LONDON, July 22 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – One of the first questions aid worker Isaac Kwamy was asked in Greece’s camps for refugees and migrants was not whether there was food or water, but whether there was internet access.

It’s a gateway to information, and a gateway to the right of services like the asylum procedures

“Very few of them (migrants) said, ‘We are hungry, we need food. Or we are thirsty, can we have water?” said Kwamy, who visited camps in June. “They were literally asking, ‘Do you have Wi-fi access and where can we charge our phones?'”

As the head of emergency response at NetHope, an alliance of aid groups and companies like Facebook, Microsoft and Cisco that provide technology services during humanitarian crises, Kwamy said the need for connectivity came as no surprise.

Image: A lifeline. (Reuters/Yannis Behrakis).