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AS EU LEADERS were meeting in Bratislava last week, European People’s Party (EPP) local government members met in northern Greece to discuss how the EU should respond to the increasingly disturbing migration crisis.
Part of this conference included a visit to the Diavata Refugee Relocation Camp, outside Thessaloniki, where there was a first-hand opportunity to see the some of the conditions migrants arriving in the European Union are facing, and to hear their concerns.
Renovated at the request of the Greek Ministry of the Interior, Diavata is a former military barracks that is being used to accommodate migrants who have arrived on some of Greece’s many islands. It opened its doors on 24 February this year and is now home to about 1,000 men, women and children, mostly from Syria, Kurdistan, Iraq and Afghanistan.
On arrival at the camp, we were met by Major George Moyfidis, who is the army commander in charge of the camp. He gave a briefing on the recent history of Diavata and the difficulties it faces in meeting the needs of its residents.
The difficulties facing the residents
The camp comprises approximately 200 shelters and is intended to cater primarily for families, so there are roughly as many women as men, but almost half the residents are children. There are also about 30 unaccompanied minors living in Diavata – young people who have tragically lost their parents in one way or another on their perilous journey to Europe.
The number of children is immediately obvious when you arrive in Diavata; they come in their droves, from the very young to teenagers, interested in new visitors, and surprisingly engaged, despite the fact that Diavata has no official school for them.
A walk through the camp quickly reveals the discontentment of the residents. Women tend to stay clear, but men are anxious to tell the visitors that the food they receive is of very poor quality, that they don’t have access to medical facilities, and that their situation is intolerable since they have no idea how long they will be kept in Diavata.
A young Syrian man, Ibrahim, told me how frustrated he is. He and his family have been in Diavata for seven months and there is no end in sight. He showed me the food they are given and claims that it is only fit for animals. He escaped terrible conditions in Aleppo, in Syria, and now feels that the Greek and European people should allow him to leave Diavata, get a job and start rebuilding his life.
Ibrahim ultimately wants to go to Germany; most people in Diavata do.
“The situation is not the best for living”
At the EPP conference on Friday, the EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Dimitris Avramopoulos, himself a Greek and former Mayor of Athens, was very clear that the migrants can’t all go to Germany – not least because of the logistics of such a move, but also because he believes it will facilitate traffickers who promise the unfortunate migrants that they will get them to a particular country, usually Germany.
Ireland seems to be far down the list of desired destinations.
Back at the camp, our official guides were becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the plaintive cries of the Diavata residents and Major Moyfidis was quick to explain that “the situation is not the best for living”. He recognised that the migrants had been in Diavata for seven months and that people were unhappy that they did not know how long they would be there for. “We must understand this,” he said.
The average age in Diavata is under 20 years old and the fact that the people miss their home countries is obvious to see: children’s graffiti has the words “I miss you Syria” in English and Arabic, murals shout “Save Aleppo”, and residents hold up signs asking why the Afghan people have been “forgotten”.
The plight of these people is obvious and the conditions in which they are surviving every day are undoubtedly substandard. Diavata, which is served by the UNHCR and other charities, is one of the more ordered camps, having relocated migrants from the islands to a renovated, mainland site. Notwithstanding that, residents are living in a makeshift tented village and simply don’t have access to all the medical and educational facilities that are, according to the European Convention on Human Rights, fundamental rights.
Ireland is quite removed from the reality of the crisis
But you can’t help getting the feeling that the Greeks are doing their best in an impossible situation. It is now estimated that 11 million people have been displaced from their homes by the conflict in Syria alone, and Greece is one of the first points of entry into the European Union for many migrants.
At the EPP conference in Thessaloniki, a representative of the Turkish government, who was present as an observer, was at pains to point out that Turkey too is doing its best and desperately trying to accommodate every Syrian who wants to cross the border to safety in Turkey. An Italian delegate thanked other European Union states for their “tangible cooperation” in dealing with the particular maritime crisis that the Italian coastguard is facing.
In Ireland, we are quite removed from the reality of the migration crisis we see reported on the news. We see the human misery, but we don’t have to face it the way the Turks and our European neighbours do.
In light of what is happening, you have to wonder if, in a generation’s time, our children will judge us for not doing enough the way we now wonder about Ireland’s response to the migrant crisis created by World War II.
The decision of the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Frances Fitzgerald TD, that Ireland will take its fair share of refugees from this migration crisis is to be welcomed, but, seeing the tip of the iceberg at Diavata, you can’t help wondering if it’s a drop in the ocean.
Barry Ward is a barrister and Fine Gael councillor for the Blackrock area of Dublin
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So ireland is importing millions of tonnes of soy to feed to cows to export 85% of beef and dairy produced abroad while being an overall net importer of calories and barely growing any of our own fruit and veg. Sounds a bit precarious.
@eoin fitzpatrick: zero linked up thinking.
@eoin fitzpatrick: Not true, I grew a few apples and had a great crop of rushes this year.
@eoin fitzpatrick: Lol! beautifully put. All so a handful of people can earn more profits.
@eoin fitzpatrick: there are no govt handouts for growing fruit. Farmers follow the handouts of OUR taxes to them to pollute and chop down trees.
What would happen to Irish milk production if all this imported feed wasn’t available?
