Thursday, September 22, 2016

Migrant and Refugee Camp Catalog, Mainland, Greece


Archaeologists of the Greek landscape can deploy their analytical tools in studying settlements to document current migrant and refugee camps. Consider what Adrian Meyers did with the archaeology of Guantanamo Bay (World Archaeology 2010). The UNHCR has just made this easier through a cartographic portal (here and here) that also includes individual camp reports (not all current). Since the data is difficult to sort through, I have created a working list of locations for 56 current sites in Central Greece. I am interested in the mainland sites as planned constructed places (different from the emergency sites of Lesvos and the Aegean Islands).

I don't know if this is useful to anyone, but here is what I plan to do with all entries. Take the Lat/Lon coordinates (simply copy/paste) into Google Earth. This will give aerial view of the camp at varying resolution. Depending on when the last satellite image of that particular region had been taken, one may or may not yet see the camp. The precise location provides a starting point for further remote sensing and for the beginnings of an analysis of each camp's spatial particularities. For instance, we can see (in most cases) the development of the site since about 2004. With street view (if camp is located on central road) one can even monitor the current situation three-dimensionally. This is not easy. It will take lots and lots of cartographic analysis. But we must start somewhere. The numbers below are as follows. Site number, Site name (using UNCHR naming to avoid confusion), GPS Latitude, GPS Longitude, Capacity of inhabitants, Current number of inhabitants, Date that camp opened, and Province. The UNCHR makes it clear that these are numbers provided by the Greek government and have not been independently verified. The UNCHR keeps track of the population figures. The numbers in my list are from the mid-September update. 



