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DEBATE
Last night, while the world slept, we spoke to our colleagues in the burning camp of Moria on Lesbos.
External comments: This is a discussion article. Analysis and position are the author’s.
In Facetime we see the main part of the camp. Everything is on fire. The clinic, the juvenile station, the European asylum office, styrofoam boxes, absolutely everything burns. We hear desperate screaming people in the background.
– Where should we go? asks a man with a wife and a thirteen-month-old daughter.
We hear that police barricades have been set up, families with children desperately hiding in the forest. Neo-Nazis taking to the streets. Everything is accompanied by background shots.
In the morning, the world sees the apocalyptic images of a burned camp.
– No more Moria
Again, 13,000 people, among them there are 5,000 children on the run. The Covid infection has spread, 35 have tested positive, but the Greek authorities have obviously never had a plan for those who became infected in the crowded Moria camp. The refugees only experienced further confinement when they sat in their tents behind barbed wire. Now no one knows where the infected refugees are.
Today’s grotesque situation in the Moria camp it is neither new nor unknown to our politicians. The ruling parties have crossed their hands and turned their backs. Not a single fate in this man-made hell has managed to affect our politicians enough to make a concrete effort to improve the situation.
Since 2015, Norway has stood still on the ship and hopes that someone else will take on the humanitarian, moral and ethical responsibility of saving children from living in dire need in the European camps on the doorstep of wealthy Norway. Norway demanded that another country act first.
– Disaster forecast
Children alone on the run and we have to wait. The children are injured and die, we will still have to wait. Covid-19 in full swing in a camp without soap and water, we are waiting a little longer.
Like a bad chess game, the last move comes in the morning. The prime minister and the government announce that they will receive 50 people from the countryside, “as we have already decided,” says Erna Solberg laconically: – It’s good that we start (sic!).
No change in number only the 50 that were already determined. There is no understanding of crisis. There is no information on what the Greek authorities are asking for. There are no actual figures on the number of children in dire need now.
The government has spent five months deciding on an already ridiculously low number with too many reservations.
We believe that the urgent need that Norway should be able to solve is 1,000 people with priority for families with children.
Norwegian municipalities report since they have ample spare capacity and want to receive. The municipality of Bergen offers 50 places as a solidarity handshake to those most in need. Okay!
Norwegian hotels and tourism companies are empty. Our national emergency preparedness for assignments abroad was last used, with good results, to support the health service in Northern Italy with Norwegian Civil Defense health teams and emergency preparedness teams for assignments in the foreigner (ERU teams) from the regional health authorities.
Norway therefore has large evacuation reserves ready with planes, medical personnel and logistical support ready 24 hours in advance. Mobilize them! Start! No time to lose.
The game about Moria
We demand action! The government has delayed long enough. We now have an acute and well-defined humanitarian catastrophe. Norway has the muscles to align itself with the professionals, transport and reception in Norway. We have a basic solidarity and commitment to Norwegian local communities and municipalities. We lack a strong and supportive government that can change focus, pick up the pace, and use the great capacity and experience we already have.
The Storting and the government can choose write oneself in the history books with concrete action and moral courage, not turn around muttering a minimum of political commitment.
As Nordahl Grieg said: – Man is noble, the earth is rich, here there is hunger and anguish, it is due to betrayal.
The homeless and scared displaced people on Lesbos need our concrete solidarity now, not empty words. Children need us. Traumas queue up and ruin entire lives.
We can ease. We can help. We must not let them down now.
Show action, Erna! Mobilize the emergency services! Get 1000 and get them fast!
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