Hundreds of Palestinian refugees from Syria who are detained at the Greek-Macedonian borders were left in despair and frustration as their next steps and new destination is to be determined by the UNHCR according to the new agreement. The PRS who fled the war in Syria addressed, few days ago, the human rights organizations appealing to help them continue their trip to claim asylum in West Europe countries. Also, they demanded to improve their humanitarian situation in detention areas in Greece, described their detention conditions as “miserable”since most of them sleep outdoors without the minimum extent of care.
Om Mohammad, a Palestinian women left Al-Yarmouk camp and detained now in Greece, said she faced so much risks during her trip, added “We are locked up here, the police told us nothing about our fate, we do nothing but waiting”. The desperate women told our correspondent that she lost everything in Syria, her husband was tortured to death in regime’s prisons, she ran away with her four children out of the country seeking safe place, according to her.
While Qinaz Al-Nabulsi, mother of the sick child Jawad Abweini, said she had to travel from Syria to Lebanon then decided to immigrate after failing to secure medical treatment for her child.
Al-Nabulsi expressed her shock of the way the Greek police treated them, said: “we were exposed to a systematic humiliation incompatible with human rights, they didn’t respect the sick or the children”.
Yousef (nick name), 22-year-old from Handarat Camp north of Syria, says he fled Syria and left his family because of the military service, explaining “We, as Palestinians, are not allowed to enter any of the Arab countries legally, this is why we had no other option but to immigrate to Europe”.
Media sources from Lesbos Island reported that, unlike the usual, Greece’s new procedures is to prevent the refugees’ movement across the islands, detain them by force inside camps described as “big prisons”where refugees are gathered for deportation towards Turkey.
it is worth mentioning that the European-Turkish agreement regarding the refugees issue will come into effect in a few days, and will include new procedures in dealing with the refugees flooding from Turkey towards Europe.