in the streets, in the port, in the car, at the beach
– Its the song we
dance to everywhere, so it became our soundtrack and we didn’t want to
keep it from you!
So we shake our body and want to tell the politicians that they should
maybe shake their heads to realise that the system of border is not
really working like they want it to. So lets start to say a real welcome
to the new-arriving, take them serious and treat them like human beings
who have the right to move wherever and whenever they want!
Here is the song:
Arash: tekoon bede (Shake)
And for those who are interested the lyrics you find them here.
And we also wanted to share a picture from one of our concerts in the
harbour. The Band you see is “Renovatio” and was with us until yesterday
and gave us and the new-arriving some good music from Renovatio
There are so many babies and children on there way to a better future too!!
After a lot of conversations with adults we made a drawing action for
the children.
They shared their experiences with us and draw them on paper. In their
pictures we could see escape and the wish for a calm life, with the hope of a fast arriving.
When they asked us if we come back we answered them:
Yes we are going
to be here tomorrow again. But you will already have to travel further on
For sure we will see each user again and hopefully in a better situation.
The people face unbearable conditions here: families even with young children and babies have to sleep outside on the ground in the overcrowded camps and in the harbor, without a tent, without a blanket, often even without anything under them. Some of them lost everything on the boat: Today we met a woman, traveling alone with her three small children. She not only lost her passport, her money, everything on the boat between Turkey and Lesvos. We managed to buy some baby food and pampers, we could offer shoes for the children from our donations. But she is just one of so many people here on the island. Around 80.000 refugees arrived in 2015 on Lesvos. The island as a whole has 86.000 inhabitants.
Who goes today in the harbor? Who’s heading for Kara Tepe? And who to Moria? These are the finishing questions of our daily plenary. After “using” the midday heat in the shade sitting to reflect on the yesterday, and to plan the today, we head to these the three places – equipped with many info flyers, water, often also medicine, clothing and paper and pens.
To the harbor in Mitilini refugees go directly after they have arrived on the island and need to register for the first time. From there they are brought into the camps either Kara Tepe or Moria. After their second registration, after having got the white paper, with which they have the right to buy a ferry ticket to the mainland, they go again to the harbor for buying a ferry-ticket waiting for the date to have the chance to leave the island and go on their way to Europe. Continue reading Journey back part III: One Day at the port→
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The first morning we stay at the beach in Charamida with a bigger group: About 4AM some of us hear the sound of an engine, people shouting. Directly at the beach next to us a boat with refugees from Syria and Iraq arrived. We go to welcome them and bring them some water and biscuits. It is a group of about 40 people, among them many families with children, who arrived from Turkey after 4 hours in the sea.
We call the coastguard, we call the police, but without much hope that they will come and pick them.
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There are so many arrivals these days and mostly the people have to walk and walk for hours until they reach Mitilini where they have to register in the port. The way from Charamida to Mitilini is long. Continue reading Journey III: First Impressions→
The first groups of w2e and JoG arrived in Mytilini (Lesvos) / Greece. The people from Greece, Sweden, Germany and France arrived on different ways. Some of them flew to Athens or directly to Mytilini, others travelled by car and ferry. Some of them already met in Athens where they organized the infoguides in different languages. When the ferry arrived in Mytilini some of the people had to stay in the harbour because the cars were full of material. So they got some first impressions of the situation there. The others on their way to the camp already saw the first refugees who had just arrived.
They were on their way to the harbour where the first registration takes place. Our people went fast to the camp to unload the cars, then they drove back to catch up the refugees because the way from where they arrive to the harbour is very long and the heat makes it very hard to get there. Back in the harbour, they caught up the rest of our group to go back to the camp where the work started. The camping place was really dirty, full of garbage and a lot of things were broken, so everything had to be renovated and cleaned. Also the tents had to be build up. But it wasn’t possible to arrive slowly and relaxed because during the construction of the camp every night more and more refugees arrived on the island. So with the start of the camp the action began immediately.
