All posts by momo

Goodbye in the port of Lesvos / Officer kicks Syrian unaccompanied minor to wake him up

It is Sunday. For at least two nights no refugee was seen during night sleeping in the port of Mytilene. Today there are again about 100 persons from Afghanistan and Syria mainly but also from Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan and other countries.

“We spent five nights in the detention center in Moria,” they say. “It was specifically over crowded at the outside area where we were in the beginning.”

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Everybody is stressed to leave. A handful of families didn’t know they had to get tickets for their babies too even if they were for free. While trying to enter the ferry they were send back to the ticket office. The mothers had already entered with the other children and were not reachable. Two Syrian dads and one Afghan holding all small babies stand beside the ticket shop not knowing what to do. Their women have the documents of the children inside the boat. Only in the last minutes and after discussions with the ticket office they manage to solve the problem and run in the ferry.

A group of kurdish Syrian men is standing aside. They are angry.

“I want to ask you what we can do. In the morning an officer came on a motor bike. He parked and came over to the place we were sleeping on the street. Then he kicked this 16-year-old who is traveling alone twice and shouted ‘stand up’. We are no animals! If we had more time we would go to report this at the police station. We are not afraid, we have honor. We want you to publish this somewhere. The number of the motor bike was MTZ 415. It was around 5:30 in the morning of Sunday 2.8.15. Thank you.”

Minors separated from their family in Moria / Greek coast guard punctures refugee boat under the eyes of Frontex

Two days between Kara Tepe tent camp and the port of Mytilene (24.7.-25.7.15)

A small Afghan boy is sitting outside a blue tent built up just behind the kiosk in the port of Mytilene. On the other side of the tent there are some other Afghan minors sitting on a blanket on the floor and leaning at the walls of an abandoned swimming hall. It is late in the night. His elder brother has fever. He is climbing out of the tent to join us. The two underage boys from Afghanistan are camping there already since four nights. They arrived to Lesvos together with their mother and father and two little sisters. In Moria they registered themselves as adults, as other people advised them to avoid reporting their real ages for the own good. Then the two of them got released alone.

“We fear to loose track of our family if we move away from here,” F. the elder brother says. “My father said we should wait here for them.” He seems exhausted and under pressure carrying all the responsibility of holding his family together on his small shoulders. With an official note ordering them to leave the country within 30 days, both boys’ time is running out, while they wait for their relatives. “My father said they would be released today. Again they didn’t let them go. Others were only one night in there. I don’t understand why they don’t let them free.”

Continue reading Minors separated from their family in Moria / Greek coast guard punctures refugee boat under the eyes of Frontex

10.06.15/w2eu: Ανακοίνωση σχετικά με τη δυσφήμηση του ενημερωτικού φυλλαδίου του Welcome to Europe

Μας ανησυχούν βαθύτατα οι αναληθείς πληροφορίες που διαδίδει η ιστοσελίδα Lesvosnews.gr σχετικά με το ενημερωτικό φυλλάδιο για τους πρόσφυγες και τους μετανάστες, το οποίο εκδόθηκε και δημοσιεύθηκε από το Δίκτυο Welcome to Europe το καλοκαίρι του 2014 και το οποίο χρησιμοποιείται από την Κοινωνία των Πολιτών στη Λέσβο για την ενημέρωση νεοαφιχθέντων προσφύγων και μεταναστών για την κατάστασή τους και τα δικαιώματά τους (στη δική τους γλώσσα).
Continue reading 10.06.15/w2eu: Ανακοίνωση σχετικά με τη δυσφήμηση του ενημερωτικού φυλλαδίου του Welcome to Europe

10.06.15/w2eu: Announcement concerning the defamation of the Welcome to Europe Info Flyer

We are deeply concerned about the in-correct information “Lesvosnews.gr” blog is spreading in the internet about the info-flyer for refugees and migrants which was edited and published by the Welcome to Europe Network in summer 2014 and which is used by the civil society in Lesvos to inform newly arriving refugees and migrants in their own languages about their situation and their rights.
Continue reading 10.06.15/w2eu: Announcement concerning the defamation of the Welcome to Europe Info Flyer