Editorial: Head buried in the sand

With the way the government is handling the migration crisis, it seems to believe that the problem will go away not if it is solved, but rather if it ignores it and society stops focusing on it.

In line with this approach of burying one’s head in the sand, is the government’s decision to ban the press from entering refugee and migrant camps, so as to record and inform the public about the conditions under which their fellow humans are living.

Increasing refugee flows are aggravating the explosive situation at most migrant reception centres, where bloody incidents between migrants remind one of the unacceptable living conditions. These inhuman conditions are the cause of outbreaks of violence in Thessaloniki’s Lagadikia, Patras’ old industrial zone, and elsewhere.

The government clearly cannot solve the problem on its own. Yet it is responsible for the fact that it continues to do the minimum for refugees and migrants, and for the island that receive them.

It is doubly responsible, as its boasting while in the opposition about its sensitivity and humanism, gave way to complete indifference.

The problem is so glaring that one cannot ignore it, as much as one might bury one’s head in the sand.