ATHENS – An Afghan woman faces arson charges after trying to burn herself to death at an immigrant camp on the Greek island of Lesbos this week, officials said on Thursday.
The charges are the latest in a series of punishments aimed at refugees and asylum seekers on the island, human rights groups say, and reflect the Greek government’s hard line on migrants. The episode is also a clear example of the impact that the poor conditions of Greek reception centers have on the mental health of refugees.
The woman, 27 and eight months pregnant, lives in a temporary camp with her husband and three children. She lit her tent on Sunday after being informed that her family’s planned transfer to Germany was being postponed, said an official at the Greek immigration ministry, noting that her trip was postponed due to the advanced stage of her pregnancy.
The woman, whose name has not been released by authorities, sat inside her burning tent in an attempt to kill herself and was hospitalized with life-threatening burns after neighbors dragged her from the fire, a fire department official said. of Lesbos. No one else was hurt.
Thousands of people live in desperate conditions in Greece’s refugee and migrant camps scattered throughout its islands, a situation that human rights groups constantly denounce as inhumane. Groups have long been warning of a growing mental health crisis, as thousands of people who have fled the war and economic hardship remain in limbo.
Although the number of migrants crossing the Aegean by boat from Turkey to the Greek islands has fallen dramatically this year – by more than 90 percent in January, according to authorities – the camps remain crowded. Dozens of facilities on the continent were closed as part of a government policy to discourage new arrivals.
And while the processing of asylum applications has been accelerated since last year, significant accumulation remains.
In the case of the woman in Lesbos, her application for asylum had been approved and refugee status granted, and her desperate act seemed to have been motivated by the delay in her transfer to Germany. The makeshift camp, like other facilities across the country, remains closed because of the pandemic.
The woman arrived in Greece in 2019 and had been living in a camp on the island for over a year, according to the migration ministry. She was due to give a statement to a court official and prosecutor in her hospital bed on Thursday, officials said.
A Greek police spokesman said that although his treatment may seem harsh, his actions could not go unpunished, because arson attacks are frequent and put other camp residents at risk.
“The law has to be enforced,” said spokesman Theodoros Chronopoulos. “A message has to be sent. This could have created a bigger fire. “
The incident occurred inside a temporary camp that was set up after a series of fires destroyed the Moria camp in September. Six Afghan migrants have been charged with arson in connection with the fire and are awaiting trial.
Eva Cossé, a Western European researcher at Human Rights Watch, said it is difficult to overstate the price these conditions cause to people in the camps.
“The psychological impact of years of conflict, exacerbated by the harsh conditions on the Greek islands and the uncertainty of inhumane policies, may not be as visible as physical injuries,” she said. “But, as this case shows, it is no less dangerous.”
“The urge to sue it instead of helping it,” added Cossé, “is not only emblematic of what is wrong with the European approach to migration, but it also shows Greece’s lack of compassion and humanity.”
In recent months, human rights groups have denounced the Greek authorities’ increasingly harsh actions towards migrants. In November, an Afghan man was accused of endangering his son’s life after his 6-year-old son drowned off the coast of another Aegean island when the boat traveling from Turkey capsized. The man has already received asylum, but is still awaiting trial, according to his lawyer.
Last week, Notis Mitarachi, Greece’s immigration minister, said the authorities were moving forward with efforts to speed up asylum applications and the return of migrants to Turkey in an attempt to ease overcrowding in the camps and discourage new arrivals.
He noted that the number of asylum seekers at facilities across the country dropped to just over 60,000 from almost 100,000 at the beginning of last year, while 57 facilities on the continent were closed entirely.
“We continue to implement a tough but fair migration policy, so that our country is no longer a gateway to Europe for illegal smuggling schemes,” he said.