Author: Nanna Vedel-Hertz
This article is part of Changing the Narrative. Articles in this series are written by student or early career journalists who took part in The Local’s training course on solutions-focused migration reporting. Find out more about the project here.
While conditions at refugee camps on the Greek island of Lesvos are dire, it hasn’t stopped residents finding ways to live through the constant state of emergency.
The new Kara Tepe refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesvos currently houses around 7,800 refugees, according to numbers from the UNHCR. Situated next to a smaller, older shelter of the same name, the new camp was created as a replacement for the infamous Moria camp, which was destroyed in a fire in early September. At the time Moria housed around 12,600 people, while it was in fact only built for 2,700.
Moria was infamous for its bad conditions, and the new camp does not seem to be an improvement. It was described by the UNHCR as an “emergency site” and the organisation has called for immediate action as the living conditions in the camp are in urgent need of improvement, especially with the weather getting colder.
While the conditions on Lesvos have been protested by many organisations as inhumane, it has not stopped the new residents from adapting and finding ways to live through the constant state of emergency.
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