A village of mobile home ‘fridges’, barbed wire and very little else .... especially hope

Victoria White reports from Skaramagas refugee camp, west of Athens, home to 2,800 refugees who fled fighting in Syria but now fear that their hopes of starting life afresh in the West will never be realised

Seven-year-old Nour has a T-shirt which says “I love shopping”, but there are no shops here in Skaramagas refugee camp west of Athens, where she lives. She is one of the 600 children now living in this brand new camp of mobile homes. Many of the 2,800 now living here came from the evacuated E3 terminal building in the port of Piraeus.

They were promised a brave new world in the best camp in Greece and indeed, there is a sorry collection of tents outside the gate, full of people hoping to get into the mobile homes when Skaramagas is finally expanded to accommodate 3,500.