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STORY: GREECE / IDOMENI MIGRANTS
TRT: 02:15
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 6 MARCH 2016, ATHENS, GREECE
1. Wide shot, refugees and migrants walking on motorway
2. Med shot, man carrying personal items on top of rug
3. Pan right, refugee family arriving to the trains tracks
4. Pan left, family member carrying Alan
5. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Amir Moustafa, Syrian Refugee:
“It’s a difficult situation. I want to get him treatment, as soon as possible. He is my only son.”
6. Pan right, family member carrying Alan
7. Tilt up, family member carrying Alan
8. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Amir Moustafa, Syrian Refugee:
“The journey has many hardships, because you carry your belongings, your pain, difficulties and a sick child and a wheelchair. If my son wasn’t sick, I would never have come here.”
9. Pan right, Idomeni camp
10. Med shot, mother feeding her son Alan
11. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ahlam Raji Rashid, Syrian Refugee:
“What am I to do? I don’t have a solution. I don’t have a solution. How will I get him treatment? I’ll wait, I’ll wait. Four, five days and then I’ll go back to Syria. If I stay here waiting in the tents, my son won’t be able to handle it. He cries a lot.”
12. UPSOUND (Greek), Panagiota Siafaka, Senior UNHCR Protection Assistant:
“Do have food? Do you have a tent to sleep in? No, OK, so we will help you to get food and a tent to sleep in.”
13. Med shot, Alan taken into tent
14. Wide shot, refugees and migrants waiting to be admitted into FYROM
15. Wide shot, Alan carried by family member in his arms
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Panagiota Siafaka Senior UNHCR Protection Assistant:
“I’m very happy for today because we helped this Syrian family that has this sensitive case with the child with special needs.”
17. Wide shot, refugees waiting in front of tents
18. Med shot, tents
19. Wide shot, tents
Worsening bottlenecks at the Greek border with the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia mean that more than 12,000 refugees and migrants are stranded near the Greek village of Idomeni, in a makeshift transit camp that is full at five times its capacity.
This is the long flight from war. Amir Moustafa has walked since dawn. He and his family of seven fled Syria when a bomb hit their home in Aleppo. They got to the Greek island of Kos a week ago, after a dangerous sea crossing.
Amir’s 11-year-old son Alan needs urgent medical care.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Amir Moustafa, Syrian Refugee:
“It’s a difficult situation. I want to get him treatment, as soon as possible. He is my only son.”
Alan’s family must push or carry him. He was oxygen-deprived at birth, has trouble controlling his limbs, and now he’s exhausted. So are they.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Amir Moustafa, Syrian Refugee:
“The journey has many hardships, because you carry your belongings, your pain, difficulties and a sick child and a wheelchair. If my son wasn’t sick, I would never have come here.”
Idomeni camp is now home to more than 12,000 refugees and migrants.
Alan’s mother, staying in Syria was a death sentence for her son. Time is short.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ahlam Raji Rashid, Syrian Refugee:
“What am I to do? I don’t have a solution. I don’t have a solution. How will I get him treatment? I’ll wait, I’ll wait. Four, five days and then I’ll go back to Syria. If I stay here waiting in the tents, my son won’t be able to handle it. He cries a lot.”
The small tent for two offers only the barest shelter. For many others here, there is no shelter and little food.
For almost all here onward passage is no longer an option. But Alan and his family are allowed across. This is a medical emergency.
SOUNDBITE (English) Panagiota Siafaka Senior UNHCR Protection Assistant:
“I’m very happy for today because we helped this Syrian family that has this sensitive case with the child with special needs.”
The crossing is a small step, a glimmer of hope for Alan and his family to access the asylum and assistance they desperately need. But for hundreds of thousands, this bottleneck now symbolizes new problems for refugees and migrants.
Following new border restrictions aimed at stemming the flow of people into northern Europe, only a trickle are being let through every day, while hundreds more are arriving. Food, water, shelter and medicine are running out as Greek authorities are struggling to cope, and even the young and able-bodied are feeling the strain.
