Video from the squat

KlikAktiv team made this short video to bring to a better understanding of conditions in which people on the move are living. In order to protect their privacy, no identity information is recorded.

The team encountered this informal squat in the woods during one of the regular weekly field visits. This is one of many camps in which each tent is patched at least several times. During the summer months, people in these camps are struggling most with scabies, lack of water, personal hygiene products, and endless mosquito swarms.

As the winter is approaching they will struggle with cold and frostbites. Their surroundings, woods and field crops, will soon be snowbound or covered in mud. After trying to go to “the game” (to cross the border) in these conditions, their inadequate shoes will be unusable for further traveling.

Regardless, many refugees are hesitant to go to formal camps. We do advise them to do that since there they can have at least some sort of medical assistance and perhaps a worm accommodation. However, they tell us that in the camps they are being harassed by the employees and they sleep in overcrowded facilities.

In order for them to feel safer, there is an urgent need for more accommodation units and a change in the camps’ employees’ behaviors. There has to be a change in mindset and the authorities need to realize that all refugees have the right to accommodation, food, water, medical support. These rights must not be conditioned by the forced labor of refugees in the camps. They are people in need of rest, care, conversation, legal and psychological support. The testimonials we gather on the field are telling us that these services are rarely offered in the official camps.

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