In 2015, 856,000 people passed through the Greek islands, and in 2017 and 2018 only just under 30 thousand (according to UNHCR). But 2019 brought already a growth – over 60,000 newcomers. Today, boats coming to Greek beaches are back again, and practice shows that you can get stuck in Lesbos for a good few years. Nikos and Katerina run a small restaurant on the island, where every refugee can feel at home and eat a meal for free.
17.08.2021
Recent events in Afghanistan will not result in fewer refugees. There will be many, many more. Those who did not make the decision to flee their homeland during the last long years of internal conflict with terrorists must now do so without hesitation. As many as 80% of those fleeing are women and children.
Not everyone makes it, not everyone manages to get on the planes departing from Kabul airport, the last bastion of the American troops. Many will die, others will face cruel punishment and torture akin to the Middle Ages. Those who escape persecution will not find a home anywhere, because their home is in the very place where hell is now resurgent. Their will to survive will be met with the stigma of an intruder: a person who is unwanted anywhere, because that is how those who knock on our doors, desperate for help, are treated today.
This scenario is unfolding in many countries. Last year it led to an all-time peak in migration. Due to conflict, persecution and natural disasters caused by climate change, 40.5 million people around the globe left their homes. Among them, nearly half a million Afghans, who constitute nearly half of all the refugees on the Greek islands. Three years ago on the island of Lesbos, in Europe’s largest refugee camp, we set up The Good Factory, which feeds, treats and gives work to people who, fleeing violence, have been stranded on the Greek islands for months, sometimes years. Visiting successive tents in the camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, we meet Afghan women who previously worked as doctors, teachers or journalists. They do not hold a grudge against Europe for not wanting them here. They hold it against those responsible for the fact that their homeland is their main enemy and there is no place for them there.
In a few days or weeks, there will be more boats again. And although the government in Athens assures residents that there will not be another wave, it has been on the rise for several days.
Let us do something for these people together. We must not be indifferent and should not be led to believe that we have no influence on anything. One hot meal for a resident of the camp costs 15 PLN. This is usually the starting point. Once we feed the hungry, we can then address their other most urgent needs.
20.06.2024
A refugee I am Forced to flee, I become someone I am not These few lines from a Lao Che song have been on my mind all morning. The World Refugee Day, which we celebrate today, could easily be called World Day of Helplessness, Lack of Solidarity, Fences, Barriers, and Lack of Hospitality. “In Nigeria, […]
27.08.2023
The unpaved road stretches for kilometres and winds down the mountainous slopes. It cuts through bone-dry pine forests. From here to Mitylena, the island’s capital, it is more than 40 kilometres. To any sign of civilisation – more than 10. Out of sight, out of mind of all outsiders, a gigantic new refugee camp is […]
14.08.2023
Onur was a baker in Kurdistan. He is not afraid of any job. Stately, broad-shouldered, hands like vices. They have strength and feel. He arrived in Lesbos eight years ago. Abdul got off the boat on a Greek beach a year later. In Syria, he was a mechanic. He has fixed up his decrepit old […]