NO NAME LAT LONG CAPACITY CURRENT OPENED PROVINCE
1 Agios Andreas 38.0627 23.9877 200 176 3/8/16 Attica
2 Elefsina 38.0314 23.491 346 359 Attica
3 Eleonas 37.9841 23.6963 2500 2183 8/16/15 Attica
4 Elliniko I (Hockey) 37.8978 23.7219 1400 941 2/25/16 Attica
5 Elliniko II (West/Olympic Arrivals) 37.8998 23.7263 1400 802 9/28/15 Attica
6 Elliniko III (Baseball Stadium) 37.8974 23.7292 1300 739 2/29/16 Attica
7 Lavrio 37.7031 24.0335 400 320 3/14/16 Attica
8 Lavrio (Accomodation facility) 37.7128 24.0542 600 441 Attica
9 Malaksa 38.2393 23.7945 1500 905 3/8/16 Attica
10 Piraeus Port 37.9398 23.6243 0 0 Attica
11 Rafina 38.0087 23.9952 120 89 Attica
12 Schisto 37.9803 23.5936 2000 950 2/22/16 Attica
13 Skaramangas port 38.0048 23.5891 3200 3450 4/11/16 Attica
14 Victoria Square 37.9932 23.7298 0 0 Attica
15 Oionfyta 38.3236 23.6288 600 680 4/13/16 Central Greece
16 Ritsona 38.3869 23.5046 1000 665 3/13/16 Central Greece
17 Thermopiles 38.7972 22.5432 500 488 3/3/16 Central Greece
18 Koutsochero 39.6148 22.248 1500 0 3/20/26 Thessaly
19 Kipselochori 39.776 22.5129 600 126 6/23/16 Thessaly
20 Trikala (Atlantic) 39.5561 21.7949 360 277 7/28/16 Thessaly
21 Volos-Mosas 39.3816 22.8517 200 135 4/14/16 Thessaly
22 Alexandreia 40.6354 22.454 1200 610 3/25/16 Central Macedonia
23 Cherso 41.0945 22.772 4000 1767 2/28/16 Central Macedonia
24 Derveni (Dion-ABETE) 40.7642 22.9763 400 174 7/25/16 Central Macedonia
25 Derveni - Alexil 40.7244 22.9771 850 791 5/25/16 Central Macedonia
26 Diavata 40.7009 22.8639 2500 949 2/24/16 Central Macedonia
27 Giannitsa 40.7643 22.4467 900 0 3/21/16 Central Macedonia
28 Kalochori - Iliadi 40.6525 22.8527 500 487 5/21/16 Central Macedonia
29 Lagkadikia - UNHCR 40.6291 23.2453 787 3/21/16 Central Macedonia
30 Nea Kavala 40.9906 22.6248 4200 1975 2/28/16 Central Macedonia
31 Oreokastro 40.7009 22.9027 1500 1294 4/28/16 Central Macedonia
32 Pieria (Camping Nireas) 40.178 22.554 400 395 2/25/16 Central Macedonia
33 Pieria (Ktima Iraklis) 40.2559 22.3675 200 49 3/28/16 Central Macedonia
34 Pieria (Petra Olybou)  40.1953 22.3229 1400 1230 4/11/16 Central Macedonia
35 Serres (KEGE) 41.0724 23.5474 600 512 8/5/16 Central Macedonia
36 Sinatex - Kavalari 40.6733 23.0832 500 308 5/27/16 Central Macedonia
37 Sindos - Frakaport 40.6659 22.8337 600 550 5/25/16 Central Macedonia
38 Sindos - Karamanlis building 40.6452 22.8242 600 573 5/21/16 Central Macedonia
39 Softex 40.6701 22.8748 1900 1339 5/25/16 Central Macedonia
40 Thessaloniki Port 40.58 22.8835 0 0 3/17/16 Central Macedonia
41 Vagiohori 40.7131 23.3792 631 210 5/26/16 Central Macedonia
42 Vasilika 40.5016 23.0983 1500 1273 6/14/16 Central Macedonia
43 Veria (Armatolou-Kokkinou) 40.5154 22.2083 440 330 3/26/16 Central Macedonia
44 Chalkero 40.956 24.457 350 281 4/11/16 Eastern Macedonia Thrace
45 Drama 41.1714 24.069 550 200 3/1/16 Eastern Macedonia Thrace
46 Kavala (Perigiali) 40.9469 24.4294 270 119 8/5/16 Eastern Macedonia Thrace
47 Kozani (Leukovrisi Stadium) 40.299 21.794 400 215 2/22/16 Western Macedonia
48 Doliana 39.8985 20.5783 400 205 3/15/16 Epirus
49 Filipiada 39.2244 20.873 700 421 3/18/16 Epirus
50 Katsika Ioanninon 39.6077 20.9023 1500 739 3/16/16 Epirus
51 Katsika Ioanninon (EMAK) 39.6998 20.773 250 239 Epirus
54 Konitsa 40.0494 20.7493 200 167 3/15/16 Epirus
55 Tsepelovo 39.8849 20.8003 200 142 4/16/16 Epirus
56 Andravidas 37.9384 21.2069 300 246 3/31/16 Western Greece


Context: In March 2016, Greece's northern neighbors closed their borders to refugees and migrants. Approximately 57,000 individuals could not reach their intended destinations in Northern Europe and were effectively stuck in a country they did not want to be in, and a country that was not prepared to host them. A situation that had already escalated into a humanitarian crisis took an unusual turn towards long-term settlement rather than temporary passage. The closing of borders, exclusionary foreign policy, and a deal struck between the EU and Turkey on March 18, 2016 changed the spatial character of Greece’s migrants and refugee management. Before March, the humanitarian crisis was concentrated on the islands of the Aegean, where migrants and refugees landed in great number, and where they had to process their initial paperwork. The deal with Turkey gave control of those points of arrival to Frontex, EU’s coast guard. Frontex coordinates and control the Moria reception center in Lesvos and polices the waters between Greek and Turkey. The 57,000 refugees and migrants already trapped in Greece became de facto a Greek internal affair. Initially, the landlocked refugees created ad hoc camps with a large concentration at the rail depot and border control at Eidomeni. The Greek government’s solution to this new phase of the crisis was a strategy of decentralization. Greece’s incapacity to process even the minimum number of asylum seekers in the early 2000s was compounded by the 2009 debt crisis. Without the bureaucratic, logistical, or financial infrastructure to solve the humanitarian crisis in a centralized manner, the Greek government initiated a decentralized plan of dispersing its new migrant population across the provinces in newly erected camps. In March 2016, there were 26 camps, but in August that number had grown to 70.

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Kostis Kourelis

Philadelphia, PA, United States