Doctors of the World have completed their operations in Moria’s Reception Centre. At the same time, they remain in Lesvos providing medical and psychosocial services to both refugee population and the local community.
Doctors of the World have begun their operations at Moria’s Reception and Identification Centre in Lesvos in 2013 as partners of the Reception and Identification Service. Many Greek and International Organizations started operating later in this Centre, specifically during the summer of 2015, when refugee flows to Greece intensified. In March 2016, when Moria turned into a closed Reception Centre, most organizations withdrawn. Although it was not an easy decision, Doctors of the World decided to stay, in order to ensure that refugees and migrants would have access to necessary and adequate health services, and to maintain their right to “witness” cases of human rights violations.
We have consistently served this goal by offering our services and publishing our views on barriers concerning the access to health care, the vulnerability of refugees and migrants and the challenges of the public health system.
As Doctors of the World, we have been committed to the humanitarian ideals, the role and purpose of the NGOs and we have helped the public health system by constantly coordinating our operations with public structures and by trying to contribute effectively to difficult situations, sometimes even by overcoming our “identity”.
When we had been informed by the responsible authorities that our operations in the Centre are no longer necessary, we extended our presence in Moria, although we have been facing serious gaps in the funding of the project, in order to contribute to a smooth transition to the new situation.
We hope that the population which lives in Moria’s Reception Centre will continue to enjoy qualitive health services equivalent to those provided by the Doctors of the World over the past years. From our side, we would like to inform the friends and supporters of the organization that we will continue to be present on the island of Lesbos, in cooperation with all actors, providing medical and psychosocial services in order to help both the refugee population and the local society of the island.