Tag Archives: athens

I saw they needed help…so I helped them

06 Friday Nov 2015

Posted by in Politics, Refugees

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athensIt’s been three and half years since I was last in Athens and the city is still incredibly rundown. Greece has generally not been a final destination country for asylum seekers.  Although the Dublin Accord states that refugees entering the EU should be processed in the country in which they enter, the European Court has found member countries in breach of the ECHR for sending asylum seekers back to Greece due to the risk they face of cruel treatment. While Greece and Italy act as a ‘frontline’, refugees tend to move on very quickly. In reality, most of the people I meet will spend very little time in Greece.

Nowhere is this more evident than the 2004 Olympic Galatsi Stadium. galatsi
Last month it was repurposed as a holding centre for refugees coming off the island ferries before they head further north.  The centre is organised by the municipality, run by the vice-mayor and supported entirely by donations. Since October 1st 15 000 people have passed through the emergency centre.

It didn’t take long for me to be confronted. On the bus to the stadium I encountered a group of young Afghans and their kids. In an effort to break the ice I made it my mission to get a laugh out of the little girl propped up next to me. After pulling numerous faces and bribing her with nuts to no avail I looked at her more closely and was haunted by the emptiness in her expression. Despite her dad’s best efforts to get her to react, she had no spirit left in her. And it hit me; this child was nothing like the poor kids in Africa I’d known, who had so little but still so much life in them that a funny noise or a lolly could fill them with glee. This little girl was completely traumatised. It wouldn’t have made a difference if I morphed into Dora the Explorer and produced a truck full of candy, at the age of 3 or 4, she had no smile left in her eyes.

The adults travelling with her were not faring much better. One of them, Taaban, spoke impeccable English and told me their story. He had left Afghanistan about a month earlier and had travelled through Iran, Pakistan and Turkey before arriving in Greece the previous day. Tabaan fixed cell phones in a city 200kms outside of Kabul. It was his dream to open the first Apple store in Afghanistan. At the age of 14 he needed to get a job to support his family, so he taught himself English, first from a book and then by speaking to US soldiers stationed in the country. He is now 22 and tells me that his father decided someone had to get out. The family sold everything they had, including Tabaan’s small market, and he left with a grand total of 3000Eu. When I ask him if he would ever want to return to Afghanistan he looks me straight in the eye and says without blinking; ‘Of course, everyone would like to be where they are from’. But the Taliban were returning to his village, ISIS is an increasing threat, and as the male of the household the responsibility fell on him to go. All he is focused on now is finding work to send money home to his family.

It seems like a heavy burden for a 22 year old. When I ask him how long he plans to spend at the stadium he says he hopes to move on that night. This all seems a bit much to someone who feels like she needs a nap from getting up at 5am once. Tabaan lost his birth certificate when one of his backpacks disappeared somewhere between Pakistan and Turkey. After paying a smuggler 500Euro to cross the Mediterranean in an 8m boat with 40 people, he only has 900 of the 3000Eu left. But he is surprisingly calm, and tells me he still wants to get to San Francisco so he can pitch his idea about an Apple store in Kabul. Other than talking about his family, the only time his voice falters is when he mentions how they were treated like animals by soldiers in Iran and the boat journey from Turkey. I make the dumb observation that it must have been terrifying for the kids. ‘None of us had seen the ocean’ he replies, ‘It was terrifying for me.’

How long do you stay in a situation when there is no future? The war in Afghanistan has lasted longer than both world wars combined. At what point does it stop being about not wanting to die, and become a question of wanting to live? This man speaks three languages, was profusely apologetic for having to ask me my name a second time, and before sitting down to eat his first hot meal in three days was asking the volunteers what he could do to help. Not once did he even hint at asking me for anything.

refugees-piraeusWhen we arrive at the camp a security guard checks their papers and I see firsthand the overwhelming panic in one of their eyes when he realises his documents are missing. It’s that feeling you get when you go to pay for something and can’t find your wallet for an instant, multiplied by a million. He will have to go back into town and reregister with the police that night. The camp atmosphere is overwhelmingly welcoming. The first things we see as we walk through the gates are kids playing soccer and giant finger paintings on the walls. The vice-mayor, Manos Elefthariou, comes out to give me a tour. At its fullest the stadium housed more than a thousand, but due to a strike and a bottle neck on the islands, today there are less than 100 people here. All that is about to change however as the staff are preparing for a mass influx tonight.

