WATCH: video in Kurdish
Living for months in these tents and warehouses has made the lives of Kurdish refugees so difficult they say there is little difference between the camps on the Greece-Macedonia border and the war-torn places they fled.
Skin and physical diseases are easy to detect, but it is the psychological impact that makes the life increasingly unbearable for the refugees.
An older Kurdish old man who fled Syria thinks death itself in his country of origin would have been a better choice for him and his family than this refugee camp in Greece.
“I wished we had died in the sea. I prefer to have died from Assad’s bombardment instead of ending up in this life here. It has been six or seven months that we and our children lived in this camp. We need at least seven years in Europe to recover from the suffering we endured during these past seven months,” he said.
A young man, again from Syrian Kurdistan, said camp life is causing mental health issues. “Some have almost lost their mind. Nobody is offering a helping hand. If you try to talk to these people, they go crazy.”
Others complain that they receive only very basic healthcare, insufficient even to treat skin diseases in the camp, let alone more serious health conditions.
One two-year child has fluid on the brain. His father is in Germany. He is in the camp with his mother and sister – all waiting to reunite in Europe.
“There are many cases like this in here,” his mother said. “They are helping no one. Some have kidney failure. Some need treatment for heart problems. The people face many challenges and nobody seems to care about it.”
Skin and physical diseases are easy to detect, but it is the psychological impact that makes the life increasingly unbearable for the refugees.
An older Kurdish old man who fled Syria thinks death itself in his country of origin would have been a better choice for him and his family than this refugee camp in Greece.
“I wished we had died in the sea. I prefer to have died from Assad’s bombardment instead of ending up in this life here. It has been six or seven months that we and our children lived in this camp. We need at least seven years in Europe to recover from the suffering we endured during these past seven months,” he said.
A young man, again from Syrian Kurdistan, said camp life is causing mental health issues. “Some have almost lost their mind. Nobody is offering a helping hand. If you try to talk to these people, they go crazy.”
Others complain that they receive only very basic healthcare, insufficient even to treat skin diseases in the camp, let alone more serious health conditions.
One two-year child has fluid on the brain. His father is in Germany. He is in the camp with his mother and sister – all waiting to reunite in Europe.
“There are many cases like this in here,” his mother said. “They are helping no one. Some have kidney failure. Some need treatment for heart problems. The people face many challenges and nobody seems to care about it.”
Comments
Rudaw moderates all comments submitted on our website. We welcome comments which are relevant to the article and encourage further discussion about the issues that matter to you. We also welcome constructive criticism about Rudaw.
To be approved for publication, however, your comments must meet our community guidelines.
We will not tolerate the following: profanity, threats, personal attacks, vulgarity, abuse (such as sexism, racism, homophobia or xenophobia), or commercial or personal promotion.
Comments that do not meet our guidelines will be rejected. Comments are not edited – they are either approved or rejected.
Post a comment