the wrong message to other refugees basically we'd be telling them that if they ever managed to reach a greek island it would only be a matter of time before they'd be in hamburg so if we just take a few kids out of lesbos then some european governments think that each single child could be the incentive for another million people to come there that's ridiculous the only thing europe agrees on is that rejected asylum seekers should be deported stealing the op those who have been rejected must leave that's the vast majority of people arriving at our external borders then the citizens of europe will be happy to welcome those in need that way we can stand up to right-wing populism if we can assure citizens that the people coming in are true refugees but many attempts at repatriation fail because the countries of origin are not willing to take these people back the past years have taught us that europe can only manage to deport those obliged to leave the country in large numbers when the countries we depend on for cooperation are made an attractive offer it was attractive whether the eu will manage to pass the new pact on migration and asylum will depend on its member states but they are as far away from reaching a consensus as they were five years ago when it comes to migration five years of agonizing debate have shown that there's nothing left to say all that's left now to be honest is different sides insisting they were right who made the right call in 2015 those who wanted to close the borders or those who wanted to show humanity i hope we will manage to cut through this gordian knot and admit that both sides have valid points we were in a situation where this migration policy has been blocked for several years and that in my view means that those that have the lowest ambition on migration has actually been able to set a standard and we are paying a price for the trust between member states we are paying a price when it comes to solidarity between member states and migrants are paying a price the idea behind moria has failed but what will happen with the hotspots if the eu migration pact is passed i'm afraid we will be faced with uh moria's even marios in other places maybe even in other border areas of the european union as long as this solidarity principle is not really solidarity and i think therefore we will be stuck in this situation of inhuman situations and very long and insecure waiting periods is there any way to solve this how um convincing hungary poland and other governments that have no interest in finding a solution isn't going to help nor will it serve germany's interests if the german government were to say now that irregular migration has slowed more than it has in many years we could build a coalition with other countries to show us how it's done and we could implement our goals quite quickly it would inspire others to join that would be a truly european approach for that's how the schengen zone or the euro came about that's how the european community came to be in 1950 it was founded by a group of countries that got together to solve a common problem but until we reached that point it seems there's still a long way ahead of us meanwhile the catastrophe in moria continues despite fires despite pacts that's migration policy made in europe [Music] you

Channel: DW Documentary

Views: 248,647

Keywords: Documentary, Documentaries, documentaries, DW documentary, full documentary, DW, documentary 2020, documentary, migration, refugee camp, Moria, Lesbos, EU external border, Fortress Europe

Id: JvugagwgWfI

Length: 42min 24sec (2544 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 31 2021