Manos is incredibly proud of the place, and rightfully so. It is impeccably clean. The former badminton and table tennis halls are now sleeping rooms full of blankets and toys. There is a fully equipped medical centre, and more clothes than a St Vinnies. It is absolutely astonishing that all this has come from donations. When I ask Manos about initial reactions he says the community was at first fearful, but it didn’t take long for such fears to be quelled when the locals interacted with the refugees. The stadium now has more supplies than it needs and has stopped accepting donations. Refugees typically spend 2 days here to recuperate before they move north.  Of the 15 000 who have passed through, not one has sought asylum in Greece, acutely aware that there is no future for them here.  Manos tells me that they are well informed and very well organised, that they are risking everything to have a shot at a proper life and don’t want to be dependent on charity. While you can see the relief on their faces that they are now in Europe, offers of free temporary lodging in Greece have even been refused, as they want some kind of end to their plight- a job, a life, an education, a future for their children. While I marvel at what he’s done in meeting these peoples survival needs, he is forceful in his belief that it is nothing but what is required. He struggles for the words to describe what he wants to express in his native tongue, ‘They are our fellow human beings, they are our colleagues.’ I try to play devil’s advocate and point out the age old arguments about how they were not persecuted in Turkey. He doesn’t engage with pointing out the flaws in that thesis, but just poses the question, ‘What would you do?’ It is telling that the people who are the most open and accepting of refugees are the ones who spend the most time with them.

Before I leave I say goodbye to Taaban and ask him how he knows the people he is travelling with. One is a friend from Afghanistan, but the family with the frozen little girl he met in Iran, and they have been together ever since. ‘It is not easy with three young children…’ he explains to me earnestly, ‘I saw they needed help…so I helped them’.

It’s all Greek to Me

22 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by in All, Economics, Politics, Travel

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IMG_0565Stepping off the plane onto the tarmac at Thira Airport on the idyllic landscape of Santorini, one would be forgiven for doubting the seriousness of Greece’s current economic situation. Indeed, here the people smile, the streets are full of tourists with well lined pockets, hotels are bustling, and the price of a sandwich is exuberant even by European standards. However, the tropical paradise remains one of the few places still boasting robust commerce in this economically flailing nation. The fact that you are more likely to hear English in a variety of accents over the native tongue, is sign enough that the islands are not an accurate indication of what is going on in the country at large.

A few hours ferry ride to Athens paints an entirely different picture altogether. In a city that boasts the birth of democracy and a plethora of archaeological testaments to mankind’s wisdom, it is clear that the Greek capital is struggling to keep its head above water. Shops and businesses all over Athens have closed as a result of the crisis. Buildings remain derelict and empty, if not filled with squatters who live amongst a stench that can only be described as putrid. Unemployment is at an all time high, and Greek youth have little hope of employment within their borders after graduating from University.

So far the crisis in Greece has managed to destroy the economy and annihilate a government, as well as threaten the future of the Euro and potentially the European Union. But alongside these economic outcomes, Greece has seen an increase in youth unemployment (now at approximately 50%), crime and suicide rates. While much has been written and published about the Greek economy and the failure of politicians to find a solution, the human side of this crisis too often seems to be forgotten. When a country’s economy has failed, there are inevitably people behind it suffering grossly. This is a quick look at the plight of the Greek individual behind the statistics.

Greek youth are generally well informed, educated and worldly. More than twenty percent of the population in Greece is under 35 and financial difficulties are presenting huge problems for young people. An average of more than 1000 people have lost their jobs every week since 2009. Greeks are known for a willingness to converse with anyone and help people out wherever they can, but increases in suicides, attempted suicides, the use of anti-depressant medication and the need for psychiatric care are causing great concern in a country not used to such issues. For a country that had one of the lowest suicide rates in the world, experts estimate that Greece’s suicide rates have doubled in the past two years.

In the wake of the ongoing financial crisis, public fears over vandalism and violent crime appear to have risen dramatically, often in conjunction with increased concerns over illegal immigration and drug abuse. One government report estimated that drug use in Athens jumped from 7,400 in 2008 to 12,000 in 2009, coinciding with the first wave of the global financial crisis. Murders in Greece have more than doubled since 2006, with the annual figure rising from 83 to 175 in 2010.

On an average 40C day in summer, the streets of Athens are filled with homeless youth. One young man who looks like he hasn’t eaten in weeks lies on a doorstep, his head tilted back and mouth wide open while flies buzz around him in the scorching heat. The scene is more reminiscent of a malnourished beggar in an Ethiopian town than a busy street in this once thriving metropolis. Awakened from his drug induced comatose state, the young man looks at an offered bottle of water as though it is a foreign substance, mutters incoherently and collapses again. Not long after, a slightly healthier looking man grabs the water left at the beggar’s side and strolls away. This is what it has come to, one unfortunate man stealing from an even less fortunate soul; because in the struggle to survive there is no room for a code of ethics.

When the author attempted to find help, two local business people smiled sadly, shrugged and lamented that it was now a common occurrence in Athens. People die on the street because they are hungry, because they have nowhere else to go, and no one to help them. A girl working in a nearby cafe promises to keep an eye on him and call for help if he gets worse, but worse is hard to contemplate. The authorities it seems have larger problems to deal with then a young man at death’s door on a sidewalk.