Greece Refugee Crisis: Refugees move to Greek mainland after months at squalid island camps

World
Europe

03:12

Over to Europe, as Christmas approaches, Greek authorities are transferring hundreds of sick and vulnerable asylum seekers from appalling conditions on the country's islands, to the mainland. Although many refugees want to move to the capital, Athens, few end up there. CGTN's Filio Kontrafouri met a disabled asylum seeker who had just arrived in Athens and sent this report.

Just days before Christmas, Faysal Gahmous, an asylum seeker from Algeria got an unexpected gift. After spending over three months in a squalid refugee camp on the island of Samos, he was transferred to a hotel in the Greek capital. It wasn't only Algeria's misery and poverty that forced him to flee his country.

FAYSAL GAHMOUS ASYLUM SEEKER FROM ALGERIA "The handicapped in Algeria have absolutely nothing. And that's why I asked for asylum and I left Algeria."

Faysal says in his country, the disabled are marginalized. They are considered worthless. He was born disabled. And witnessed discrimination first-hand within his own home.

FAYSAL GAHMOUS ASYLUM SEEKER FROM ALGERIA "My father, he doesn't love me because first, I am handicapped, second, I don't work and third, I don't provide for the family needs. So my father said, 'what do you want at the house? Go, leave!'"

And he left. He was about 16.

FAYSAL GAHMOUS ASYLUM SEEKER FROM ALGERIA "For almost six years I lived on the street, I slept in the mosque, then I looked for a job, I was repairing shoes and I slept in the shop and then I looked for a wife to get married."

At 32, his struggle to provide for his wife and four children forced him to look for a better life in Europe. Through Turkey, he ended up in the refugee camp on the Greek island of Samos in September.

His quest for a second chance in life for him and his family continued a few days ago when he finally boarded the ferry to Athens, where his asylum case will be examined.

FAYSAL GAHMOUS ASYLUM SEEKER FROM ALGERIA "I dream for a house, a job, treatment. That's all. I don't ask for big things. Small things, only small things. Is there a right to live, yes or no? This is the question. Do I have the right to live?"

Athens is where most asylum seekers want to be. Not only because all services are here but also because here, they can arrange how to continue their journey to another European country through a smuggler. Faysal would like to stay. And for now, enjoy the festive Christmas decorations he'd only seen on TV.

And that's Faysal's biggest dream of all, to one day be together again with his family, if not here he says, somewhere in Europe. Filio Kontrafouri, CGTN, Athens.