Refugee crisis news, rumors: Doctors without Borders decide to leave Greek island camp
The situation in the Greek island of Lesbos is at tipping point with several aid groups and organizations withdrawing their participation in the humanitarian mission of helping refugees. The latest to suspend its activities in the area is the international aid organization Doctors without Borders, which said that the "unfair and inhumane" conditions prompted them to step aside.
It has been a very difficult scenario both for refugees and the different groups trying to help them. The situation is turning for the worse as another day goes by. As a matter of fact, the UNHCR already suspended a significant component of their program in Greece before the MSF did the same.
Marie Elisabeth Ingres, the MSF's head of mission in Greece talked to AFP about the reason of her organization's pullout. "We took the extremely difficult decision to end our activities in Moria (Lesbos) because continuing to work inside would make us complicit in a system we consider to be both unfair and inhumane," she said.
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Just like other aid and support groups before them, the MSF may have been in disagreement with the decision of the European Union and Turkey to force the refugees and asylum seekers to return to Turkey. According to Ingres, there was no way they'll allow themselves to become an instrument for a mass expulsion. The deal agreed upon by the EU and the Turkish government seeks to cut off the sea crossing from Turkey to the Greek island. This body of water happens to be the same area where almost a million people passed to get to Europe beginning last year. Most of them came from Syria, hoping to escape the war and start a new life somewhere in the European continent.
A report from The Associated Press disclosed that more than 2,000 refugees and migrants have already been arrested since the enforcement of the new deal on Sunday. Accordingly, those arrested are temporarily detained at the registration centers in the Greek islands managed by the EU.
