Moria Hotspot, Lesvos, 2016. Martin Leveneur/Flickr. (CC 2.0 by-nd)
The latest EU-Turkey deal is the culmination of months of attempts by the European Commission to take control of the eastern Mediterranean, a space that has recently seen the arrival of over one million people as well as unprecedented displays of solidarity by people across Europe.
Following the first wave of criminalisation of humanitarian activities in several of the Aegean border islands – during which many individuals feared prosecution for people smuggling due to their participation in life rescue operations – independent volunteers and grassroots solidarity organisation have now been cut off from any contact with arriving populations. According to the mayor of the island, the latest agreement and the decision to detain and return all newcomers in Turkey has now made aid structures largely redundant. One of the first casualties has been the exemplary, autonomously-run ‘PIKPA’ camp in Mytilene which has been hosting vulnerable individuals for quite sometime. It has been announced that this facility will soon close. Within the first few days of the implementation of the EU-Turkey deal, Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF) announced the suspension of all its operations in the ‘hotspot’ in Moria out of fear of being associated with the mass expulsion operation currently going on there. This followed similar declarations from UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, and the National Refugee Council in Chios.
