Doctors are warning that conditions at a makeshift refugee camp on the Greece-Macedonia border are becoming dangerous for children. Medics at the Idomeni camp say they have seen cases of a whole range of illnesses, including hypothermia.
Around 12,000 people are stuck at the camp after Macedonia tightened their border controls in February. The camp has recently been hit by heavy rainfall, causing swamp-like conditions throughout.
The daughter of Iraqi refugee Hazi Mohammad is one of the children reported ill. For about two days, anything she eats, water, tea or food, anything at all, after that, after five to ten minutes, she throws it all up, he said.
Many tents have been flooded after the downpour, and food, water and basic supplies are in short supply. Some sanitation facilities are scarce in the camp as well.
Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) doctor Cecile Van de Kontinenburg said, You can clearly see that the living conditions are affecting the health of the children. When its raining and they dont have shelter, they will be cold, they will catch a cold, they will catch respiratory diseases. When the weather is cold you can see that the cold is really bothering them, we have had a lot of children with hypothermia as well because they didnt have enough shelter.
She added, The hygienic conditions when theres 12,000 people arent optimal, so we see a lot of diarrhoeal diseases as well.
It is thought around 30,000 refugees are stranded in Greece, after a number of Balkan countries made it more difficult to cross the border.
