Brothels and prostitutes for 10 euros on every street corner, drug addicts and drug addicts injecting themselves on the sidewalk, a few meters from the police car, buildings surrounded by barbed wire fences. This is what vlogger Cosmin Avram found in a notorious area of Athens.
Prostitutes and buildings surrounded by barbed wire fences on top. PHOTO: Cosmin Avram
The well-known vlogger Cosmin Avram rented an apartment in the Victoria district of Athens. He set out to explore two of the city's most infamous neighborhoods, Omonia and Victoria.
“We see what life is like, how people live. I'm telling you from the start that you've never seen anything like this before. At least not in Europe. Televisions don't show you anything like that. Everyone tries to hide these things. It's wrong, in my view. These things should not be hidden, on the contrary, they should be exposed so that the authorities or competent people can do something about it“, he claimed.
He qualifies what he saw in Athens as “indescribable”: For me it was and still is simply a shock. Some wrote to me to go to America to see how people live on the streets. There's no need. We found America here in Europeto”.
Avram advises Romanian tourists not to venture into these areas, because it is very, very dangerous.
“We also pass by here with the hope that no one will take us. If when I visit beautiful places I tell you to visit them too, in the present situation it does not apply, because through these areas there is a real danger at any time”he explains.
“People inject themselves on the go, on the street”
The Romanian is shocked by the fact that on the sidewalks of the Omonia district he saw a lot of syringes on the ground, used by those who took drugs.
“There are a lot of syringes on the floor. You can't see where you're walking because it's dark. God forbid! I'm not kidding, I haven't seen anything like this since I've been around and had the chance to visit some dodgy countries so far. But like here, nowhere, nowhere. Ferentary is a joke besides what I saw tonight in these streets and the more I walk, the more places I see, the more I marvel. It's unbelievable, people just walk down the street with a syringe in their hand and inject themselves on the go”says the vlogger.
Cosmin saw people with nets of unused syringes supplying the area. A fight broke out in the street. “Worse than in the jungle. There we have the police, and here, in the distance, on the right side, I think there are 10 people, all of them inject or smoke from those containers – the shisha”, he said.
Cosmin explored alone the most dangerous neighborhood in Greece, Omonia.
“10 euros, 10 minutes”
The vlogger paid a visit to the streets of Athens, Omonia district during the day. He passed some blocks of flats protected by barbed wire fences at the top: “These blocks appear uninhabited, although there are a few cars in the parking lot. Barbed wire on top, a writing mess. It was as if there was a prison beyond the fence. That's just how it is here.”
Cosmin Avram began to be followed by a prostitute who connects with passers-by: “They are also becoming aggressive as we see. He randomly picks up girls who pass by on the street. She is joking. I made a new friend. He follows me again. He likes to put on a show. This is the European capital. She is aggressive. They have fried brains destroyed from so many substances they put into their bodies.“
The vlogger witnessed a negotiation between a prostitute and a potential client, in full view of the world. “Mr. bargain. She said 10 euros, 10 minutes, he – 10 euros, 20 euros of minutes. If we're still talking about these things in today's clip, I want to tell you that here men can marry other men, women can marry other women.”
Greece is the first Orthodox country in the world, a country where Orthodoxy predominates, that legalized such marriages, despite the protests of the church and a large part of the political elite, the vlogger explains.
Brothels presented as cinemas
Cosmin found several brothels disguised as movie theaters near the block where he lived.
“The moment you step out of the building's staircase, you find these modern brothels, both on the left and on the right, even if it says cinema, they also offer other services, not just watching a movie“, he explains.
The rates vary between 10 euros and 30 euros. “We are not on the outskirts of the city or on the outskirts of a neighborhood”, he explains. Thus, the two brothels are very close to a city square and important administrative buildings.
He stated that these brothels operate legally and are open 24 hours a day. The Romanian noted that in the two neighborhoods, Omonia and Victoria, you meet prostitutes on the sidewalk everywhere.
