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.