#the giving foodtruck
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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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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