Oinofyta camp is located 56 kilometers, from Athens’ central station. To reach Athens from the camp, residents must walk 20 minutes along a highway to a small train station, where they can then take a train for 1 hour. These trains cost €8 return and depart every two hours.
Opened illegally in 2016, the camp was established to cope with the spike numbers of asylum seekers arriving in Greece. At this time, the camp was supported by an on-site NGO, Do Your Part, who provided children’s activities, teen activities, a barbershop, an art studio, gym, football field, computer lab, cooking facilities, movie nights, a sewing center, a chicken coop, and food distribution, as well as providing train passes for those who were taking classes in Athens.
It was approximately two years later in November 2017 that the camp was shut down, along with all of the activities and infrastructure that Do Your Part had built there. The humanitarian department of the European Commission stated that Oinofyta camp ‘did not meet the department’s standards for refugee camps’. However, in March 2018, the camp was reopened without the support of any on-site NGOs and as a result, much worse conditions than before the closure.
For the residents of Oinofyta, the long commute to Athens is not just an inconvenience, it is an obstacle that stifles many people’s ability to establish a new life in Greece. In the area around the converted warehouse, there are only other empty industrial buildings dotted along the highway from the station. There are no nearby schools for children to access, and adults — even with legal papers are too far away from businesses that could employ them. The result is that residents have no choice but to be dependant on state handouts and already-operating NGOs have limited means to offer support.
