#lesvos
18.03.2016 idomeni, greece. the european governments have chosen the path of barbarism, leaving all behind that they claim to stand for in the last 70 years. after the second world war the nations met 1948 in paris to pass a bill, the universal declaration of human rights.also this declaration is not written and passed as a international law treaty, it actually transformed into one. “the 1968 united nations international conference on human rights advised that the declaration “constitutes an obligation for the members of the international community” to all persons. there has been numberless breaches of the bill from country´s all over the world since it was launched from 48 nations in 1948, but the western world was always claiming that this is one of their fundamental roots. when you analyze the latest policy of the european union and it´s members, you have to come to the conclusion that these governments unlinked from these rules during the last year.
the new practice to “handle” the refugee crisis uses methods far beyond what is the substance of the declaration of human rights.
in greece and in the mediterranean sea, there is a actual military war mission ongoing, a mission that includes war ships, submarines, planes, drones, helicopters and thousands of military personal from the nato and frontex. the military is officially deployed to fight smugglers and human traffickers, therefore they also approved to use lethal force.
it is pure disinformation by the eu to call this a rescue mission. the mission is launched and created to stop the refugees from coming to europa.
big and small non-governmental organisations like amnesty international,human rights watch,doctors without borders and many more, recently issued press releases that are strongly contrary to the latest actions of how the eu is handling the refugee crisis, including the deal with turkey.
https://search.wikileaks.org/?q=eu+plan+for
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18.03.2016 idomeni, greece. panayotis kouroublis is the greek minister of interior. he visited the idomeni camp on this day and later told the press that it look like the concentration camps of the nazi´s. you have to know that he is actually blind. in some parts i have to agree on his comparison, because the general conditions are really bad and the police on spot is no help at all, but actually the military run hotspots would be much more comparable to that, not because of the sanitation situation but because of the lack of rights, the treatment from the guards, the fact that these camps are actually official detention camps, the rigid rules etc. a lot of them are old military camps or even military detention camps like moria on lesbos. press is not aloud anymore there, thats always a bad sign. since today there where rumors that during the next 2 days lesbos will be “evacuated”. this term means that all refugees on the island will be forced on ferry´s to turkey and deported to there, refusing their human rights to claim for asylum. i predict major protest from most of the ngo´s and volunteers in mytilini and the camps, especially around the harbor to stop this illegal action if this is true. other sources say that the route for deportation will be from athens, not from the islands.
update - on the 19th of march the authorities started to clear all the camps on lesbos, bringing the refugees to the harbor to ship them with 3 ferry´s to kavala in the north of greece. we are not sure where they will go from there. according to the official statement of the eu only refugees that come after the 19th of march will directly deported back to turkey. so my guess right now is that they cleared the camps on lesbos to seperate the “old” cases from the “new”.
amnesty international stated that: it as a “historic blow to human rights”, saying Europe was turning its back on refugees.
“Guarantees to scrupulously respect international law are incompatible with the touted return to Turkey of all irregular migrants”.
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13.03.2016 near agrilia kratigou, lesbos/greece. since a while we see the tactic of frontex and the coastguard to pick up the refugees even if they are only a few hundred meters away from the beach, with no problem to reach it and accompanied by lifeguard boats . they use speedboats to force the boats of the refugees to move towards the big ships, so they can´t slip through. there is actually no reasonable reason to do it this way, because all the refugees that come to the beach are taken care of immediately now by a big number of fully equipped ngo´s and volunteers and will be transported by unhcr in busses to the camps within 20 minutes. when the refugees are picked up by frontex and the coastguard, they have to sit on the windy deck with no treatment, most of the time in soaking wet cloth, no emergency blankets are given to them, no water or food sometimes for more then an hour or two, because the ships stay out to catch more boats until it is fully loaded. this seems to be another inhuman scare tactic by the eu, because this way the refugees don´t have a pleasant welcome, no smiles, no care, instead they face a rude treatment by military screaming at them while they have to sit quiet and are not allowed to move, to smoke a cigarette, go to toilette or anything else. there is a big chance to get seriously sick because of this conditions. this way they might don´t send back the message, to the ones waiting in turkey, that it was taking good care of them, at least this is my guess why they do it this way.
