They Say A Picture Can Paint A Thousand Words…

They say a picture paints a thousands words… Unfortunately I cannot take a picture of one of the worst examples of inhumanity I have witnessed so far in life so here is a thousand words to try and a paint a picture…

 

As you enter the police station of Kos, be sure your greeting will not be welcoming. You may even be lucky enough to bump into someone from Frontex, dressed like something from a sci fi film in tight black ops style uniform. You won’t get a smile but you will sure be intimidated by the weapons they are toting on their hip. The police station itself from outside looks like quite a grand old historical building but within it is run down with a feeling of a sleepy, small town local authority which in normal circumstances wouldn’t have huge amounts of crime to deal with.

 

As you walk through past the office you are faced with an open courtyard with a few bits of rubble lying around from an improvement which will probably never be made. You wonder where the cells are as you look around this small, dirty square, imagining there surely must be a door to a corridor somewhere to enter a building where people are being detained. But then you hear the voices, you see that the square is surrounded by openings in the walls, barred up and filled with faces.

 

Three cells can be found within this “prison” each only a few square metres wide. Within the cells conditions are almost indescribable. There is no access to clean water, no access to hygiene facilities. These “cells” keep the people locked inside but the bars leave them open to the elements, if there is heavy rain, the cells will be wet. If it is cold, the people are cold.

 
Then there is the number of people living in each tiny, dirty box. Up to 30 people can be found in one of these cells, up to 30 in a cell which would not be fit for half, or even a quarter of this number. People do not have beds to sleep on, just a few blankets and a cramped overcrowded impossible living situation.

 

When looking at the dirty, crumbling walls. When seeing the damp, dank, dark reality of these wholly unacceptable conditions it is almost impossible to imagine this is happening in modern day Europe. Back in October these cells hit the headlines for holding child refugees in such medieval conditions – Refugee crisis: ‘Orphan’ children locked up in ‘medieval’ prisons alongside adult criminals on Greek island of Kos – The Independent 14th October 2015

The conditions are worsening, the cells are filled beyond capacity now as everyone who enters Greece is effectively a prisoner.Thankfully children are no longer held in this appalling situation but vulnerable human beings are.

 

Food is a debatable issue. When the EU Turkey deal first came into action, everyone was unprepared, including the authorities. Access was granted to volunteers to provide basics like food and water. Although fundamentally everyone disagreed with the situation and didn’t want to participate in going into a prison , it was a situation where if no one did then those trying to survive this hell wouldn’t have food or something to drink. Therefor volunteers prepared and delivered food through the bars to the desperate people trapped inside. This all stopped around two weeks ago though when access to the prison was denied. Now no one can really see what is happening. There is no guarantee the people are receiving food of any nutritional value or enough to drink.

 
Day and night, for the indefinite number of days or weeks the people are held here before they are moved on to the next stage of deportation, the prisoners wear the same set of clothing they receive when they arrive on the island. When people arrive on the shores wet, volunteers are still able to give dry clothing before the people are locked up. Those clothes are all they have.

 
When you woke up this morning, did you have a shower? Did you take a fresh, clean pair of underwear from your drawer and choose your outfit for the day? Or have you been wearing the same set of clothing, unwashed for the last ten days? Clothing you have slept in, that you have lived in day in, day out?

 
The crime the prisoners committed to be subjected to this inhumanity – not being European.

 
The people locked up in Kos are trapped in these holding cells 24/7. There is no escape. No opportunity to see anything but the bars that hold them.

 
The holding cells of Kos police station are supposed to be for men. But this week, ten women where thrown into this disgusting mess. Forced to share a tiny box with men.

 
Medical care is basically non existent, MSF due to their position on the EU Turkey Deal refuse to enter any detention facility so the responsibility is up to the police… I wonder every day how long it will be before someone dies in these conditions.

 
There is one cell in particular where the barred window is so small, making the cell so dark, that all you can see is the hands of the inmates reaching out, you cannot even see the faces of those souls inside.

 
It makes me think of the RSPCA adverts about animal cruelty…bear with me on this. You know the adverts where a dog sits in a pool of its own excrement, in a surrounding of pure neglect. Or a group of abandoned kittens, squashed into a tiny cage, where there are so many in such a small space they cannot all survive and the sanitation is so horrific you almost feel like you can smell how terrible it would be through your TV set.

 
Well what is happening here is worse than any of these adverts. The smell is worse than anything you could ever imagine. Somebody would go to a jail for a very long time if they treated their animals like this.

 
But wait… WE ARE NOT TALKING ABOUT ANIMALS! WE ARE TALKING ABOUT HUMAN BEINGS!

 
Human beings are supposed to have rights but human rights most certainly do not apply here.

 

Human beings are being treated worse than animals and there is no consequence for those allowing this situation to continue. The people who should be arrested are those treating people like this, those who implemented a dirty deal without ensuring those detained would have access to basic human needs and rights.

 

But what can we do when no one is listening?

 

The prison of Kos is just one example of human rights violation currently being ignored daily in Greece and throughout Europe.

 

It is hard not to give in to the feeling of utter hopelessness when faced with such a hopeless situation.

 

When will this end? When will humanity start being human again?