Editorial Ta Nea: Solution now!

Overpopulation, lack of housing, illnesses, a lack of basic services, sexual violence against women, unaccompanied children, and serious repercussions on lives and fundamental rights is what one sees in the Moria refugee and migrant reception centre.

The images described by the head of the European Agency for Fundamental Rights and published in Ta Nea are well known and extremely alarming.

Instead of improving, the situation is worsening and the same is happening on the island of Samos.

The Citizen’s Protection Minister recently noted that it is impossible to manage the refugee crisis when the arrivals on the islands are as many as those transferred to mainland Greece.

Arrangements are even more difficult due to the reaction of residents who do not want foreigners in their neighbourhood.

The Church’s initiatives to provide shelter for some asylum-seekers are praiseworthy but proved unrealistic because refugees and migrants object to being placed in isolated areas.

There were never easy solutions for this problem which is not suitable for partisan clashes.

It cannot be addressed by a single country, whether it be Greece or Italy.

Structural flaws in the EU-Turkey Statement regulating the issue cannot be used as an alibi for maintaining the inhuman conditions in camps.

The EU cannot hide behind the refusal of most of its member-states to assume their responsibilities.

A solution is required in order to put an end to the exploitation of the issue by nationalist-populists and in order to maintain European values.

Above all, a solution is needed in order to protect human lives.