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08.03.2016 camp pikpa, lesbos/greece. this is the hand of a young afghan refugee. while he was on the way to greece, he had to faced the life threatening conditions of winter and incure heavy frostbites and is one of the vulnerable cases that are helped at camp pikpa on lesbos. he is among the most gentle young man i ever met, smiling almost all the time, not even complaining about what happens to him, truly brave. his injury is direct a consequence of the western war in his homeland and of the failed refugee policy. afghanistan is considered as a safe third country by the eu, so he has no chance to get the status of a refugee.
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07.03.2016 harbor of mytilini, lesbos/greece. a syrian family is waiting to enter the ferry to pireaus. since the eu closed the balkan route, they will be stucked in greece, most likely somewhere in athens, with no where to go. the camps in and around athens are full. even if the greek government is able to set up new camps, turn empty industrial space into refugee spaces and using other facility´s, this will be only a drop in the ocean, because there are still coming refugees in big numbers and there is no way that greece can cope with that on it´s own. this will not only lead to a very bad situation for the refugees, ripping them of the hope to live a normal life and a prospect for their children, but also will lead to social and political unrest in greece soon. the rightwings in greece will win bigtime from this eu policy. it is most likely that we will see highly violent streetprotest on the streets of athens and other places in greece within the next 4 to 6 weeks, if the eu is not find a solution to open a way for the refugees to other country´s within the eu.
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02.03.2016camp pikpa, lesbos/greeece. the therapist and social-workers at camp pikpa are doing a playful exercise with the children to get them used again to a sound that have them left deeply traumatised, the bang. since these children grew up in an environment of war, they connect this sound naturally with explosions and gunfire, so even in a peaceful environment they are scared to death whenever they hear this sound, because it brings them back to worst memory´s of their young life´s. the exercise is simple, they let the children blow up balloons and let them stick a needle in it to make them pop. i am deeply thankful for the work the people in the camp are doing and for the rare chance to document it, because it is the very comprehensible and strict policy of the camp-management to not allow any photos of the refugees in the camp. camp pikpa is a place exclusive for the very vulnerable cases, refugees that are so deeply traumatised that it is not possible for them to stay in the regular camps. the compassion and devotion from the volunteers here is simply incredible and they hold it up on a daily level.
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07.03.2016 harbor of mytilini, lesbos/greece. laura jansenfrommovement on the ground is giving a syrian girl a warm outfit before she enters the ferry to piraeus. movement on the groundandteam humanity are doing this for some time now in the harbor. the initiative for this came from nefeli gazis, who is a longtime volunteer on lesbos and one of my favorite souls here. she runs now a huge warehouse with donations, contributes this donations to various groups on the island and to the refugees. since most of the refugees are brought to the, now military run, camps directly, most of the time there is no chance to outfit the refugees with the donations that come from all over world. since a lot of the refugees are picked up by the coastguard and frontex directly on the water and brought to camps, this also is often the first time they experience some truly caring treatment. just look at face of the girl, how her eyes shine.
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dezember 2015, camp pikpa, lesbos/greece. i was visiting the refugee camp pikpa with my dear friend joostfrommovement on the ground this day. since the camp has a straight policy not to take photos of any refugees inside, because it is a camp for children and family´s, i only did some some photos from the environment with my old analog nikon f100. it is a place for children and one of the oldest camps on the island, full of little funky and arty details.
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28.02.2016 camp pikpa, lesbos/greece. the artist selwyn senatori is spraying his art on the giving foodtruck formovement on the ground.the kitchen in a container can provide thousands of healthy, hot meals 24/7 to the refugees and aid workers there. since it came in november 2015 it was covered all over with the pictures of french fries and we all agreed that this have to change asap, but it was for sure not the first priority. thanks to johnny de molandmovement on the ground, now the truck is a happy and friendly piece of art, based in a camp for syrian children and family´s. selwyn had only one day to do this, so he was working all day long to get it done.
