Monat: Januar 2016

Idomeni: The „pacified“ border??

Horrifying images of hunger striking and protesting refugees with sewed up mouthes in Idomeni at Greece’s border to Macedonia dominated European medias for a short time. These protests were based on the recently imposed procedure to close the border for refugees not coming from Syria, Afghanistan or Iraq (so called „SIA-refugees“). People from assumed „non-war zones“ (like from Morocco, Iran, Pakistan, Lebanon and Somalia) were bottled up in Idomeni at the greek side of the border. Resulting protests of thousands of desperated people caused a huge media response.

Instead of grant them their right on freedom of movement and instead of recognise their individual reasons to flee, authorities reacted by taking means that prevent mass protests and aggravated the refugee’s situation a lot. The camp in Idomeni was evacuated violently and new arriving refugees are stopped again and again along their way through Greece. This aggravation explains that those arousing images disappeared from the media creating the impression that situation lost tension. In fact the opposite is the case. „[#naraontour] Idomeni – the „pacified“ border??“ weiterlesen

(german text below/deutsche Bersion unten!)

Polykastro
As the situation at the petrol station in Polykastro was disastrous, we decided to build up structures to get a second camp started. On the one hand, we wanted to show that we do not let the refugees down in their current situation, on the other hand we wanted to make it clear to the political responsables that they can’t swap out people and get rid of them like of undesired goods. Furthermore we hope that more and more structures are gonna rise and push the responsables to reopen the camp in Idomeni. „Médicins sans frontières“ also aim at having their camp reopened in order to ensure medical attendance and the supply with food and water. For that reason they are negotiating with public authorities about that topic. If the camp in Idomeni reopens, this will facilitate refugees‘ self-organisation. They will have a better possibility to inform theirselves and to get active against this kind of treatment and against policy of fortress Europe. „[#naraontour] Detailled Report January 2nd/3rd“ weiterlesen

After a heavy night at the border in Idomeni, we went to the village of Polykastro to print the informations we wanted to distribute at the petrol station later on. In a kiosk we met a nice person who printed our texts for little money. Then we drove to Idomeni to welcome our second crew that had just arrived in Greece. On our way, we saw people walking towards the border – probably they came from the petrol station or the train station in Polykastro, that means they would have to to walk 15-20 kilometers. We stopped to talk to them. They arranged a contact to a family with three children, two adults and an elderly person walking in direction of the border as well. We helped them so that they didn’t have to walk the rest of their last stopover before Macedonia. „[#naraontour] Detailled report December 31th“ weiterlesen

Polykastro and Idomeni
First we went to Polykastro to check the situation. We had heard that several busses were expected for that evening, and we counted in deed 50 busses and round about 2000 people at the open petrol station terrain where they suffered the falling snow and the cold. After all „médicins sans frontières“ had delivered fire wood and their mobile clinic was announced to arrive at 11pm. „[#naraontour] Detailled report December 30th“ weiterlesen

#naraontour interim report December 31th:
Our first crew distributed flyers to refugees at the border informing them about their situation and their perspectives.flyers are in english and french, please contact us if you can help by translating them in other languages (update: flyer is now available in spanish, farsi and arabic too!). The second crew arrived in Idomeni after 31h on the road.they joined the first crew and now they’re together at the petrol station in ‪#‎Polikastro‬ giving emergency aid. „[#‎naraontour‬] interim report December 31th“ weiterlesen