Advocacy and Communications Every day, MSF teams in Greece witness the dramatic consequences of EU deterrence policies on the lives and health of people on the move. As a direct result of the EU’s migration policies, these people are forced to live in deplorable living conditions and cannot access anything more than basic medical and mental health services. Three years after the EU–Turkey deal was agreed, these mechanisms have failed to protect the lives of people escaping war and poverty, justifying deterrence and containment methods . Through advocacy and communications in Greece, MSF is challenging these policies and practices, exposing and raising awareness of their consequences. In 2018, MSF repeatedly and publicly denounced the EU containment policies, as well as the horrendous living conditions for migrants and asylum-seekers stuck on the Greek islands and the impact this has had on their mental health. In particular, MSF spoke out on several occasions against the unsafe and dangerously overcrowded conditions at the Moria camp reception centre on Lesvos, which have led to the deteriorating mental health of our patients reaching emergency levels. Through hundreds of interviews and public statements, MSF called on the EU and the Greek authorities to scale up the provision of medical and psychological care, and to transfer all children and vulnerable adults to safe accommodation on the mainland or in other European countries. These are some of the most relevant public initiatives MSF undertook: • In May, during Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ visit to Lesvos, MSF published a press release warning the Greek authorities and the EU that the situation on Lesvos was, once again, reaching breaking point. • In July, MSF denounced the rising chaos in Moria camp and the increased episodes of violence, rioting and sexual violence, calling for the evacuation of the most vulnerable people to the mainland. • In September, as the population of Lesvos reached over 9,500 people, a medical and mental health emergency began to unfold. MSF highlighted the serious mental health problems seen in child mental health patients, including cases of self-harm and attempted suicide. MSF called for the emergency evacuation of vulnerable people from the Greek 22 islands to safe accommodation on the Greek mainland and, crucially, in other EU countries. Following the strong media attention generated by this denunciation and the pressure from other organisations, the large-scale decongestion of Moria camp took place, with hundreds of vulnerable migrants and asylum-seekers moved to the mainland. • In December 2018, MSF also raised the alarm about the situation in Evros, on the border with Turkey, which had seen an increase in the number of asylum seekers crossing through the land border. MSF patients described the harmful practises of push-backs and detention observed or reported at the border. Throughout 2018, MSF engaged with KEELPNO and the Ministry of Health, to push for the greatly improved provision of healthcare on the islands and the mainland. Key advocacy topics included identifying and deploying key medical and administrative staff, especially to the islands, and scaling up KEELPNO’s capacity for curative and preventative healthcare services, with a specific focus on mental health services on the islands and vaccinations for children under the age of 15. With the support of the Ministry of Health, MSF responded to the on-going gap in vaccinations, particularly the PCV against pneumococcus,by initiating the humanitarian mechanism for importation of PCV10 vaccines at a low price to vaccinate children on Lesvos, Chios and Samos islands. Throughout the year, MSF continued to highlight the inadequate and opaque system for identifying vulnerable people on the islands. On Lesvos, MSF teams found that many mental health patients – over 60 percent of whom were survivors of torture – had not been recognised as vulnerable, despite clearly falling within the established vulnerability criteria. This lack of recognition denied them access to the care they need on the mainland and prevented them from accessing the regular asylum procedure. There is also very limited access to crucial legal aid for migrants and asylum-seekers on the islands. Based on both of these, MSF collaborated with the Hellenic League for Human Rights who provided a lawyer to represent MSF patients. This partnership led to many successes, including overturning decisions on vulnerability status, lifting geographical restrictions to allow movement to the mainland, support for initial asylum interviews and the granting of refugee status.
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