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.
12.07.2021
Amir stops us when we return with a new pram and personal hygiene products for the baby from Syria. He asks if we could spare a moment as soon as we are done with meeting the family. He waits. He has learnt patience through his long escape from his country, during which he had little influence over anything. Once we are finished, he comes over and asks if we would like to pay him a visit. He knows that we are here for a different reason, and we know that his need to talk to someone is even more important in a refugee camp than anywhere else.
Amir and his wife have prepared food which they want to share. When he says that this is how hospitality is shown in his country, his words trigger in us reflections on the quality of our collective, European hospitality that is keeping these people stranded here. Amir’s wife is pregnant yet all we can do for them at this time is to provide her with a well-balanced, hot meal every day and a layette for the baby that will be born any day now.
Let us share a little of what we have by providing at least one hot meal for the residents of the Moria 2.0 camp on the Greek island of Lesbos.
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 […]
09.08.2023
“No disease will touch them. They are wild trees. They have already survived more than one pest.” When Nikos talks about olives, he grabs the listener’s full attention. You fall into a tunnel where there are you, Nikos and the olives. We talk like this for several hours. I don’t know how many. Nobody is […]
