Refugee Crisis Lesvos – Return to Moria
A little bit of background
In 2015 I was moved by the refugee crisis on Lesvos. I eventually made two trips to Europe to support refugees. Firstly we drove a transit van to Slovenia with supplies. And then we traveled to Lesvos to volunteer with some grass roots charities, you can read about my experience on my blogs: Lesvos the Situation and Because I am A Parent. Just before I left for my second trip I found out I was pregnant, so volunteering went on hold when I returned in early December 2015. Harrison is going to be 2 in July and I feel like now is the right time for me to return.
This is picture of the island showing where the points of entry and where the refugee camps are.
When I volunteered before, the refugee crisis was at the top of our news feed. It was hitting the headlines daily. Now the news has moved on. The suffering is no less, in fact in some ways it is worse. Many of the people I met in 2015 went on to start new lives in Germany and other European countries. They got to start a new life. Sadly the people stuck in Lesvos today are trapped with no way forward and no way back.
Fast Forward to 2018
There is still a refugee crisis, people are still living in terror or having their homes destroyed. Thousands of people are dying. For those of you following the news you will have heard about Eastern Ghouta. It is like something out of a horror moving and it barely makes the news because people are more interested in Trump or Brexit. Friends on Lesvos also tell me that as soon as a town or city in Syria is liberated or people are able to escape a few weeks later they end up on Lesvos. Often in a terrible way. People are fleeing for their lives.
When I was there in 2015 people were passing through, Moria wasn’t a pleasant place but it wasn’t a long term destination. Sadly today a prison built for 1500 people is now home to over 6000 women, children, lone boys and men. Moria is has been described as hell on earth. I’ve read accounts of the situation there that break my heart. The suffering for people stuck on Lesvos continues.
