Mariam* is on Lesbos with her family, her husband and her 2-year-old girl, while she is also expecting another child.
We are a family of three. Me, my husband and my two-year-old daughter. I am also 8 months and 3 weeks pregnant. I arrived on Lesbos two years ago. I have lived in Moria camp and now I live in the new camp of Kara Tepe.
When the Moria camp was on fire, everywhere we looked, there was fire. We were in the middle of it, so we went to the mountains to protect ourselves. After the fires, we were in the streets for around ten days. We didn’t have any food and water. Food was not enough for everyone.
Now in Kara Tepe camp, the living conditions continue to be difficult. There is cold, there is heat, we cannot go to the toilet easily, we don’t have a good life here. I don’t feel well. It’s two years that I haven’t gone to a private toilet. We are in a bad mental health situation.
Right now, I don’t know if we can get recognized as asylum seekers or if we are going to get a rejection. We also have problems with getting permission to get outside of the camp. Until now, my daughter has never been to a park. I wish we could move freely, so that I could take my daughter to a park.
She is very aggressive because of what she has experienced here. She “likes” to fight all the time. She doesn’t like to play. She’s not a child who likes to play with friends, to laugh, to speak and play with dolls. All there is in her mind is the the violence she has witnessed here. The fights in the camp, the time that we had to run away, the fires, the teargas. During this age, it is important to care about the little girl, to give her a lot of love and take her to nice places, but this is not possible here.
For example, when she was learning to walk, there were no walls for her to grab to be able to stand. All we had was a blanket hanging so when she was trying to stand, she would grab it and it would fall.
My wish is to get better psychologically. And to