12 DAYS ON LESBOS
In the last year media had been overwhelmed with issue of refugee crisis. This topic had been often used for ideological debates between different political fractions, also used us a sensation raising a level of fear of Islamic State and fundamentalist terrorist groups which lead to disappearance of human tragedy behind. Focused on hollywood like narration with bad and good characters and smooth thesis simplifying the problem of Middle East conflict, we managed to forget that refugees are first of all people. 847 thousand human lives came last year to Europe. We tamed ourselves with their existence so far that we almost forgot that there are still boats coming through Mediterranean Sea.
How is the situation right now on Lesbos? It was kind of stable but you can sense that this peace is built on very aims weak. In three camps on the island there are over 3000 refugees. The number of arrivals decreased as of 18th March 2016 when a new agreement was reached between Turkey and European Union. It states all new irregular migrants will be returned from Europe back to camps in Turkey. The agreement went int effect the 20th of March.
The sanitation and food condition in Kara Tepe – one of the three most important refugees camp improved. There are living around 700 people, mostly families from Syria.
Unfortunately, the biggest camp on the island – Moria has really poor conditions, it is overcrowded (there is over 2, 000 people on a space meant for 1,5 thousand of people). Moreover it has fatal sleeping conditions, huge problems with sanitary facilities and facing serious food shortages. Conflicts between different ethnic minorities living in the camp tend to occur often. Those conflicts lead lately to set Moria camp on fire during the night between 19 to 20 September of this year. The circulation of information is failing. People do not have clarity how the law works, especially when the rules are changing constantly. To get the information about how to seek asylum is not so easy as well. There is not enough translators who could help in communicating with refugees. The depression is a very common disease, also amongst the youngest. But how not to get depressed if the state of suspension last for months, savings are melting rapidly and without permission to work it is impossible to earn for the living. This is how people, who where not long ago active professionally, studied, who`s children attended schools, fall out from contemporary civilization circuit. It is good that at least they could count on their hosts. The local community organized itself in a flash and started to help newcomers, despite the fact that media showing boats full of refugees drifted away tourists – the fundamental branch of the island economy.
Maybe it's because the islanders know by themselves what it tastes like homelessness - more than half of them are descendants of Turkish Greeks who landed on Lesbos after the Greco-Turkish War in 1919-22.
It is no coincidence that this year Greece for the attitude of its citizens is nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Refugee case is not just a matter of Greece. Since the end of World War II, there where no such migrations, more than 65 million people today are displaced. These people will not simply disappear, and that is worth remembering. Poland, not only as a country of the European Union should actively participate in resolving this situation.
We hope that with our report from our stay on Lesbos we will remind about this fact again. We used snapchat to tell this story, medium which is better in reaching out to the young audience and has more intimate vibe. We put fears, hopes, feelings of refugees and their hosts in the first Polish Snapchat reportage. Please be invited to see our film:
How is the situation right now on Lesbos? It was kind of stable but you can sense that this peace is built on very aims weak. In three camps on the island there are over 3000 refugees. The number of arrivals decreased as of 18th March 2016 when a new agreement was reached between Turkey and European Union. It states all new irregular migrants will be returned from Europe back to camps in Turkey. The agreement went int effect the 20th of March.
The sanitation and food condition in Kara Tepe – one of the three most important refugees camp improved. There are living around 700 people, mostly families from Syria.
Unfortunately, the biggest camp on the island – Moria has really poor conditions, it is overcrowded (there is over 2, 000 people on a space meant for 1,5 thousand of people). Moreover it has fatal sleeping conditions, huge problems with sanitary facilities and facing serious food shortages. Conflicts between different ethnic minorities living in the camp tend to occur often. Those conflicts lead lately to set Moria camp on fire during the night between 19 to 20 September of this year. The circulation of information is failing. People do not have clarity how the law works, especially when the rules are changing constantly. To get the information about how to seek asylum is not so easy as well. There is not enough translators who could help in communicating with refugees. The depression is a very common disease, also amongst the youngest. But how not to get depressed if the state of suspension last for months, savings are melting rapidly and without permission to work it is impossible to earn for the living. This is how people, who where not long ago active professionally, studied, who`s children attended schools, fall out from contemporary civilization circuit. It is good that at least they could count on their hosts. The local community organized itself in a flash and started to help newcomers, despite the fact that media showing boats full of refugees drifted away tourists – the fundamental branch of the island economy.
Maybe it's because the islanders know by themselves what it tastes like homelessness - more than half of them are descendants of Turkish Greeks who landed on Lesbos after the Greco-Turkish War in 1919-22.
It is no coincidence that this year Greece for the attitude of its citizens is nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Refugee case is not just a matter of Greece. Since the end of World War II, there where no such migrations, more than 65 million people today are displaced. These people will not simply disappear, and that is worth remembering. Poland, not only as a country of the European Union should actively participate in resolving this situation.
We hope that with our report from our stay on Lesbos we will remind about this fact again. We used snapchat to tell this story, medium which is better in reaching out to the young audience and has more intimate vibe. We put fears, hopes, feelings of refugees and their hosts in the first Polish Snapchat reportage. Please be invited to see our film:
12 DAYS ON LESBOS from hirszalex on Vimeo.