The Moria camp which serves as one of the ‘hot spots’ on the Greek island, Lesvos, started operating in 2014 as a flow-through point for refugees coming to Europe via Turkey after crossing the Aegean Sea by boats. However since the EU-Turkey deal a large number of refugees have been stranded on the island and Moria is now more of their residence than a transit point. The asylum procedure moves with an extremely slow pace and because of that more than 5000 refugees live in uncertainty in the camp that was designed to host no more than 2300. This is not to mention that the number had reached over 7000 in the end of 2017. Filming or photographing in and around the camp is not allowed, but I succeeded to capture images. Moria feels like a prison, so the refugees who are looking for freedom, feel even more trapped. A large part of the residents have psychological problems, starting from their own countries that they had to flee from, incurred during the journey or else in the camp. Inter ethnic fights break out on a daily basis, cases of rape and sexual harassment have also been reported. The camp poses a big threat to public health with mountains of garbage being formed and no proper hygiene infrastructure. An increasing number of NGO’s are leaving the camp due to these circumstances but also the lack of support and communication from the Greek government, but boats are still arriving. One of the organizations still working in both the Kara Tepe and Moria camps is ERCI - Emergency Response Centre International.
At the moment they run a (day)clinic in Moria camp offering primary care, they run a hygiene programme providing washing machines to the residents of the Kara Tepe camp and they perform search and rescue operations on the south shoreline of Lesvos.
