Time Witnesses from Greece

A Drop in the Ocean’s voluntary fieldworkers have been in the field to help refugees in Greece every day since September 2015. 6000 voluntary fieldworkers from 60 countries have with their own eyes witnessed how the refugee crisis has been handled. The feedback we receive is unambiguous – this is not a European refugee crisis; this is Europe’s solidarity crisis.

With great willpower and good governance, Europe is well equipped to find solutions to ensure children’s safety and ensure their education. A joint European effort can prevent people from freezing to death in ice cold tents during the winter. It can prevent people from drowning in the sea, in their chaise for freedom. Instead, Europe chooses to pay millions to prevent these people from entering our countries.

During my time in the field I have met mothers who told me they would have preferred to stay with their children in Aleppo and lose their lives in the ruins of their house, rather then to slowly dying behind barbed wire in a European refugee camp. I have also met medical students and engineers who are refugees, asking “why doesn’t Europe want me? All I want is to contribute to the society I live in”.

With this report, we want to shed light on the current situation in the Greek refugee camps, through feedback from our own fieldworkers. These are not fieldworkers that sits hidden behind desks doing administrative work. They are 100% present in the refugee camps, with the people who live there, and are therefore best equipped to share the reality of the refugee camps in an honest and real way.

Read and download the report here.