EMT deployment on Lesbos in Camp Kara Tepe 2

At the end of 2020, CADUS and ASB spent two months on Lesbos providing humanitarian aid. The Kara Tepe 2 camp mainly accommodates refugees from the Moria camp, which has been taken away. The WHO EMT structure had asked us for a joint mission with ASB to take over medical care in the camp from the Norwegian Emergency Medical Team.

Concerns at the beginning
The decision to go on this mission was not an easy one, as we did not want to serve as a humanitarian fig leaf and take part in a new camp where the conditions seemed to be similar to the inhumane conditions in the former Moria camp. However, it is our conviction that people in need must be supported, regardless of political concerns. And so we decided to deploy.

Using your own position
During our time on site in Lesbos, we provided medical care to the people in the camp and monitored the overall situation. We also worked closely with the local NGOs that have been doing important work here for a long time. Due to the acute COVID19 pandemic, the EMLab (European Mobile Laboratory) was also on site and carried out tests.

Our treatment statistics showed that around a third of the health problems of the people in the camp were “directly related”, i.e. they resulted directly from the poor hygienic conditions, lack of supplies and tense situation on site. By the end of the project in mid-December 2020, a total of 3,000 treatments had been carried out by CADUS and ASB.