Kara Tepe camp, Lesvos, Greece. Author's photograph. Winterization is a word used in the humanitarian world to describe a number of specific actions to be taken ahead of winter, in order to make temporary and semi-permanent shelter habitable and prevent weather-related suffering and disease among the beneficiaries during adverse weather.
On 8 September, UNHCR Greece released a press briefing note urging action to ease conditions on the Greek islands, without making specific recommendations on how to operationalize it. The press briefing only serves for UNHCR to wash its hands of the conditions on the islands. Following last year’s winterization fiasco, the increased arrivals of the last two months and the uncertain future, UNHCR wants to be in a position to say they had warned in early September.
The primary responsibility for the refugee response lies with the host government and the international humanitarian system is there to support and fill gaps with expertise and material. In Greece the government has been criticized in detail for its shortcomings and delays, especially the lack of planning, inability to absorb EU funds and obscure staffing decisions. UNHCR, the refugee agency, and other international humanitarian actors, have come under far less scrutiny, despite equally large sums of money available to them, international expertise at their disposal and deployment across the country.
