Refugee Camp Burns Down in Greece; Who's to Blame?

By Aditi Parashar ’22

Staff Writer

A large blaze on Sept. 8 destroyed the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, leaving over 12,000 of its residents with nowhere to go. There were no casualties reported. 

According to The New York Times, aid workers, activists and officials claimed the fire was started intentionally, following protests over prolonged lockdown measures after 35 residents tested positive for coronavirus. Four unnamed migrant men have been formally charged with arson. 

However, many have also blamed the Greek government and the European Union for the disaster. As Eva Cossé, lead researcher in Greece for Human Rights Watch, told The New York Times, “This fire was expected. It’s a testament to the European Union’s negligence and Greece’s negligence.” According to German media outlet Deutsche Welle, the Moria camp was housing four times more migrants than its intended maximum capacity. Human Rights Watch reported that refugees were living in cramped conditions in overcrowded tents with limited food, water, sanitation and health care resources.  

Moria was established in 2015 in order to address the refugee crisis after 850,000 refugees and migrants hoping to travel to safety in northern Europe made their way from Turkey by boat. These refugees passed through the camps quickly when the European attitude toward refugees was more tolerant, reported The New York Times. However, since those initial days, the island of Lesbos has hosted an additional 300,000 refugees. 

The refugees have gone through traumatic experiences, fleeing persecution and war-torn countries. They now live in squalid conditions for long stretches of time, sometimes for as long as two years. In this time, they must often go through bureaucratic asylum formalities before either being sent home or allowed to move on to seek permanent asylum in northern Europe. 

“Before, I thought that Greece would be one of the best places to live,” Mr. Ashrafi, a 34-year old Afghan refugee with three daughters, told The New York Times. “Now I feel it would have been better to drown while crossing the sea.”

Some say the increased time spent in these camps is due to Europe’s inability to reach any long-term solutions to the crisis. European countries have continued to block borders, and leaders have continued to disagree on the number of refugees each country should take while providing Greece with funds to care for the refugee population. “Moria has been considered an emblem of Europe’s hardening approach to migrants in the aftermath of the 2015 crisis,” The New York Times reported.

Mickiyah Pope ’23, a politics major at Mount Holyoke, said, “For politicians to continue to behave in such an unplanned manner in the face of a humanitarian crisis — which is no way new — is truly disheartening. Politicians have the ability to do great good if they come together and truly understand the suffering of these refugees, instead of trying to pass the sole responsibility to their neighbor.”

While the European Union continues to figure out the way forward for the stranded migrants, Human Rights Watch reported that 406 unaccompanied children have been flown to mainland Greece to be relocated to other EU countries or placed in long-term shelter facilities in Greece. Countries like Germany, France and the Netherlands have also agreed to take in some number of unaccompanied children. Additionally, on Sept. 15, Germany said it plans to relocate another 1,553 refugees from Greece. 

Middle Eastern news network Al-Jazeera reported that many refugees have been moved to a temporary facility at Kara Tepe with the goal of all 12,000 being housed there by Sept. 20.  However, according to Refugee Support Aegean, a local nonprofit organization, conditions in Kara Tepe fail to meet the minimum standards of dignified living under Greek and international laws.

The Indian publication The Hindu reported the discontent among the residents of Moria on being moved to new refugee facilities. Many protested before being moved to the new facility with chants of “freedom” and “no camp,”  along with signs saying “We don't want to go to a hell like Moria again” and “Can you hear us Mrs. Merkel?” Numerous refugees see the new housing situation as continued neglect, reported Al-Jazeera. 

Rehat Thussu ’23, an international relations major at Mount Holyoke, stated, “The crisis is an issue that isn’t going away anytime soon. If countries consistently fail to respond to this crisis, that too in accordance with international human rights law, we will soon face another crisis: the loss of our humanity and our morals.” 

Time Zones Most Impact International Students’ Remote Learning Experiences

By Corrine Celupica-Liu ’23

Staff Writer

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mount Holyoke announced the implementation of the Flexible Immersive Teaching model as a means of academic instruction for the 2020-2021 academic year. This model, as explained on Mount Holyoke’s “Opening the Gates” webpage, emphasizes synchronous classes to “ensure an immersive experience and inclusive excellence,” offering courses from 8 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. EST so that “students in different time zones across the world can participate.” While the entire Mount Holyoke community has had to adjust to this new model of instruction, international students have faced unique challenges and experiences due to widely diverse geographic circumstances and time zones. 

