#movement on the ground
02.04.2016 idomeni, greece. the frustration in the camp is growing fast. the word is out that from today on a huge group of refugees will try to shut down all kind of support like food and medical attention, to protest against the situation they face. they know well that the border is closed, that there is no real way to claim for asylum in greece right now, about the deal with the turkish government. so they are willing to take desperate measures to enforce their claims. yesterday a 14 year old boy had to been stopped in idomeni as he planned to set himself on fire. several refugees are in a hunger strike. the first photo in this set show´s a 15 day´s year old baby. she was born in the camp.
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20.03.2016 port of mytilini, lesbos/greece. this is the last ferry loaded with refugees from the camps in lesbos for this day. there are still hundreds of syrian in kara tepe, about 700 pakistanis in the olive grove and a few other cases. about the main camp moria we have no confirmed information, since all the ngo´s are expelled from the hotspots now. there was a ferry leaving lesbos today around noon with about 2000 refugees heading to the islands in the south to pick up more refugees and then to go to kavala in the north of greece. i don´t have the exact number but the guess is around 4000 refugees arrived 20.30 o´clock in kavala harbor. they will be brought to several camps in the area. the refugees have to go on the ferry´s to pireaus and kavala, because the eu want to clear all camps on the islands for the new coming refugees, so they can be separated from the ones that comes from the 20.03.2016 on. these one will be handled on the new rules, that are part of the new deal with turkey. the deal implants the plan to deport all incoming refugees back to turkey and for every refugee coming the eu will accept an approved asylum seeker from turkey. this deal is bullshit on many levels and is breaking a lot if european laws, as well as the geneva convention of human rights, which strictly forbid mass deportation. the deal use not the term of mass deportation but use a cover up term which means the very same. this goes along with the fact that turkey is actually not approved as a “safe third country”, so any kind of extraction of migrants and refugees to turkey would be illegal. apart from that it creates other issues. when the plan is to accept refugees from turkey for every “returned” refugee, and only then, and this is done to discourage the refugees from coming “illegal” to europa, the refugees actually knows that there will be a huge need to have them come on boats to greece so even if they are returned other will have the chance to enter. this is dividing and rule at the malicious level. with no people coming to “illegal” to eu, the eu don´t have to accept “approved” refugees from turkey. think about this for a while. if you want to know more about the legal issues of this deal, here is a good read: http://eulawanalysis.blogspot.gr
in some of the photos you can see laura jansenfrommovement on the ground from holland. the last weeks she was part of a team helping the refugees directly in the harbor, providing food and clothes, helping to organize the boarding procedure, negotiate with the police forces to keep them calm and give an incredible amount of love and care to the refugees before they leave into a unknown future. she and a lot of other volunteers from ngo´s like movement on the ground,team humanity, proactivia/open arms,lifeguards hellas, starfish foundation,northern lights aid,scm and more are working over the limits around the clock to make this transition as endurable as possible. again i can not point out enough my deepest respect and admiration for these volunteers and their work. one more detail in the end: the refugees actually have to pay the ferry tickets themeselves.
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18.19.03.2016 idomeni, greece. on the first three day´s of my time in idomeni the officials where passing the information to the ngo´s and refugees that the camp will be closed soon. if the refugees would not be willing to move away they would use force. now they still hand out flyers in 3 languages saying that the border is closed for good and the refugees should move to the other camps, but because the other camps are actually almost filled up, now there was a change of plans and the authority´s announced that they will try to approve the conditions. what we saw so far is a bunch of new containers for the police positioned in a way that it creates a bottle neck in the middle of the camp. i had a talk about this with a skilled crisis manager from the usa and he told me that this is one of the worst ideas to place them like that he could think of. apart from that it is like in autumn on lesbos, 100% of the support is done by ngo´s and private volunteers. a lot of the groups that have been on lesbos for the last 5-6 month went to idomeni with some of their people to help. the german red cross announced that they will build a huge medical tent in a cooperation with another red cross unit from, i hope i remember this right, denmark. this medicine tent will have the ability to even do surgery´s.
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18.-19.03.2016 idomeni, lesbos/greece. the 4 ½ day´s i spend in the camp have been brutal intense. i met so many beautiful souls, saw horrifying conditions, hopeful and lost eyes, have been told dozens of unique story´s, experienced the pride of people who lost everything and now stay for weeks under the worst condition you can not even imagine, but still being able to stay humble. it was simply heartbreaking. on the other side it gives me even more drive to continue this journey, to tell the story´s behind this disaster and about the complete failure of the european politics. when i think of all this strong people, there is no other way to stay strong too, for them, for us, trying to inspire, trying to change minds, trying to explain, trying to help, trying to shine light into the darkness. there is no way i will give up, we need this change. if we fail, our society will fail in entirety. we will fall back into the darkest time of human existence, so there is no other way than to continue. we are the 98%, if we unite, nothing and no one can stop us! talk to each other! spread love and kindness! laugh and learn from our differences! make your life a contribution to all beings!
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19.03.2016 idomeni, greece. today strong wind was blowing away dozens, if not hundreds, of tents in the area. it was a mixture of horror, laughter and for some kids even fun. the last two photos are taken within 1 minute. two members of team humanity let one broken tent fly and in the very next moment their own big tent was blown away, leaving a sleeping member of the team pretty astonished behind on now open air ground.
somehow it was a good allegory for what was happening the same time on the greek islands, refugees hopes where blown away.
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17.03.2016 idomeni, greece. i was watching this young syrian boy playing alone on the rails for some minutes. he was entirely in his own world, playing several roles. then he spotted me and came to me, making signs that he wants me to take photos of him, smiling with his beautiful soft eyes. as you can see a part of his head is burned badly. it was one of these barrel bombs of the assad regime that created the fire that did this to him.
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16.03.2016 idomeni, greece. today i went to idomeni to stay for some day´s. wanted to go there for a longer while, but because of some finance struggle i had to postpone it several times. my first impression is of a desaster area. worst conditions i have experience so far since the crisis started. yes, there are several ngo´s giving food, medical attention etc, but the whole camp is a mudfield, people camp and live beside the trainrails as well, food is obvious an issue as well as really bad healthconditions, diseases are spreading. the refugee collect wood from all the area around, but still they have to burn plastic everywhere, it smells like hell. riot police from athens is on the spot, the real bad guys. this young boy from syria was holding his bread like a precious treasure for quiet a while. he came to me and give the biggest smile you can imagine.
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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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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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27.02.2016 molyvos, lesbos/greece. local and international activist came together at the beach of molyvos today at 13 o´clock, to show their solidarity with the refugees and to demand a humanitarian approach to the refugee crisis in europa. this event took place all over europa.
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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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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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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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