Hardship of Syrian refugees in Greece shows no sign of ending

The appalling hardship that Syrian refugees are forced to endure in Greece shows no sign of coming to an end as the powers that be wring their hands, writes Victoria White in Piraeus

She has such a beautiful face, the first refugee woman I meet in the port of Piraeus. Those wonderful Middle Eastern hazel eyes.

However, it takes a long time to persuade her to be photographed because she has been photographed before and what good has it done?

Nadia, 45, has succumbed to despair. A Kurd from Aleppo, she has been in Greece since February 22 and has spent most of that time sleeping in the kind of tent kids leave behind after the Electric Picnic.

She has five teenagers with her, ranging in age from 16 to 12, three of her own and two of her sister’s. She only left Syria for her children, she says, but it’s “scary” trying to rear them in a tent at a disused departure gate in Piraeus. She has put a canopy over the tent for shelter from the appalling heat. They get a shower twice a week.

The food is terrible. She shows me a video of the ambulances bringing people to hospital a few nights before because the chicken had gone off. They have been given mouldy bread and have found cockroaches in their food.

However, the physical discomfort is not the worst part for Nadia. It’s the the lack of education for the children and the “bad influences” in the port. She’s worried sick about the safety of her lovely 16-year-old daughter.

Nadia’s 16-year-old daughter. Nadia is worried about ‘bad influences’ and lack of education in Piraeus. She must choose between being reunited with her son in Germany and staying with her daughters

Before the war, her life in Aleppo was “perfect” she says. She worked with her husband in a heating business. The children were going to a private, Christian school though she is Muslim, “because in Syria, we don’t care”.

Then the war came, reducing a lot of Aleppo to rubble. First her three sons, aged 23 and 25 and 14 left and got through to Germany. Her husband wouldn’t leave his factory but she and the other children followed the boys.

She made it to Turkey where she worked for slave wages and was insulted as a Kurd, then on to Greece and the Macedonian border. She camped on the border for two months but gave up and came back to Piraeus where she thought she could begin some formal asylum process.

However, the formal process is asking her to decide which of her children to be apart from: she can be reunited with her 14-year-old in Germany under the Reunion Programme but she would have to leave her other two children behind. If she applies for the Relocation Programme she will not be able to relocate to Germany which has no more places and will have to choose somewhere else where she will have to stay for at least five years.

She is on the brink of opting to go back to Syria because even if the Russian airforce bombs her it might be better than sitting in a tent with her children growing up “the wrong way”. We are joined by Najaw, 53, a fellow Syrian Kurd, camping out in the port with her niece’s family because her boys, in their 20s, are in Germany and her 26-year-old daughter is in Holland. She has never seen her grand-daughter in Holland, except on a smartphone.

She scrolls to pictures of a ‘Princess Jasmine’ daughter and her adorable little daughter. “Beautiful”, I say and she croons as she gently touches the screen.

I don’t know what agenda is being served by keeping this granny sleeping in a tent while her daughter and grand-daughter pine for her in Holland but it’s not mine and I don’t believe it’s that of the majority of European citizens.

There are still more than 50,000 refugees left in Greece. The authorities are trying to clear the port for the tourist season but there are still 2,500 people left sleeping in tents in the port.

Nadia’s tent at Departure Gate 1 Piraeus. She has been forced to erect a canopy in a bid to escape the sweltering heat.

A small element of order is brought to the chaos by volunteers. Negga, an amazing granny from Piraeus, is running much of the show from a shipping container. She is trying to get people moved on to more permanent camps because she is sure the Greek authorities will clear the port by mid-June.

“Don’t wait until the end”, she warns people. Referring to the cleared camp near the Macedonian border she says, “Don’t let it be like Idomeni”. The new camps may still have tents but they are large tents with beds in them. “I can’t guarantee a caravan,” she stresses.

Most want to leave the port to get better accommodation but some are wary. Does going to a permanent camp mean they will be kept forever in Greece in a state of limbo?

Tomorrow: Skaramagas, a village of fridges behind barbed wire