If one was to believe the hype it’s all based on our “grass based system “. ….but grass alone won’t provide the nutrients that Irish cows need to produce the large volumes of milk the dairy industry requires …..this article highlights the shallowness behind the “grass based system” propaganda that the Irish public consistently hear from the dairy industry in this country…
@Padraig G: It is grass based as you call it. The bulk of what cattle eat is grass, be it fresh during the summer or preserved during the winter. But dried and fermented grass (hay and silage) during the winter does not provide everything. This is when animal feeds are used. After all, milk production runs 12 months a year, and proper fresh grass is only available for half that.
@Padraig G: BTW, I forgot to say, Maize and Barley, along with all the other cereals, are types of grass.
@Joe x: thanks for your feedback but most dairy farms I visit provide meal to their cows 12 months of the year….but your missing the point of the article, Ireland’s high intensity dairy model is totally reliant on overseas animal feed….there is no way the average dairy farm in Ireland could sustain the level of milk production we have at present on grass alone …Look at the wet summer we just had , plenty of farmers were providing meal rations to keep milk yields up ….
@Padraig G: But most of the animal feeds are grass based, which is what you were contending in the first place.
To me, the point of the article has nothing to do with what the animals are being fed anyway. By highlighting it in the title and being the first section they discussed, they turned it into a climate issue when nothing is further from the truth, especially when you look at how it is transported, as much as they can fit on one ship.
The real issue is why the farming sector has taken the route it did, which is simply down to cost. The dairy and beef sectors find it cheaper, and the tillage farmers can’t let it go any cheaper. Otherwise, none of them can make a living in modern Ireland
@Padraig G: We’re not meant to drink calves milk, we don’t have 4 stomachs.
I wonder if there is any mention in the article of the restrictions placed on beef farmers. An animal has to killed before it is 24 months otherwise there are big penalties. The beef barron and the factories have access to all the farmer data. The know how many animals are in the country and what age they are. Now if you want to have a beef animal factory fit for 24 months you have to feed grains. There is no alternative and yet farmers want the 24 month rule lifted and its not. It was bought in during the BSE scare back in the 2000s. The rule makes the factories richer and bad for the environment because we have to import feed. What is the difference between 24month and 34 month beef. There is no difference. Beef in Ireland is a monopoly. The same animal in the UK makes €400 per head more than in Ireland. Our farmers are being robbed by the processors and the only profitable sector left is milk.
@Washpenrebel: my point is that its not financially possible to finish our beef of just a grass based diet because the rules in place. Man made rules that are worse for the environment.
Funny how the first thing they concentrated on was the carbon footprint of importing the feed instead of asking why so much is being imported and not grown locally. Stating that it could be grown at home is stating the obvious, after all cereals have been grown on this island for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. The problem is cost for both dairy farmers to buy it local as it is cheaper to buy it in, so that they can have a living wage and tillage farmers to sell it local as animal feed as they cannot afford to sell it any cheaper, otherwise they will not have a living wage either. It’s the cost of things in this country that affect everything else as usual. .
Give the farmers a break and treat them as if they were Data centers or even better the Aviation industry whose emissions are also overlooked as they are not considered in our national emissions targets.
@john dennehy: Are you actually admitting that farming is causing serious issues for the planet. WoW!! The I.F.A. will love you for that!
Great article and FOI providing a great service to inform the public to make their choices. Our dairy cows are fed too much imported meal despite not yielding very much. Denmark produces 2/3 as much milk with 0.5m cows as we do with 1.7m cows. The answer is obvious.
@john mounsey: do you know that Ireland is one of if not the best place for milk in the world. We have some of the toughest restrictions in place which is why we produce a huge amount of the world’s baby milk. Grass is key to top quality milk and we grow grass better than anywhere else in the world. Its something we should be proud of but we have a group of people that love hammering farmers who work on average 14 to 18 hours a day.
@Washpenrebel: Our infant formula exports are dropping, was 620m euros to China in 2017, dropped to 266m last year. Hence poor milk proce for dairy farmers here.
@john mounsey: Dairy farmers all over the world are suffering because of the prices. There are many farmers in the leaving because its not paying enough. Same in Australia. Governments all over the world are making it harder for farmers and there will be a food shortage in the future. This is guaranteed. We live in the age of the internet and we can see what’s happening in other countries
@Washpenrebel: Its not the ‘player’ it’s the game.
Humanity, for what it is worth, is foolish in a particular way.
Climate is far too technical for most people, so retreating to the Earth science of biology is perhaps the best course to undo considerable damage to research by scientific method modelling.
Origin of Species attempted to use prejudice as a means to control perspectives of humans and who constitutes the title of superior and inferior ‘races’.
Just like carbon footprint, carbon emissions or some other buzzwords, natural selection/eugenics was once a major topic in society and found its full implementation in WWII as the Holocaust.
People are so distracted with the symptoms of modelling that they hardly are aware that scientific method modelling is the only issue.
So people with stature to deal with a serious topic just do not exist, and that is no insult but stated with deep dismay.
People want to consume dairy products and Ireland is one of the most climate friendly countries in the world to do this.
It is nonsense to say by supposed academic leaders that we should participate in solving this global problem by exporting dairy production to much less climate efficient countries.
The media climate B/S never ends,
Lovely emissions heavy feed, the best kind of feed
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