Camp Lesbos - Life in the Refugee Camps: II.III. Being a Female Refugee

After their arrival on Lesbos and after being registered (which happens in Moria) most of the women are sent to Kara Tepe and possibly to the Caritas Hotel if luck is on their side. Most women are joined by their husbands and/or family for the simple reason that women generally do not undertake the long journey to Europe by themselves. And it is for this reason that single and unaccompanied women are more of a rarity on Lesbos. The single women on Lesbos have often lost their husband along the way.

Refugee women face their unique situation and challenges being in the Lesbian camps, which are covered in this chapter specifically.

Activities & Services

NGOs do a lot to organize activities and services for the women specifically, trying to accommodate to female needs and desires as good as they can. Women are generally not sent to camp Moria as they are considered vulnerable cases, although some women do live there. And some of them, who are mostly African, apparently choose to stay there. This might be for specific reasons - on which I’ll expand later.

--- A female refugee arriving on Lesbos with her children
(source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/syriafreedom/20641737384/in/photostream/)

Being in Caritas as a woman with your husband or family is relatively speaking ‘good’: you have your own room plus several activities are organized by different NGOs (BRF, Caritas, RSP and Israaid). Further the environment is safe, as security is present and there is also a 'community feel' where people seem to know about and look after each other.

Being a woman in Kara Tepe is 'ok' and many women are initially happy after having arrived there. They feel they are in a relatively safe place that provides them with some facilities, activities and the basics of survival. Regardless of the services provided, the situation in Kara Tepe is more ambivalent than in Caritas. This is because the 'security and community feel' - which is present in Caritas - is much less present Kara Tepe. People are more on their own.

Considering the activities in Kara Tepe, it can be said that there are more female specific ones in Kara Tepe than in Caritas. While this is good - as the women can distract and express themselves more - it can also be a bit ‘too much’ at times. As every NGO tries to have a piece of that 'refugee pie', each one of them tries to do specific things and organize particular activities to keep themselves 'in the game'. To achieve that, some of the NGOs organize exorbitant activities like a weekly beauty session (where they take women to a beauty parlor) or taking the women to fancy restaurants. On a surface level this might seem cool, yet the advantages of it are not as apparent as they might seem - for the (financial) costs of these activities might outweigh the benefits, considering that overall resources are limited.

These kind of activities are a consequential outflow of the ‘cuddle urge’ towards these “poor refugees” - wanting to indulge them with with a taste of our 'good life'. While in my opinion (and those of others) it's not bad to give and organize something extra for these refugee women, I do think that the resources available should be spent well. ‘Westernized spoiling’ through taking women out to exclusive places is touching the problem of misallocating and mismanaging resources - as these could be used more effectively in the form of education, empowerment groups and skill-development. Likewise they used could be spent on more acute necessities as for example clothes or decent food (of which there is always too little).

So NGOs try to take good care of the (female) refugees and try to keep them entertained. While this is worthwhile and adding to 'making the best out of the situation', there are nevertheless some serious problems for refugee women living in Lesbos.

Challenges

Domestic violence

Domestic Violence is a problem, especially in Kara Tepe. As indicated in the children’s section above: domestic violence does take place, and it is often not openly spoken of by the (female) refugees themselves. It is true that some patriarchist cultures within the refugee community accept and allow male dominance, which potentially promotes the idea that domestic ‘correction’ is seen as something acceptable to a certain degree. Regardless of this being so, it is not my aim to judge cultural specifics or patriarchy in this document; what I want to bring to the fore is the contextual factors of being a refugee which spur the development of domestic violence, and structural abuse, within the home atmosphere.

As said and known: being a refugee is marked by pressure, loss, stress, uncertainty and lack of control over one’s fate. This easily triggers mental/emotional reactions within individuals that can impact family and partnership relations. As men and women are getting frustrated, desperate and reactive the worst of them can come out relatively easy; this due to having little reflective capacity and self-regulatory reserves due to the stressful circumstances of being a refugee.

Where women are generally speaking more inclined to ‘internalize’ negative emotions (as with suppression, becoming sad and self-judgmental, going into self-victimization etc.), men are more inclined toward ‘externalizing’ (acting out) negative emotions – and thus more frequently engage in anger, substance abuse, impulsive behaviour and aggression. Domestic violence is an outflow of this, where anger, frustration etc. gets channeled into abuse towards external 'targets' in one's environment and where women (and children) pay the price.

