Chaos at Piraeus port. NGOs decide who goes where! (photos)
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Despite
the Greek government’s reassurances that the refugee problem would be
under control by the start of the Easter holidays, the situation at the
port of Piraeus and elsewhere remains chaotic. Thousands of refugees and
migrants are cramped in areas around the port, with refugee children
playing in areas littered with rubbish and hundreds of tents set up
everywhere. 2,680 migrants and refugees are living at the stone
warehouse on pier E1, after pier E2 was evacuated recently. Even though
2,000 migrants and refugees were relocated from the port to organised
hotspots, the conditions are still dismal with 300 tents set up next to
the Maritime Ministry parking lot. Sanitation is atrocious, with piles
of rubbish next to tents and children’s clothes hanging on clothes lines
over the litter. The two camps are full of puddles of dirty water,
while the few chemical toilettes cannot cover the needs of so many
people. Greek PM Alexis Tsipras has called a cabinet meeting to address
the problem. Meanwhile, the extent of disarray in which the Greek state
finds itself is indicated by the fiasco of failing to simply relocate
200 migrants and refugees from the island of Chios to Leros to alleviate
the connection on Chios. While the migrants and refugees had boarded
onto the ship to move to Leros an NGO persuaded most to get off telling
them they were being relocated to Turkey. Finally, only 39 were
transferred to Leros from the 200 planned
