AI says refugees displaced by Elliniko camp closure must get adequate housing
Human right groups Amnesty International on Monday issued a statement urging Greek authorities to provide safe and clean housing to hundreds of migrants and refugees being evacuated from a makeshift camp at the site of the capital’s former airport at Elliniko.
“Whilst no one will mourn the closure of these uninhabitable, unsafe camps, the failure to provide people living there with information about their imminent removal has only served to increase their fears and anxieties,” said Monica Costa Riba, Amnesty International’s Regional Campaigner.
“There has been no consultation with Ellinko residents who have been kept in the dark as to when and where they will be moved to. The authorities must urgently guarantee that no one will be rendered homeless or placed at risk as a result of the closure. Safe and secure adequate alternative housing which takes account of the particular needs of women and girls must be made available,” she added.
More than 800 refugees and migrants are estimated to be living at the makeshift Elliniko camp, where non-governmental organizations have been providing assistance since the camp cropped up as a result of a massive influx in 2015 of people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Asia.
Conditions at the camp have been deplored by rights groups, though it is not clear where its residents will be taken once the evacuation is complete.
