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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
76September/October 2015
INTERNATIONAL Greece
W
HEN Ibrahim Al Sabe reached
Eftalou beach, on the legend-
suffused island of Lesbos in
Greece, he was soaking wet, but
indescribably happy to be alive.
The engine of the rubber dinghy, carrying
Syrian refugees, had stopped working five times
during the four-mile journey. The boat started
to fill with water and almost went under. Panic
erupted, many children were crying.
“I saw my death in the middle of the sea”, says
Al Sabe, who doesn’t swim well.
Five days earlier Al Sabe, , had left his
hometown Idlib in Syria. Life had become dan-
gerous due to the civil war, and his high school
had been closed.
The family sent their eldest son off alone.
With four small children, they could not possi-
bly have taken the perilous journey together.
With the help of his iPhone navigator and
advice from Facebook groups where Syrian ref-
ugees share co-ordinates and experiences from
their path to Europe, he made it to Izmir, where
he paid $, for the Mediterranean crossing.
I met Al Sabe right after his arrival, after
midnight. Our group of volunteers had spotted
the boat and directed the arrivals to a nearby
bus station, where they could spend the night
and were given food, water, dry clothes and
sleeping bags. Babies were given nappies and
hot water bottles to keep them warm after the
rough journey.
In the morning a Médecins Sans Frontières’
bus took the refugees to the registration centre
in Mytiline, kilometres away. The volunteers
set off to help another boat that had just
arrived.
Lesbos, an island of c, inhabitants, is
struggling under the heavy weight of refugees.
Over , of the , refugees that have
arrived in Greece in , have travelled
through Lesbos. According to the UNHCR, %
of them are from Syria, % from Afghanistan
and % from Iraq.
Amidst the ongoing economic and humani-
tarian crisis, Greece remains ill-equipped to
provide an adequate emergency response or
co-ordination.
The Moria reception centre, fitted out for
, was overcrowded throughout the summer,
often with over , inhabitants inside, and
The long and miserable route from Syria to Germany, via Greece. By Johanna Kaprio
The meaning of civilisation
arrival of 57 Syrians
on Lesbos
September/October 2015 77
another , camping outside. Conditions are
poor with soiled mattresses and overflowing
toilets.
In the Kara Tepe make shift camp, designed
for , but sometimes accommodating as
many as , refugees, the toilet hygiene is
equally appalling, and tents are surrounded by
dirt-water and litter. Diarrhoea epidemics are
commonplace. No doctors were available until
late July and on some days the municipality has
not been able to provide food.
With their downsized public sector, the Greek
authorities cannot handle the administrative
processes efficiently, sometimes forcing the
refugees to wait for to days for the papers
that allow them to move legally through Greece.
Human rights organisations such as Amnesty
International have repeatedly expressed their
concern about the humanitarian situation on
Lesbos, calling for EU financial and logistical
support, more staff in reception units, more
police and coast guards, and improved condi-
tions in reception facilities.
In the absence of a co-ordinated emergency
response, local volunteers, NGO activists and
tourists on Lesbos and other Greek islands are
trying to do what governments
and international organisations
should be doing.
A group of local Greeks called
”The Village of All Together”
maintains a refugee camp for
asylum seekers waiting for family
reunification. An expat-led group
in the Molyvos area is alert day
and night, spotting new arrivals.
Locals and tourists are trans-
porting the refugees; and
volunteers are cleaning the
camps.
The Greek Minister for Migra-
tion, Thassia
Christodoulopoulou, recently
told the Guardian that without
the contributions of NGOs, volunteers, and
communities, Greece would not have been able
to manage the situation.
The EU’s €m new funding programme for
Greece is expected to alleviate the situation.
The European refugee challenge requires
reforming both policy and ideology all over
Europe. It necessitates upgrading the capacity
for handling the asylum applications, expand-
ing the reception facilities, increasing the
capacity for rescue operations and security con-
trol, as well as reforming in housing, education
and employment policies.
Moreover, it requires acceptance of our
responsibility as Europeans to help the people
fleeing conflict and persecution, by offering
them equal opportunities as members of our
societies.
