Yesterday 3 people were forced to flee, not because of mass human rights violations taking place in Turkey, not because of the savage and unrelenting war in Syria, not due to torture but following all of this, as human beings they had been subject to starvation, neglect and abuse… in Europe... at the hands of European governments. They risked their lives for safety and found none, how can we preach morality across the globe yet neglect our brothers and sisters in need in our backyard.
3 people chose to attempt to swim from the Greek island of Chios BACK to the Middle East, desperate to flee the inhumane conditions inflicted on them in the ‘hotspots’. Desperate for food, shelter and water.
Europe has greeted the most vulnerable people in the world with starvation, poverty and hate.
The ridiculous EU-Turkey agreement is breathing it’s last breathes this week, an agreement that cost millions, that was doomed to fail from the outset and should have never been considered in the first place. It will ‘officially’ fail in the next few days as Turkey refuse to change their anti-terror laws.
What this means no one is certain, but it’s heart-breaking that those in power have wasted the last few months squabbling over paperwork and people have paid with their lives. Whilst politicians, international bodies and advisors sat at tables negotiating a non-solution people, fleeing mass atrocities and horrors you and I can simply not comprehend, where left in fields, on the side of motorways, in abandoned buildings, just left. And a state, Greece, already the neglected child of Europe forced to cope the best they could, and they are, but it is a constant struggle and there is never enough.
Cameron is in the press today laughing about the corruption in other nations, would politicians be so jovial if it was their children paying the price I wonder?
In the meantime, the Greek nation, already suffering so much continues to give. Citizens, individuals continue to try their best but their best is limited by further austerity measures and capital control which only breeds resentment and poverty amongst a beautiful nation.
As the allocated camps reach capacity this week there has never been a greater need to support our brothers and sisters in Greece. Again, a year later, the future remains extremely unclear. What the summer brings no one yet knows but our little team will remain, doing what we can to bring equality, dignity and stability to the lives of those most in need.
How can it be all this time has gone by and still babies starve in Europe? How long will this be allowed to continue?
Photo Credit: Benjamin Julian