Tag Archives: PIKPA
In Greek migrant camp, refugees find tough road to Europe
By Naomi Kresge
It was 6.30 a.m. on a Saturday when Greek Coast Guard Ensign Chrisafis Theofilos’s boat got a report of a migrant drowning off the coast of the island of Lesvos.
As dawn began to break, Theofilos sped south toward the man’s coordinates. His scheduled departure had already been delayed five hours by a broken radar system that headquarters in Athens hadn’t yet fixed. That made night patrols too dangerous. Before Theofilos got to the man, another Coast Guard boat had already picked him up and taken him to the hospital with hypothermia.
Continue reading In Greek migrant camp, refugees find tough road to Europe
Mytilini, 14.12.12: PRESS RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
MYTILINI – PIKPA
THREE WEEKS SINCE THE OPENING AND WE STILL WAIT FOR THE AUTHORITIES TO COMPLY WITH THE MINIMUM OF WHAT THEY PROMISED
In the last weeks we have seen again refugees arriving on Mytilini who due to lacking infrastructures of reception on the island are piled up in miserable detention cells or if these were absolutely overcrowded they found provisory shelter in parks, squares and public places until the moment when the inhabitants of the island attempted to find another solution for them.
Three weeks ago new arriving homeless refugees were firstly transferred to the childrens’ summer camp of PIKPA Mytilini.
The transfer was a result of the pressure of the local society and the worsening weather conditions which followed and which could have had tragic consequences for the lives of the homeless refugees.
Continue reading Mytilini, 14.12.12: PRESS RELEASE
Special Rapporteur on the Human rights of Migrants, Francois Crepeau about PIKPA
After visitin Lesvos Island, Special Rapporteur on the Human rights of Migrants Francois Crepeau commented on the solidarity camp in PIKPA run by activists and volunteers on the island:
Just before my visit to Lesvos, the local authorities provided facilities (a summer camp close to the airport) to house some migrant families. While I greatly appreciate this initiative, it is run by volunteers from the local community, and is not sustainable without support from Greek authorities. I thus urge the Greek government to support this important initiative, as well as the construction of more open shelters for migrants, which could be used as an alternative to detention, particularly for families and children. The Greek government should cooperate with NGOs in this respect.
Civilians’ Initiative: “The village of all-together” / Opening of PIKPA
Civilians’ Initiative: “The village of all-together”
Within the last days the drama of hundreds of fellow citizens, which is already touching the limits to a humanitarian crisis once more evolves in Lesvos in front of the eyes of thousands of fellow citizens. Two months ago approx. active inhabitants of Levos, collectivities and NGOs, decided to build a network, to unite their powers and co-ordinate their actions with the aim to offer help to the ones really in need, when they recognised in time the catastrophic consequences of the crisis for all fellow citizens – migrants and non-migrants. In this way the «Village of all-together» was born. Our first demand towards the authorities was a few months ago to grant a place of shelter for the homeless migrants who until then were either wandering around our city desperately or being stuffed into overcrowded unsuitable places of detention. This demand was never answered at that time.
Today we, the members of the initiative, run a open reception shelter for migrants in the former tent-camp PIKPA, struggling daily with all our energy for securing food, covering basic needs, clothes, legal and medical aid for more than 60 migrants. Of course nothing could have been done without the massive solidarity of hundreds of fellow citizens who support until today this prototypical effort by cooking food, bringing warm clothes and other things they might lack themselves.
Continue reading Civilians’ Initiative: “The village of all-together” / Opening of PIKPA