In Greece, the victory of the left wing Syriza
in February signalled a shift towards a more
welcoming refugee policy. Rather than priori-
tising immigration as a question of security, its
ideology emphasises that refugees are victims
of wars and deserve a place in society.
The new government closed down the Amy-
gdaleza detention centre and issued its
residents permits to grant them a minimum of
months stay in Greece during which their
refugee status is to be assessed – recognising
that detention should only be exercised in
extremely rare situations. It is now improving
reception infrastructure in many locations.
The government recently amended the citi-
zenship law, allowing second generation
migrants to claim the Greek nationality irre-
spective of the legal status of their parents.
Those staying legally in Greece can now also
claim Greek nationality after completing Greek
grammar school, or if they graduated from a
Greek university and have completed their sec-
ondary education.
Moreover, the University of Aegean was
recently permitted to enrol Syrian refugees.
Not for nothing is Greece the cradle
of civilisation.
Most of the refugees on Lesbos
are heading for Sweden or Ger-
many. Currently, Sweden receives
the highest amount of asylum
applications per capita (. per
, inhabitants) while Germany
is the most popular in absolute
terms (.% applications of the
EU total).
What Europe needs is a real
common asylum policy, that fulfils
its obligation to provide interna-
tional protection, while balancing
the burden sharing and reception
capacity of the EU countries in a
fair way.
We are only now – after a dead toddler was
wrenchingly captured on film – seeing
progress. the EU is to take , refugees
with Ireland taking , under the irish Refu-
gee Protection Programme including
already committed to under the proposed EU
Relocation programme and now being
resettled under an existing programme.
Mind you, if Ireland accepted the same
number of migrants in proportion to popula-
tion as Germany, which is taking ,
overall and outside the EU’s programmes, the
number would be ,.
During -, the total given refugee
status in Ireland was only a third of the EU aver-
age (relative to population size). Whereas
Ireland accepted only asylum-seekers per
, population, the EU average was .
Ireland has thus the second-highest rejection
rate of asylum-seekers in the EU, after over-
stretched Greece.
On Lesbos there are up to , daily arriv-
als. The refugee crisis is not a Greek tragedy,
and not just a concern for the geographical
frontlines. With ongoing conflicts in the Middle
East and Africa, we can expect more arrivals.
Inevitably the EU slogan “united in diversity”
no longer only refers to those who share the
common European heritage – and that calls for
a bigger, bolder and fairer response.
It should include reforming the Dublin Regu-
lation that puts countries in unequal positions
in their obligation to examine refugee applica-
tions – thus also forcing the refugees on
dangerous journeys, in the hands of smugglers,
through countries that are not expected to
grant them asylum. The death of refugees in
an abandoned lorry in Austria is a macabre
reminder of the flaws of the European policy.
Finally, the EU must introduce ways of enter-
ing its territory safely and legally, so that those
in vulnerable position would not have to risk
their lives on dangerous sea routes in the first
place.
According to the Organisation for Migration,
over , people have died this year crossing
the Mediterranean, despite international naval
rescue operations such as the respectable
efforts of the Irish LÉ Niamh.
There is increasing support for the introduc-
tion of humanitarian visas, that would be
applied in the embassies of third countries to
provide temporary protection on humanitarian
grounds, and allow the asylum seekers to take
the safe route to Europe, rather than depending
on smuggling networks.
Ibrahim Al Sabe made it to Germany one
month after his departure from Syria. He trav-
elled through the Balkans using trains and
buses until he got to borders, and then crossing
them by foot in the dark. He got his passport
stolen by bandits in a Serbian forest, and got
arrested by the Hungarian police. Finally he
was caught by the German police who took him
to an asylum centre in Dortmund.
Despite sharing a room with other Syrians,
he feels lonely. Parting from family and child-
hood friends was painful, but there was no way
to stay.
“The journey was so difficult, I felt like I fled
from death to death. I risked my life to live
safely and to complete my studies”.
Surely Europe, with its own war history in
mind, can afford to offer him a chance for a
better future? •
The meaning of civilisation
Johanna Kaprio
The boat
started to fill
with water and
almost went
under. Panic
erupted, many
children were
crying
“