“Due to a recession in the early 2000s and as a result of the austerity measures of that time, there was and continues to be a real problem with illicit substance use, particularly among these homeless people. Along with those measures, the government even cut welfare programs for the homeless”, explains Avram.
Although the government initially cut funding for social programs, there are now efforts to reintegrate these homeless people:
“The data collected by the Monitoring Center for Prohibited Substances in Greece depicts the harsh reality of street consumption. They also claim that at the moment there are approximately 3,400 people who consume daily. However, more than 13,000 people aged 15 to 64 are considered high risk when it comes to using banned substances, a 30% increase on the previous year. In addition, everything is visible at the moment when it is completely visible on these streets that the authorities are not coping. I can't change anything. It's 12 o'clock and people are just doing drugs in the streets”
He explains why many buildings are surrounded by barbed wire fences: “Otherwise you find yourself with these people inside, they break the windows and come in and take over the place, and then it's going to be very, very hard to get them out because these people have big problems, problems in every way, it will be very difficult to get along with them.”
Cosmin meets brothels, street people and used syringes at every turn: “It's like we've arrived in the Wild West. You realize how bad it smells in this area. And this area is riddled with brothels.”
The oldest profession in the world, legal in Greece
The vlogger returned to the streets of the two neighborhoods at nightfall.
“The oldest profession in the world is legal and regulated in Greece. You just have to be over 18 years old. However, it is estimated that less than 1,000 women are legally employed in this field and about 20,000 work illegally on the streets and in many other shady places such as these brothels. Because don't tell me it's legal to have 30 clients a day and work 7 days a week”he explains.
Cosmin explained how things are from a legal point of view.
“People involved in this field can only work in state-run brothels. Women must be over 18 years old, unmarried, have the right to live and work in Greece, have no communicable diseases, no mental illness or addiction to prohibited substances, and no convictions for a long series of crimes. In addition to all this, they must register with the local prefecture and have a medical card updated every 2 weeks. I'm pretty sure you won't find anything like that in these places, but who knows what's really going on?“, he explains.
Many girls are from Eastern Europe, but also from China, Georgia, many from Russia.
“I understand that everything is legal, I understand that everything is allowed, but it seems unreal to me how these women are exploited for 5 euros. There are those who have between 20 and 30 people, there are those who have between 30 and 40 customers per day, they work 7 days out of 7“, explains Cosmin.
He states that the law prohibits trafficking as well as forced labor in this field.
“The penalties are high, up to 10 years in prison, not as high as they should be if you ask me, but it is punishable more than that some public officials have been investigated for human trafficking because we know everyone starts from above. The little ones do nothing without the approval of the big ones“, explains the vlogger.
However, no one linked the vlogger for filming in those places.
Prostitutes have 30-40 clients a day. A prostitute confessed in a report that out of the 10 euro tariff, 5 is kept for her and 5 is given to “the house”.
A dose costs 2 euros
“Until I did a little research for this clip, I didn't realize that there were brothels behind those doors. I didn't know that the colored doors in Athens are yes, a surprise… You see them better in the evening because the colors jump out in your eyes due to the light. During the day you can pass by here and not notice it”, he explained.
The vlogger noticed that the entrances to the block's staircase are barred in addition to the normal door. He passed a man lying in the middle of the street moaning.
“You say, how is such a thing possible? Let's see how the bus passes. He just doesn't want to hide. A recent study by the University of Athens indicated that between 2018 and 2022, mortality from these substances was much higher compared to the US, Canada, Australia and Western European countries. Of the more than 2,400 consumers under surveillance, 240 lost their lives. in 2019-55% of consumers were addicted to… “flour”. Let's call it that, because I don't want this block to be blocked by Youtube“, he tells.
While most addictions used substances already known, some used and still use a substance whose effects are similar to methamphetamine. “A dose costs 2 euros. Basically, these girls buy two doses from a customer. It's unreal,” he claims.
