(photo credit: TeleSUR)
“My daughter and I don’t feel safe in here, we want to be moved to a new section,” said a mother in Farsee through one of the translators. She has been in New Arrivals for the past few nights and refused to be house anywhere besides section A, which is only meant for families with disabilities and diseases.
“You can’t be house there ma’am, you have to wait for a space to open up in the camp,” was all I could tell her. I’ve seen the camp increasingly fill as winter approaches and people want to get settled in a new country before winter inhibits their ability and safety to travel.
The saturation of 5,000 refugees living in quarters made for less than 1,800 makes it difficult to house people quickly. They try to move the single women out of New Arrivals after initial processing as soon as possible.
“Three single women are missing,” said one of the long-term volunteers who usually runs New Arrivals.
One girl was 25 years old, the other two girls were 19 — about my sister’s age.
“What do you mean they’re missing?” I asked.
When you’re processing in New Arrivals you can’t leave. The police have the gate guarded and the massively tall wired fence keeps everyone in pretty well. Although some people do sneak out, it’s very rare that they would be gone through the next day.
There had been some older men harassing, hanging out and flirting with the single women, who didn’t know each other but stuck together for protection. They were last seen two nights before around 8pm and the next morning they were gone.
“They might have been trafficked,” the New Arrivals worker said with an underlying tone of worry.
I honestly didn’t even think about it or realize how real sex trafficking was in a place like this. But today reality struck as I was exposed to what life is really like at a refugee camp.
Some men pose as refugees, but are actually sex traffickers. They tell the girls that there is a job or work in Athens for decent money. They could make money and have the security of work if they just went with them.
Other times they prey on children. They’ll tell unaccompanied minors and children to say that he is their father so he can “protect” them and take care of them in the camp. Then they’ll be documented together and he will have ownership or rights of the kids being processed.
Prostitution is also another real thing in the camp. The single women’s section used to have a brothel inside. When it was discovered that the single women were trying to make money by prostituting the many single men in the camp, they broke up the brothel and restricted any men/boys from entering. Children are also raped often times in the camp.
“A minor went missing today, she was in New Arrivals for less than 12 hours,” said a fellow long-term volunteer. Again, a couple men said they were with the girl of about 14 years old and wanted her papers to be processed quickly. The volunteer warned the girl that some men in the camp are not good and will try to do bad things, as she asked the girl to stay put on the bench. When the volunteer returned a few minutes later, the girl and the men were gone.
My heart broke for the first time at the camp. I’ve already seen many things here, but hearing that and being in the midst of the situation really makes it real. An hour or so later I saw the documents of the single women sitting on the desk. I stared at each one of the girls faces, as their picture was on the paper with all their information.
All I knew to do was pray for these girls. Pray that God’s sovereign hand watches over these girls and that if they were indeed trafficked, that God would redeem their situations so they may help other girls in the future.
I pray that God continues to reveal to me the brokenness of this refugee camp. I don’t want to sugar coat to you all the reality these people live in. Sure there are glimpses of joy and humanity, but the heaviness of camp often overwhelms the atmosphere. For a closer look at the conditions of the camp, check out my teammates narrative article “I’ll Never Forget The Smell”.
Even though six 9 to 11 hour shifts a week are taxing, it is one of the most rewarding works I’ve ever done in my life. They desperately need the short-term volunteers here. There just isn’t ever enough man-power to give these refugees the proper care they need. They really and truly are trying to make the best of the little resources they have, but it just never seems to be enough.
Thank you for reading this blog and caring to make yourself aware. Thank you for your daily prayers for this refugee camp, for the people and the volunteers. The Lord weeps when we weep, He loves these people deeply. Thank you for letting your heart break for these people and sending us to support this cause. It had been a true blessing and honor to serve in this way. Pray for the women of this camp that they may be protected and have the wisdom to stay clear of any traffickers.
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