ATHENS – A Afghan woman is facing arson charges after trying to burn her to death in a migrant camp on the Greek island of Lesbos this week, officials said on Thursday.
The charges are the latest in a series of punishments targeting refugees and asylum seekers on the island, the rights groups say, reflecting the Greek government’s hard line on migrants. The episode is also a clear example of the impact that dire conditions at Greek shelters 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 set her tent on fire on Sunday after being informed that her family’s planned move to Germany was being postponed, an official of the Greek Ministry of Migration said, noting that her trip was delayed due to the advanced condition of her pregnancy. .
The Lesbos fire department said the woman, whose name was not released by authorities, was sitting in her burning tent in an attempt to kill herself and was admitted to hospital with non-life-threatening burns. No one else was injured.
Thousands of people live in desperate circumstances in Greece’s camps for refugees and migrants scattered along its islands, a situation that human rights groups have consistently described as inhuman. Groups have long warned of a growing mental health crisis there, as the thousands who have fled war and are suffering economic hardship.
Although the number of migrants traveling by boat from Turkey to the Greek islands through the Aegean island has fallen sharply this year, according to authorities – by more than 90 per cent in January – the camps remain tight. Dozens of facilities on the continent have been shut down as part of a government policy to discourage further arrivals.
And although the processing of asylum claims has accelerated since last year, there remains a significant backlog.
In the case of the woman on Lesbos, her asylum application was approved and refugee status granted, and it appears that her desperate actions were caused by the delay in her move to Germany. The improvised camp, like other facilities nationwide, remains closed due to the pandemic.
The woman arrived in Greece in 2019 and, according to the Ministry of Migration, lived in a camp on the island for more than a year. She was due to make a statement to a court official and the prosecutor from her hospital bed on Thursday.
A Greek police spokesman said that although her treatment could be difficult to prevent, her actions could not go unpunished because arson occurs frequently and endangers other campers.
“The law must be enforced,” said spokesman Theodoros Chronopoulos. A message must be sent. This could have caused a larger fire. ‘
The incident took place in a temporary camp set up after a series of fires destroyed the sprawling Moria camp in September. Six Afghan migrants have been charged with arson in connection with the fire and are awaiting trial.
Eva Cossé, a researcher at Human Rights Watch in Western Europe, said it was difficult to exaggerate the toll that such people had in the camps.
“The psychological impact of years of conflict, exacerbated by difficult conditions on the Greek islands and the uncertainty of inhuman policies, may not be as visible as physical wounds,” she said. “But as this case shows, it’s no less life-threatening.”
“The impulse to prosecute her rather than help her,” she said. Cossé added, “is not only indicative of what is wrong with the European approach to migration, but it also shows the lack of compassion and humanity of Greece.”
In recent months, rights groups have condemned the Greek authorities’ increasingly difficult actions against migrants. In November, an Afghan man is accused of endangering his son’s life after the six-year-old drowned off the coast of another Aegean island when their boat capsized in Turkey. The man has meanwhile been granted asylum, but according to his lawyer, he is still awaiting trial.
Last week, Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi said authorities were pushing for efforts to speed up asylum applications and the return of migrants to Turkey in an effort to alleviate overcrowding in camps and discourage further arrivals.
He noted that the number of asylum seekers at facilities nationwide has dropped to just over 60,000 from almost 100,000 early last year, while 57 facilities on the mainland have been completely closed.
“We are continuing to implement a tough but fair migration policy so that our country is no longer a gateway to Europe for illegal smuggling missiles,” he said.