the coronavirus pandemic has led to a
rise
in mental health problems among migrants
stuck
in camps in greece that's according to a
study by the international rescue
committee
the irc some 15 000 people are currently
stuck
in overcrowded reception centers on
greek islands squalid conditions here
are made worse by lockdowns imposed
because of the virus
the irc study found that additional
restrictions in movement have worsened
symptoms
in a range of psychological disorders
among migrants
with me now from athens is dimitra
calaguero polo country director for the
international rescue committee in greece
demetria thanks for joining me you have
been in and out
of the camps give us a better
description of these places that
officials still call reception centers
uh good morning so
um so yes uh the reception centers of
the
um the reception centers our our report
focuses on the mental health conditions
of the reception centers
on on the islands our organization is
working in
his implements is having a mental health
program on three of those islands
seeing people from the reception
center and having run this um
this program for more than two years now
we decided it was time
to issue a report in order to show what
we are
experiencing um so
yes the situation is indeed alarming
um and what we see and
is a deterioration of the mental health
situation
uh let's start it with the covet
lockdown in
in spring and still continues so we
should not forget that
um that there are stricter
uh rules uh for the people residing in
the reception center that for than for
the
uh for the general population which
circumstances are
weighing the heaviest on the people
stuck in those camps
uh sorry can you repeat again i didn't
hear you very well
what are the the circumstances that are
weighing
heaviest on the people stuck in those
camps and affecting their mental health
yes so so in addition to the very
stressful condition of
of not knowing what will happen in the
future and need to
anyway people being stuck in in
in very problematic situations uh
with the covet uh they are not they're
even less
able to get away from from those camps
so and there is the additional
the additional fear of the disease
itself
when there are very little chances of
hygiene and social distances
distancing which is like the two main
measures that we are
all advised to take so in
camps where there are uh public
sanitation facilities long queues in
order to get
to get food and and so on
um so all these two basic measures are
very very difficult to
to take um so yeah
dimitra carl guerrero paulo of the irc
in greece thank you very much for your
time
thank you