#starfish foundation
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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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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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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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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30.01.2016 the hope center elpis, between eftalou and molyvos, lesbos/greece.
philippa and eric kempson are artist who live here on the island and longterm activist since the refugee crisis on lesbos. the hope center elpis is their new project, a transit camp, based in an old hotel at the beach between eftalou and molyvos. with the help of many ngo´s, private organisations and foundations they where able to rent the hotel, which was closed for 7 years. during the last weeks they started to reconstruct the hotel, it is still in progress. today the first group of refugees arrived there and will probably stay overnight, since all the camps on lesbos are full because of another ferry strike in greece. the association of ther hope center work together with several other groups on the island, like a drop in the ocean, dirty girls of lesbos islands,starfish,lifeguard hellas and others. as far as i understand the concept it is a transit camp for the refugees to stay for a few hours, getting some dry cloth, medical attention, food, the possibility to use showers and sanitation and if it´s needed they can stay even overnight. since it looks like 2016 will even see a bigger number of refugees will come to the island, this camp will be needed for sure. actually we will much more of this facilities on the island.
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