When promised open borders to Europe at the end of February 2020, more than 15.000 people sold everything they had and headed towards Greece. Instead of what was promised, they were met with closed borders and violations of human rights. For one month they were stuck between Turkey and Greece - without any shelter apart from some plastic sheets, having to wait in line for food for several hours, faced with violence and human rights violations from both sides.
The thousands of people who crossed the border with Greece at least once tell the same story: they were beaten each step on their way and had their money, phones, and documents taken away by Greek police or military. Having been robbed of their papers, they are now stranded in
Turkey without a home, job or prospect of getting one.
Those who remained at the border have been taken to quarantine camps for two weeks in dire conditions. When the quarantine period ended on April 10th, several hundreds of refugees were taken towards the Turkish Aegean coast, dropped off on the streets and left to fend for themselves.
Due to a law in Turkey forbidding NGOs from helping undocumented refugees, they have to rely on the goodwill of people and initiatives like ours.
We initially supported a small team going to Edirne to assess the situation. They met with other initiatives and joined funds and forces.
With the changing situation, we connected with other initiatives on the ground to join forces and coordinate the different teams.
We are now continuing our fundraising so the partner teams on the ground can continue their much needed work. At the same time we are publishing the information we receive from the ground - from our partner teams, other volunteers, journalists and, most importantly, refugees themselves. Outreach, political and legal efforts in order to end the human rights violations is also part of our work. Although we all work voluntarily, we still rely on your financial support, in order to finance hundreds of plastic sheets and blankets, medicine, food, sanitary products and whatever else is needed every day costs money.
Please donate whatever amount you can, every cent counts!
And most importantly: share this campaign far and wide. United in solidarity, we can end the suffering at our borders!
