Tag Archives: welcome to europe

Greece, Journey back to the borders, Mytilini, Part III

Journey III: First Impressions

Follow us on Twitter
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.

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 →

Greece, Journey back to the borders, Part III

Journey back to the border – Part III

Lesvos/ Greece 15.-26. August 2015

Next week, in August 2015 we will return once again to the border– to the places of our first arrivals and encounters, to one of Europe’s gates and transit zones.

We will continue to warmly welcome all newcomers and we want to empower them through our presence. In the very moment as they challenge the European borders we will stand by them.

If the European border regime becomes history it will be washed ashore by the wave of our collective NO; our NO to be exposed to war and repression, our NO to be excluded from education and healthcare, our NO to be exploited and forgotten. Even if our “No” is not always shout out loud, it vibrates in every single step of our journeys.

We feel solidarity and a strong connection with our friends in Greece, who have been confronted with the brutality of the European elites in another way. Their Oxi! gave us hope when most of us, after a long journey, tried to find a place in Europe, tried to figure out the relation to and within the European society. As new European citizens we demand equal rights for everyone. Obviously, not only migrants are nowadays used as scapegoats in Europe, but also those who say no to an austerity program without alternative.

We come back to Mitilini in a time when it is a zone of transit. Continue reading Journey back to the border – Part III →

Greece, Media, Press review

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 →

Greece

Thoughts and thanks from the distance: Refugees who lived in PIKPA, talk about the importance of an open welcoming space

In early March 2015, the mayor of Lesvos Spiros Galinos called on the ‘Village of all together’ to move out all the refugees accommodated in PIKPA. He wanted to renovate PIKPA for a tennis tournament that would take place in May. He seriously proposed the prison of Moria as an alternative that could be turned into an open centre. This is where the refugees could live!

The ‘Village of all together’ responded by saying that a prison would not be an alternative option, even if the fences were to be removed. They demand to be offered a different place, otherwise they would be forced to remain in PIKPA.
Continue reading Thoughts and thanks from the distance: Refugees who lived in PIKPA, talk about the importance of an open welcoming space →

Documentation, Greece, Journey back to the borders, Part II

New Mytilene Booklet by JOG & w2eu / download in English

Lesvos documentation 2014/15

We came back to Lesvos in August 2014. We returned once again to the outer border of Europe which was for many of us the place of our first arrival here. Again it was a journey that was full of memories, full of new encounters with people who experience today what many of us have been facing in the past. In this boobklet you will find many impressions from these days.
This year we were a very mixed group: There were young people who have already received a right to stay in Germany
and Sweden and who came back to meet with those who didn’t yet find a way out of Greece. From Athens a whole group of refugees came who currently live in the ´Welcome Island and some who are friends we knew from our camping last year in Lesvos or from the tours in Greece and Turkey. The trip was organized once again by Youth without Borders (JOG) and´Welcome to Europe (w2eu), together with many local friends.
We experienced incredible days on Lesvos, days full of memories of our own suffering but also our own success stories.
We welcomed the newly arrived and we had many encounters at the harbour of Mytilene when people left to continue their
journeys. We mourned those who didn’t arrive but died at this border. We protested against the prison close to the village of Moria and we overcame the fence with music. We had some incredible parties in PIKPA, the self organised welcome centre. …

We promise to come back again! Until this border becomes history.
´