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11.10.2015 between eftalou and skala sikamineas, lesbos/greece.
this photo shows a beach, about 20 minutes after a rubber dingy had reached the shaw. it is a place where you have to climb up to a dirtroad and then walk for 30-40 minutes. the person on this photo is a photojournalist from italy that worked on the island several times. right now lesbos is kind of calm on the surface, no boats came during the last days as far as i know. it was very windy, but the weather was warm. we ask ourselfs on the island what causes the stop, if it´s the turkish coastguard or police, or the high presence of navi vessels on the water. maybe it is just the wind, or they have no boats right now. we don´t know. on the other side it is getting hefty here under the surface. a lot of volunteers suffer from the low action, feeling not needed here. the goverment and political pressure is getting stronger as well. the camps are officially run by the military now, a lot of the food distribution will come from them as well, at least that is the new plan. the lifeguards spend time on the beaches waiting. frustration. the thing is, every one here knows that there are 2.5 million or more syrian refugees in turkey, another estimated 2 million refugees and immigrants and most of them want to, need to come, because there is no future for them in turkey. the western military analysts now think that assad actually going to win the war against the people of syria this year with the help of russia. so there will be no way in the future for the syrian refugees to go back to their home, it would be suicide. i guess another 500.000 to 1.000.000 syrians will flee in the next month from syria for the very same reason. same time europa close its gates, planing to use greece virtually as detention camp, while the country itself is falling even deeper into crisis. we know, they will come, somehow. if not to lesbos, chios, kos, samos, they will find other, even much more dangerous ways. the number of more than 4000 dead refugees last year will skyrock, but they will come. there is no other choice. there is nothing left for them, for their children. they deserve a future!
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13.02.2016 - EUROPEAN UNION
according to the magazine “the spiegel”, 4 members of the eu in the east, hungary, polen, czech republic and slovakia are meeting next monday to have talks and agree on ways to close the balkan route for refugees entirely.
first of all this will be a breach of a whole bunch of laws and treaty´s, since these country´s have signed the geneva convention for refugees and the the european convention for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms. they would also breach some other european laws about cooperations.
also that would imply that these country would disavow on fundamental ethic grounds of the eu.
it is a unilateralist move that could have the power to destroy the fundaments of the european union.
the same time the eu and the nato, led by germany, is sending military forces to greece to handle the boarder situation with turkey, militarizing a crisis that is caused by refugees fleeing from a genocide like war in syria. this way the eu betrays every ethic and moral grounds that it is claiming to stand for.
the last time fear was leading the european politics this way, there was no good end to it, it was in the late 20s and beginning 30s of the last century. the uprising of the far right, the barbaric ideology of fascism, especially in the east of europa, but also in most other country´s of the european union, has reached a point where these forces are able to drive the political process in front of them.
in germany, after ww2, we had the saying: “resist the beginnings” and we used that phrase to remind our selfs and our fellow human beings to let this kind of horror, the holocaust, the fascist movement in germany, never happen again.
we are in the middle of the beginnings already, on a european scale this time.
if you wan´t to live in a free society, based on ethical standards, on democratic standards, you have to stand up for your rights and beliefs NOW. you have to leave your comfort zone, your private bubble and take a stand. there is no time for wait and see anymore, for nobody. stop distracting yourself with bullshit and talk about the important topics, get activ, find better solutions for everyone. don´t wait for others to clean up the mess. act!
if you don´t, you will ask yourself in a few years: how could that happen? like our ancestors did.
and like our ancestors, you will ask yourself this question in the ruins of europa.
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neal mcqueen
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ON THE ROADSIDE
08.02.2016 near skalochori, lesbos/greece. facing all this intense moments within the refugee situation on lesbos, it is sometime almost hitting you how beautiful this island can be. there is actually a good reason why it is so popular among tourist that seek for nature beauty, birdwatching and to come to ease. this part of the island is still there, even if some of it is now facing this crisis, but even in these parts of the island you just go around the next corner, stop and think: “wow, thats beautiful!”
