Afghan refugees stuck at Europe’s door

PATRAS, Greece — Every day since he arrived in Greece two years ago, Mohamadi al-Raza has woken up in this port city wishing he could make it across the Mediterranean to Italy.

The 24-year-old Afghan refugee, who said he fled his country “because of the wars, the mafias and the Taliban,” has lived for months inside a makeshift refugee encampment - a five-minute walk from the barbed-wire gates of the port.

Like thousands of other Afghan refugees, Mr. al-Raza is stuck on the threshold of Western Europe, because he landed first in Greece. Rules in the European Union won’t let him go any farther.

As part of his daily routine, Mr. al-Raza tries to creep into one of the trucks that leave the port on ferriesfive times a day for the Italian coast and comes back at night after another failed attempt. “It’s like a regular job,” he said.

However, it’s hard to imagine anything further from normalcy. Littered with trash bags, broken chairs and decaying food, the “Afghan camp” provides the most rudimentary living conditions.

A few pipes supply water for drinking, bathing, laundry and dishwashing. Young men squeeze into tiny cabins of the foul-smelling shantytown, where no women or elders can be found.

“It’s very difficult to live here,” the refugee said.

Mr. al-Raza is one of about 1,300 Afghans in the encampment. Local nongovernmental organizations say most paid about $13,300 to smugglers to reach Patras, passing through Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and the Greek islands of the Aegean Sea.

According to the Patras coast guard, the Afghans are among 4,000 illegal immigrants waiting for a chance to sneak out of Greece. The others come from elsewhere in South Asia, Iraq and Somalia.

“What we see in Patras is the failure of the asylum system in Greece and in Europe in general,” said Nikos Koblas, a lawyer working with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, who describes the European system as “unfair.”

Under EU rules, the first country an immigrant reaches is supposed to deal with asylum requests. However, Greece, which claims it has become the most targeted entry point into the European Union, is hardly ever the refugees’ preferred destination. Most would rather live in Germany, France, Britain or Sweden.

Prevented from going beyond Greece and unwilling to return home to poverty or war, these migrants are stuck in Patras, a cul-de-sac on the threshold of Europe.

Officials at Patras said they feel insufficiently supported by their neighbors in guarding Europes borders and containing massive waves of migrants.

“Greece has an enormous burden to carry on behalf of the European Union,” said Capt. Athanasios Athanasopoulos, the head of the coast guard in Patras. Greek authorities say 146,500 illegal immigrants crossed its borders in 2008.

“There are unbelievable ways how they can sneak out,” Capt. Athanasopoulos added. Coast guard officers regularly discover migrants squeezed like sardines in luggage bags. Two weeks ago, two refugees who had found a hide-out in a sealed double-decker truck started suffocating and banged on the walls for help.

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