Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Belgium, and Denmark have been taking in migrants from the Middle East, Africa and Asia, but Greece tops this bleak list. Every month, thousands of asylum seekers land on Greece’s shores not far from the coast of Turkey. Given the current circumstances, this refugee influx is only going to mount, as the intensity of worldwide conflicts worsen. In this joint photo project, TASS and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) will show the lives of those who have escaped war, bloodshed, starvation, and suffering to find refuge in this ‘promised land’.
The Moria Refugee Camp on the Greek Island of Lesbos, was initially designed to accommodate 3,000 people. However, its population has ballooned as makeshift shelters popped up around it, so now the camp is home to 12,000-15,000 migrants from Syria, Afghanistan and African countries.
Asylum seekers from Moria’s makeshift shelters line up to wait for food from humanitarian organizations in front of a volunteer center. People can spend up to 10-12 hours, just waiting in line.
Afghan refugees from the Moria Camp who received their food rations for a family of three. They live in tents located in the camp’s makeshift area and cannot rely on small subsidies or food within the official migrant assistance program.
Kids at the Moria Refugee Camp stand behind the volunteer center’s fence. Food rations are being handed out on the other side. The system here goes by the principle of ‘first come first served’ and what’s left over is given to people standing in line on the other side of the fence.
A refugee hanging children’s clothes out to dry. Camp residents usually have to stand in line at a special reservoir in order to get a bottle of water to wash their clothes.
A street barbershop at the Moria Camp. Refugees from Afghanistan give haircuts for symbolic sums of money or food.
African female migrants cover their faces when they see reporters at an Athens refugee camp.
A family of refugees from Syria’s Aleppo is cooking some soup beside their tent at the Moria Camp.
An Afghan migrant returning to the camp’s makeshift area from Moria’s central grounds, where he can buy fruit and vegetables from speculators.
Syrian Kurd children at the Ritsona Refugee Camp 75 km from Athens eating dried fruit and cookies. About 800 people live in the camp, and half of them are kindergarten and school-age children.