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22.01.2016 near skala sikamineas, lesbos/greece. turkey is a keyplayer in the whole crisis. first of all the government of president erdogan is deeply involved in the wars in syria and irak, supporting several fighting islamic extremist groups, including the isis. they deliver weapons, ammunition, other supply´s and military intelligence. they allow these fighters to freely pass the border to turkey to get medical treatment and allow groups like the isis to recruit new fighters within the turkish population, without interfering. the turkish president erdogan ordered the army to operate a war of extermination on the kurdish minority in the south-east of turkey, bombing and shooting the city´s where the kurdish people live. the turkish airforce is bombing them in syria and irak as well. the kurdish fighters, like the peschmerga, are the main reason why the isis was not able to conquer more parts of irak and syria, they even fought them back. so fighting the kurdish resistance groups is creating even more suffer and chaos in syria and irak and weaken other groups like the free syrian army. this forces a lot more people from syria and irak to flee their country´s, generating a massiv wave of new refugee movements. turkey now have officially 2.5 million syrian refugees within it´s borders and since turkey closed it´s borders, another estimated 40 to 50 thousand are waiting at the border to come in. the syrian and iraki refugees don´t have the status of refugees in turkey, the are “guest”. that means that turkey don´t grant them the rights of the geneva refugee convention. officially the turkish government grants them aid, the possibility to go to school for kids and even the right to work (since january), but actually these are only rights on paper not realized in reality. only a few hundred thousand of the refugees live in aided camps, but most hide somewhere in hotels, apartments, live on the street without any help from the government. parts of the turkish police and parts of the government are deeply ensnared with the smugglers who organize the traffiking to greece. the deal with european union had 4 major points. point 4 was the actual real deal. the european union granted erdogan that they will not interfere in his war against the kurdish people. now he is able to play the eu as he like´s, because he can control the stream of refugees. meanwhile he abolish the rest of the democratic foundation in turkey. there is almost no free, independent press left. in no other country in the world there are more journalist in prison than in turkey. the educational system is almost under complete control of the akp. they make sure that their supporters make it to the university´s by passing them the test questions and answers before the tests. whenever someone raises his or her voice against him or his government and their politics, he denunciate them as terrorist and chase them down with compliable prosecutors and secret services. the half of the turkish people who are rather modern or at least still think that atatürk had a point when he created the modern turkey, are demoralised and depressed by the not existing support from the western world. turkey is on the best way to become a flawless dictatorship and the west makes dirty deals with them. i guess thats about good old european tradition.
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07.02.2016 harbor of molyvos, lesbos/greece. greenpeace is with 2 rescue boats on the island for some time now. it is a cooperation with doctors without boarders. new teams for the boats came on the island and this is the handover and training day of the new teams.
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31.01.2016 harbor of mytilini, lesbos/greece. i met juval while we where both waiting for the ferry to turkey. he is from switzerland and had been on the island for quiet some time. one of his projects was building up the tea-tent at the moria camp and gives donation to groups and projects he beliefe´s in. he´s also a passionate photographer and a true humanitarian. the photo captures the moment before we introduced ourself to each other. we where waiting on the inside area of the harbor, on the other side of the fence in the open area of the harbor where some hundreds of refugees waiting for a ferry to athens. this girl, maybe 10 years old, was kind of playing with us and took his camera to take a few shots. it is a funny thing, even if we share friendship with more than 50 people on the island, we actually never met before. it is kind of a small island, because most of the stuff is happening in a few places, but being here for some month, it is not for granted that your way´s will cross. i am happy our´s did finally when he wen´t of for a holiday.
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04.02.2016 molyvos harbor, lesbos/greece. i met these woman from clowns without borders and they asked me about the situation on the island and where to go to have the biggest impact. i really love what they are doing, giving the children some fun and ease within this horrific setting. you might think this is silly bullshit, but if you forget to have fun, if there is no reason to laugh anymore, you are doomed. depression is the widest spread illness with the refugees, no wonder after all the horror they went through, so laughing is an essential and maybe the best medicine. thank you guys!
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30.01.2016 the hope center elpis, between eftalou and molyvos, lesbos/greece.
this afghan kid was one of the first refugees arriving at the hope center elpis. thekempsons and the volunteers provided some toys in the welcome and food area. it was a joy watching the kids playing with it, knowing that most of them might never really had the chance for a normal childhood so far, since they come out of war-zones and refugee camps, where this kind of “luxury” is not existing. this girl got herself some toys and went out to the terrace, to play with it.
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29.01.2016 limantziki beach, near molyvos, lesbos/greece. around 10 o´clock this morning another shitty plastic dingy arrived at limantziki beach, the base of the hellas lifeguards. a boat fromseawatch guided them to the beach. the lifeguards hellas and another volunteering lifeguard group from international lifeguards helped the boat to land on a improvised base. volunteers from scm,drop in the ocean and one local member of irc then took over the further care. it was done smooth and fast, no screaming, a lot of smiles by the volunteers, so even the refugees that where stressed out from the horror ride, in particular some of the small kids, calmed down very fast.
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Μιλήστε μου λίγο για το πώς οι φάπες στους φασίστες δε βοηθάνε, και πως ίδια είναι η βία από όπου κι αν προέρχεται, και μετά πηγαίνετε και πείτε το στους πρόσφυγες που τραμπουκιζονται στα νησιά.