We also see that that substance abuse is rife in the camps: even life-long abstinent (non-drinking) Muslim men turn to alcohol at a certain point - and many get drunk while they do. So now the boundaries have dropped due to the alcohol, impulsive behavior is more likely to manifest. This is especially so when alcohol opens up, emphasizes and lets out suppressed emotions and frustrations (which it does). As a result of this fights happen among males, and yes, wife and family can become a target of aggression as well. Domestic violence is a common problem in Kara Tepe with incidents taking place daily (as reported by MSF and 'internal sources' form inside the refugee community).

For the women facing domestic violence and who want/need a shelter there is the (temporary) solution of the ‘women's safe space’. Here they can stay for some time with some support from volunteers, and where they can sleep if need be. While this is a good immediate/short-term solution this doesn't provide a structural solution, as women have to go back to their husbands at some point (who might even be more angry because of his wife 'leaving him'). Unfortunately there is the same old problem of the lack of specialists and funding. There are no family-oriented services offering psychological and practical support in how to stabilize the family/relationship harmony within a refugee situation.

Withdrawal and isolation

Regardless of the arranged activities many women are just sitting at ‘home’. They hardly go out and have no or very few friends, spending their days in their hotel rooms or - in Kara Tepe - in their depressing containers (bare and depressing rooms with chip board walls). A lot of the women are kept inside because their husbands won't allow them out (which might be interpreted as 'domestic violence' as well).

An Afghan woman helping us out as a Farsi translator during the English classes told us a bit of her story in this respect. She told us that she was desperate to get out of Kara Tepe and that any reason would do. Her life perpetually revolved around cleaning her room, day in and day out. And after finishing this one and single task she just sat on her bed for the rest of the day, crying and lingering on the past and worrying about the future. She said the situation drove her crazy and I could see the truth of her suffering in her burdened face and the tears she was trying to hold back talking about it. This woman lives the textbook example of dulling, mind-numbing and desperate monotony; basically living the life of a caged animal. Back in Afghanistan she at least could go out to teach English at school and do things with her friends, and that she misses her old life. In Kara Tepe she has almost no-one but her husband who is out all day while she stays in all day, living in worry of the future and in the melancholy of the past.

Rape

Sex-related violence is another serious issue in the camps. This is shown by the amount of rape cases officially reported on the island. Recently MSF (Doctors Without Borders) reported 80 rape cases per week. While this number is very high, one must realize that these cases are only the reported ones - the actual number of rape-cases is certainly much higher.

An extra problem within this is that being raped is a big taboo in many cultures. Thus being exposed as a rape victim puts even more pressure on the family/relationship, as even speaking of the matter within the community is met with resistance, reaction, blame and judgment. Consequently, women are reluctant to seek help and support after being raped, as their place within their community might be compromised. Compounding this problem is that blaming the victim is not unheard of within families (and within the community). Women might thus actually face extra potential consequences for being raped where they might be found suspect or even guilty of being ‘seductive’ or ‘willing’. Considering all of this, rape is often kept secret and behind closed doors.

Women are (sexually) vulnerable in the camps. In Kara Tepe there are many dark and hidden corners, and many rape cases take place in the toilets at night.

Trafficking

Rumor has it that a significant amount of the women are being trafficked to Greece to be exploited as prostitutes - sent to Lesbos with the pretext of being a refugee while actually being on their way to Europe to be sold as sex-slaves. This suggests that some women ‘choosing’ to be in Moria actually have to be there as they are not allowed to leave their pimps/smugglers and have to stay close in order to work as a prostitute (cases of this have been confirmed in police reports). Meanwhile they are waiting for their transport to Europe where they’ll end up being exploited even further, living a life deprived of all rights and dignity.

You might ask: why do the pimps/smugglers choose to stay in Moria while being granted access to Kara Tepe? Reason for this is probably that there are many more single, and sexually frustrated, men in Moria - making it the perfect place to pimp a woman as a prostitute.

Summarizing

All in all being a woman in Caritas is relatively ‘good’ and safe, but being a woman in Kara Tepe is marked by much more ambivalence. Regardless the relative abundance of activities (of which some can be considered ‘too much’) many women live in seclusion and isolation. Domestic violence (sexual and otherwise) forms a serious issue plus the risk of rape is considerable. Being a woman (or man for that matter) in camp Moria is serious shit and not to be preferred – for the camp itself is terrible plus there is the added risk of rape and trafficking.