by Parwana Amiri
In 2019, 74 000 refugees arrived in Greece, that is 50% more than last year. 59 700 on the islands and 14 900 through the land borders.
The reception centers, on the islands, are now dangerously overcrowded with 36 400 on Lesvos, Samos, Chios, Leros and Kos living in spaces that could together accommodate 5 400. This means that many of us refugees have to stay in dire conditions in makeshift shelters, such as summer tents, in the informal sites outside the hotspot.
Greece, today, has an approximated total of 112 300 refugee. 71 200 of them are on the mainland and 41 100 on the islands. Among them 40% are children, 6 out of 10 are below the age of 12. 16% of all children registered upon arrival are unaccompanied or separated from their families.
More than 20% of the those that arrived are women, a lot of them single mothers whose husbands, on many occasions, have been in Europe for many years.
In January 2020 alone, in Moria camp on Lesvos, two people died after knife attacks and another is in critical condition. One person committed suicide. A child was killed by a car. A nine month baby died from dehydration. A woman died after a fire broke in the containers.
This situation is the direct result of the so called EU-Turkey deal and the unwillingness of the European countries to welcome refugees.
Think how these people can live in those hells.
We are not another category of people; another class; another kind. Yes, we are
different people with a thousand different stories. What unites us is that we had to
leave our homes.
Put yourself in our shoes! Can you live in a place, where there are hundreds of unaccompanied minors that no one can stop from attempting suicide. That no one can stop from drinking.
We didn’t pass the borders and risk our lives to live in fear and danger.
PUT YOURSELF IN OUR SHOES, can you live in a place where you can not go out after 09:00 pm, because the thieves will steal anything you have and if you don’t give them what they want, they will harm you. Not to speak of the dangers facing women.
We live in threat full conditions – exposed to heat in summer and rain – winds and cold in winter. In the middle of rubbish, dirt and sewage water, unsafe and in permanent stress and fear of the violence of the European Asylum System in this small world of 20 000 people.
In Europe we have become like ping pong balls. The authorities shoot us from one office to another, back and forth without ending and without us ever understanding what, where, why – which makes our situation worse and worse. Even the ‘success story’ of finally receiving a residence permit cannot end the looks of discrimination we have to encounter every day.
In this situation the first thing that comes to my mind to tell you is, we didn’t come here to Europe for money, and we did not come to be European citizens.
So stop treating us differently. Stop lying and pretending that people are safe here.
We are not treated as part of Lesvos’ population, like Greeks, like Europeans. Our destiny depends on a bureaucrat’s decision, on the economic value of a political decision – in favor of migration or not – on the political mood dominant in the continent – on European strategies and plans.
It is built on the foundation of a border between ‘us’ and ‘you’ instead of being one kind.
Our geographical origins distinguish us from each other. And it is a general human condition that there are things that some people have and others do not. But there is one thing that all humans have, from the day of their birth until the day of their death: they have rights, basic human rights.
As refugees we, also, have a right to education, a right to health, a right to hygiene, a right to food. And we have a right to a safe life. We are refugees and if we cannot find safety here it seems that the concept “safety” is meaningless.
We will never let others take away our right to freedom of movement.
by Parwana Amiri