For Deborah Korboe ’21, who lives in Sakumono, Ghana in West Africa, time zone differences mean she attends her Module 1 courses starting at 5 p.m. and finishes at 2 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time.

“It has certainly been a tasking job,” Korboe said. “It helps that I have time during the day to do homework, but I have to change my [biological] clock to keep up with synchronous classes.” 

Both Aurora Vo ’23 and Hongtian Wang ’22, who are 11 and 12 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time in Vietnam and China, respectively, are also taking classes late at night and have faced difficulties adjusting to time differences. 

“For this module, I have classes starting from 7 p.m. through 11:15 p.m. every day, and all require students to attend in real time,” Vo explained. “Even though it’s only been three weeks, I am already tired because I stay up late, making my sleep schedule a bit off.” 

Wang also mentioned how it can be difficult to keep track of and calculate deadlines in a different time zone. “There have been some difficulties for me in calculating deadlines,” Wang said. “I have made mistakes calculating deadlines, so I ended up turning in assignments late.” 

Mount Holyoke has made efforts to maintain access to resources and community despite remote circumstances. “My professors try to put students in the same time zone into a group so it will be easier for us to communicate, and they also hold a virtual common room for us to do homework together outside of class,” Wang explained. “I feel very involved and cared [for], even living very far from the campus.”

Vo also noted how the tight-knit nature of the Mount Holyoke community is helping to maintain a connection to campus. “One cool thing about Mount Holyoke is that because our student body is not large, I have seen most of my classmates on campus before,” Vo said. “A big picture of Mount Holyoke is still there for me.”

For Korboe and Wang, however, the support and community felt in courses seems not to apply to extracurricular activities. 

“It seems like [student organizations] won't be a feature for me this semester, because meeting times are always in the middle of the night for me,” Korboe said. “I just wish my colleagues would be a little more considerate.”

Wang noted that, because “I sleep early, I don’t participate in any events. That is a pity.” 

While the FIT model marks a significant adjustment for the entire Mount Holyoke community, the experience of Mount Holyoke’s large international student population is important to understand in order to continue work on fostering community through the academic year.

How the World Has Handled COVID-19

By Corrine Celupica-Liu ’23

Global Writer

Over the past nine months, coronavirus case levels have fluctuated around the world. In the United States, life during a global pandemic looks strikingly different than it did back in March. The U.S. has seen both community compliance and resistance in efforts implemented to suppress the virus. 

According to a New York Times report on Sept. 6, 2020, there are 26.9 million confirmed cases worldwide and the virus is spreading at its fastest recorded speed, with a global cumulative of 200,000 daily new cases. As of early September, there are rising surges in many parts of Europe, including Germany, Spain and France. Similar patterns are also occurring in North America, where geographically-diverse hotspots have sporadically developed over the past six months. 

Megan Horner ’23 lives in Herrin, Illinois, and has experienced the state’s response to each new hotspot of the coronavirus. 

“In the beginning, the state was able to slow the spread, but once things began opening, a lot of people stopped adhering to rules,” Horner said. “The state instituted pretty strict measures, and it was pretty effective but has since been rescinded.” 

As of Sept. 6, 2020, Herrin has recorded 1,024 confirmed coronavirus cases, which is up from 530 total confirmed cases reported on Aug. 9, 2020. 

Due to the lack of standardized federal testing and containment protocol in the United States, the reported number of cases has varied from region to region. Abroad, countries’ various strategies mixed with a more collaborative community response have been more effective in controlling the spread of the virus. 

Rachel Kang ’23, who has been living in Seoul, South Korea, since March, noted the effectiveness of the South Korean government’s response. 

“From the beginning, [the government] made it mandatory for everyone entering from abroad to quarantine for 14 days and get tested for COVID-19,” Kang said. “If there is someone who caught the virus in your neighborhood, the government sends emergency alerts to their county [and] track[s] ... where the anonymous individual has been since they started showing symptoms.” Kang also praised South Korea for its citizen safety requirements, such as wearing a mask in certain buildings and on public transit and participating in regular temperature checks. 

In South Korea, there is a 1.1 percent positivity rate from coronavirus testing. Additionally, the country has been able to maintain lower rates of contraction. From April 1 to August 12, it reported less than 100 cases daily. 

Across all the different strategies regions have attempted to control the coronavirus, one truth remains: keeping the spread suppressed requires a sense of intentionality. As Kang noted, “As much as the idea of a virus is terrifying, if the correct precautions are being taken at the right moment, it is possible to control the numbers of cases.”