Òscar Camps: "We settle for the minimum rules of the human rights"

When we started, the arrivals were massive: thousands of people every day. Therefore we focused on them not risking their lives on the water, mostly trying to prevent them from dying, which is something very hard to achieve, almost impossible. But during all this time, the situation has changed, mostly since the European Union made an agreement with Turkey, mafias are thinking it over. Old smuggling routes are being re-opened, routes which were very dangerous and were actually abandoned because they were expensive, dangerous and difficult. Well now they are of great interest. This makes us change too. Schedules have also changed as well as the time they enter in Europe: it was all done during daylight and without problems and in front of everyone, but now it is not like this anymore because Turkey has to follow part of their agreement -which is to prevent people from exiting the country. 

 

 

The mafias are interested in society, mostly in Turkeyʼs. You can see a shoe shop in which half the window shows shoes but the other half has fake lifesaving vests. Why is this man selling fake lifesaving vests in Istanbul? Why do they make nautical? Why do they have so many Olympic medal winners? Do you know we have seen up to eight thousand people arriving in one day, for several days? It is impossible to hide. I have run the Turkish coast and have seen everything in one morning. I have seen the mafias, how they board, how they treat people in such a bad way. And they have been doing this for months, near 800 metres from a police office. It is clear that charging 1.200 euros per person allows them to pay for a lot of people. Everyone turns their head and looks somewhere else while thousands of people are boarding in the same beach. There are mafias which make them enter the county through mountains under temperatures of minus six degrees, they make them walk for nineteen hours- women with little shoes and children with nothing. Nobody tells them they will walk at 2.000, 3.000 metres of altitude, under very cold temperatures and for so many hours. They just tell them itʼs going to be a walk. And children die because of the cold weather and they make them leave the babies in the snow and continue walking. This is what mafias are.

 

They also separate husbands from their wives and children to board in different boats. They say this is for their safety. But then itʼs not true. But since their husbands are not there and they are submissive…They just get in the middle of these men who in any given case will only take care of themselves, they will not care for these women and childrenʼs lives, because they see them as a problem. And the most vulnerable people are the first to die. During the first ten minutes, every time a boat topples, about seventeen people-out of fifty at least- die. All children. And then their mothers. When we arrive late there are always men floating. And I have never taken a kid from a man. Never. But I do have taken a kid from women. Itʼs very sad. But the problem of all of this is that it is deliberate. It is a decision made by the Brussels government: not rescuing, not saving lives. Leaving them to die.

 

 

Lifesaving has decreased in volume and it is increasing in different places. We are now trying to figure out which will be our next route. Four boats have left from Albania to Italy. There are 50 nautical miles, which is 10 times more than what they did in Lesbos, therefore the risk is quite higher.  And we also know that Albanians are not known for their coastguard services. Therefore we should have a platform in Italy and we are asking for the licenses to do so. We donʼt want to do again what we did in Greece: first staying at the coast, proving that things are really happening, showing it, taking boats… We are a known and qualified NGO, and are professionally distinguished, so we ask for permission to establish a platform there.

 

Another of our missions is to be there, checking that they respect human rights, and when they enter Greece, we check what happens with people. We check if they are assisted. In addition, just by being there and having been there for such a long time we have become the reference of the Lesbos area, and we get a lot of information and are asked a lot of things- from looking for disappeared kids or separated families to assisting people who have problems in the detention camps.

 

 

Human rights. Having kids behind closed doors in jails is aberrant. This is something which cannot be done in our current society. We canʼt have people asking for close refuge and we canʼt close frontiers. We settle for the minimum rules of the human rights.

 

 

They are whole families, with a single bag to restart absolutely everything. It is shocking to see they arrive happy. You say “how can you be happy if you risked your life and you donʼt know whatʼs to come?” And they say “I can sleep here without thinking I wonʼt get up, or that Iʼm being chased or they are throwing me bombs”. It is hard to understand that it is not a problem for them if they have to sleep in the mud. Itʼs not a problem to be in Idomeni. They are happy because they came from a place where there is neither hope nor any chance of life.

 

And this is happening near our home, this is happening in a popular tourist place, Greece. I am not saying people should go there to do international cooperation; but go to do the tourist, go to see the ancient Greek ruins and also head over Idomeni to see whatʼs happening.

 

 

Vote.

 

 

No, no. We have to change it from here. We donʼt have to go there to solve things just because our politicians arenʼt able to do so. If Spain wanted to they could have done like Canada and bring 25.000 people here.

 

 

Not morally or emotionally, of course. But I will continue working on the same; I will make a living with the same I did. This is just a parenthesis in my life. I will maintain this until it finishes because I am already on it, I canʼt step back. But I have done something with what made me move from my sofa and told me “You have to do something”. Now this is a social responsibility because people continue supporting NGOs and as long as they support us we will continue with this. This will be the problem in the 21th Century, the big migrant marine movements.