Migrants still live in areas of a camp in Lesbos where soil testing showed elevated lead levels two months after Greek authorities confirmed that the areas were contaminated, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated Thursday, urging the Greek government to take “swift action.”
“The Greek government has known the risks since at least December 2020, when test results confirmed lead contamination in parts of the Mavrovouni camp, which houses nearly 6,500 migrants and asylum-seekers,” the HRW said in a written statement.
Belkis Wille, the senior crisis and conflict researcher at the HRW, stated that according to results of the Greek government’s own testing, children and women are at risk by living and playing on the contaminated soil.
“If the Greek government fails to take swift action, the risk that young children and pregnant women will develop lead poisoning and potentially severe health problems goes up by the day, and the government will bear responsibility for that harm,” Wille said. “The risk already is mounting with every delay in constructing a new camp on Lesbos that will allow people to leave the contaminated area.”
The rights group underlined it was told by the Greek migration and asylum minister, Notis Mitarachi, and European Commission officials earlier this year that all tents in areas at risk were removed, yet satellite images, as well as interviews of migrants living there, showed the opposite.
“The samples taken in November by the Greek Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration (EAGME) showed the most elevated lead levels found among all 12 samples taken in the camp,” it highlighted.
According to interviews the HRW conducted with camp residents, about 90 residential tents housing at least 70 families, many with young children and pregnant women, and five reception structures also remain at the base of Mavrovouni hill.
The HRW stated that European Commission officials pledged that EAGME experts' additions of new soil and gravel have adequately reduced exposure to dangerous lead levels.
“However, they said there are no apparent plans to further test the area at the base of Mavrovouni hill,” the HRW said further, adding that in a Feb. 1 briefing with aid organizations working inside the camp, Mitarachi said that the authorities would provide camp residents with information about the lead risks at the camp.
“But the six camp residents who spoke to Human Rights Watch in March, including four who live in direct proximity to where the two elevated lead samples were found, said that the authorities had yet to provide them with information about lead contamination and how to protect young children and pregnant people from exposure.”
Since a woman living in the area and who had been pregnant had a miscarriage, the rights group strongly underlined that authorities at the camp should inform all camp residents and staff in languages they understand about the risks of lead poisoning.
“The Greek authorities should clarify when new soil testing will take place, consult with independent experts about the testing plans and allow them to comment on investigative work plans, audit the soil testing process and collect split samples for independent testing,” it added.
Due to local opposition to any permanent structure, the HRW said that migrants “will most likely be living in this camp, and therefore suffer prolonged exposure, for at least another winter before there will be any prospect of moving to another campsite.”
Many locals are exasperated by plans for a new permanent camp there built with European Union funds.
"Instead of Europe standing by us in solidarity, (they) think this is where they will cage all migrants that come," said Erifili Yiannaka, a local councilor on Lesbos.
"Our island needs to find again its rhythm the way it was," she told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on the sidelines of an anti-camp demonstration in the island port capital of Mytilene this week.
During a visit to the island by EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson, some 300 people gathered outside the regional governor's office to voice their opposition Monday.
"We are not second-class European citizens," said Mytilene resident Christina Kourtzi.
Regional Governor Costas Moutzouris is among the camp's most vocal opponents.
"The islanders will not allow the construction of permanent camps on Greek and European borders," he said in a statement.
At the height of the migration crisis in 2015, Lesbos saw a surge of hundreds of thousands, most of them refugees, fleeing the civil war in Syria.
Many were crammed into Moria, which swiftly became Europe's largest camp and a byword for squalor, violence and crime.
On the site of the camp's remains, there are now only ashes, burnt plastic bottles, charred trees, gutted containers and personal items abandoned as its inhabitants fled the September 2020 fire.
Even after months of refugee transfers to the Greek mainland and to other EU states, there are still more than 8,000 asylum-seekers on Lesbos, including 6,000 survivors of the Moria camp fire.
For the past seven months, they have been living in a makeshift tent camp on the coastal hillside of Mavrovouni, a former military firing range not far from Moria.
The European Union has allocated 276 million euros ($325 million) for the construction of new camps on Lesvos (Lesbos-Midilli) and four other Aegean islands – Chios (Sakız), Samos (Sisam), Kos (Istanköy) and Leros (Ileryöz).
