A health bomb is about to explode on the island of Chios where 6,700 refugees and migrants live in despicable living conditions in a reception and accommodation center with capacity for just one thousand people.
Humans and mice live close next to each other with garbage piling up next to the tents.
While the media spotlight usually focuses the in overcrowded hot spot of Moria on the neighboring islands of Lesvos, the hot spot on Chios has gone beyond its limits.
The center that would normally accommodate 1014 people, currently hosts 6,700 refugees and immigrants, writes in an exclusive story daily ethnos citing local officials. According to official data, there are 5,222 people in the hot spot, but even then there are 4,222 people more than the center could accommodate.
Mountains of smelly garbage lay next to the tents where people live. Small children are wandering among the rubbish stacks.
Local authorities appear to be unable to handle the volume of rubbish, which puts residents and staff there at risk of infectious diseases.
City officials are trying but it seems to be insufficient.
Everyday immigrants pick up trash in the morning but – as they say – have nowhere to discharge it. So they put them in big black bags, but they have only a few yards away from the Accommodation area. When the wind blows, the trash fills the place.
Pantelis Vroulis, the doctor and deputy regional public health officer, tells ethnos.gr that “the situation is getting worse. There are now 6,700 people in a center that should host 1000 people. Personally, I had warned the municipality about the rubbish issue this summer. Due to overcrowding, garbage stacks are pilling up next to me migrant’s tents.”
Vroulis add that it is a matter of luck that the cold prohibits the spread of infectious diseases. He adds that only a few cases of meningitis and chickenpox were recorded in the North Aegean.
commenting on the new centers planned by the Greek government and the acceleration of the asylum procedures and deportations, Vroulis point out that even then “about 60,000 people already in Greece will be trapped here. ”
More pictures in the exclusive story by ethnos daily.
