Refugees who lived in PIKPA, talk about the
importance of an open
welcoming space.
In early
March 2015, the mayor of Lesvos Spiros Galinos called on the
‘Village of all
together’ to move out all the refugees accommodated in PIKPA. He
wanted to
renovate PIKPA for a tennis tournament that would take place in
May. He
seriously proposed the prison of Moria as an alternative that
could be turned
into an open centre. This is where the refugees could live!
The
‘Village of all together’ responded by saying that a prison
would not be an
alternative option, even if the fences were to be removed. They
demand to be
offered a different place, otherwise they would be forced to
remain in
PIKPA.
Us from
w2eu and as part of the ‘Village of all together’ outside of
Mytilene want to
contribute to the discussion by offering a little story from
PIKPA as well as
comments from people who made PIKPA their home for some time.
PIKPA was
an empty and run-down former holiday camp for children, located
near the
airport of Mytilene. Since November 2012, in accordance with the
mayor at the
time, it could be used by the group ‘Village of all together’.
The story of
this unique and self-organised place of solidarity that welcomes
newly arrived
refugees, was not only known to the locals of Lesvos but also
internationally.
It began in
the winter of 2012 when refugees arrived from Turkey in bad
weather conditions
on a small boat and had to sleep under trees, waiting for the
police to arrest
them for registration. Fascists threw stones at a pregnant woman
who was
sleeping outside.
The
‘Village of all together’ opened PIKPA and an unbelievable
number of people in
solidarity made sure that food was offered to all every day.
It started
off as a small place that was used as a place of arrival before
the arrest and
registration would take place. Coastguards and the police did
not support this
place which proved that arriving people would not abscond or be
dangerous but
were visibly looking for protection. PIKPA transformed several
times,
especially after October 2013 when the prison of Moria opened,
funded with EU
money. PIKPA was empty for a short while but then people who
were released from
Moria began to use PIKPA again. Later, when the asylum system
collapsed in
Athens, people came to Mytilene to claim asylum and stayed in
PIKPA for a few
weeks.
In summer
2014 when more and more arrived from Turkey and Moria became
overcrowded, even
the coastguard began to move refugees to PIKPA in order to
‘spare’ the tourists
on cruise boats the sight of waiting refugees in the burning sun
at the
harbour.
The
‘Village of all together’, with its few members, was able to
deal even with
this situation that grew more acute, with about 600 refugees
staying in one day
at a place that has merely 80 beds.
It was in
September 2014 that the new conservative mayor took office. He
requested from
the coastguard to cease bringing newly arrived people to PIKPA
and, instead,
move them straight to the prison near Moria. Nonetheless, all
those who have
already claimed asylum and thus left Moria, as well as those who
are ill, do
not have the money to continue their journey, are waiting for
family
reunification or are searching for their missing relatives,
remain in PIKPA. In
addition, all those who are released on
Fridays stay the night in PIKPA since no boats are leaving on
that day.
At the
moment there are 20 long-term guests at PIKPA. The children go
to school and
the Village of all together is able to organise, through
self-organised
donations, everyday life.
The new
Syriza government has announced to close down all prisons for
refugees and to
have instead open centres. Moria is still open.
We asked
people, who spent a long time in PIKPA, some of them have now
succeeded to
escape Greece and are recognised as refugees in other European
countries, to tell
us why PIKPA was important to them:
Ablulahi und
Laila,
One day in
April 2013, around midnight, a boat capsized and everybody fell
into the water,
when the coastguard tried to stop them. It was Abdulahi, the
only one who knew
how to swim, who rescued all the people by bringing them to the
boat of the
coastguard. Laila was rescued even twice as she was caught by
another wave and
was washed away, about to drown. The coastguard shone light and
handed out life
buoys so that he could find and rescue the people.
Once he had
rescued all and was climbing to the boat of the coastguards with
Laila, someone
turned on the engine and injured Abdulahi’s leg severely by the
boat’s
propeller. Laila was also injured but fortunately less badly.
At the
hospital of Mytilene Abdulahi was lucky to see a doctor who
operated on him and
saved his leg. It was, however, also clear that he would not be
allowed to get
up and move for several months. Laila decided to stay with her
rescuer to help
him in his everyday life. They both remained in PIKPA and when
physiotherapy
was recommended, the Village of all together organised daily
transfers to the
city for Abdulahi.
4 months
later they could, with the hobbling Abdulahi, go to Athens and
try to continue
their journey. There were no legal charges against the
coastguard and no
compensation was given.
Their
journeys seemed to part there. But in the end they managed to
arrive in the
same country. They now have a child together and their tragic
story seems to
have found a happy end.
Abulahi says:
Pikpa is the place I can never forget,
specially “the village of
together”. Without Pikpa I couldn't walk with my leg right
now.
Pikpa is where I got saved, cured, fed and
met such good people. What
happened to me in the midnight of the second of April, I
remember it full, but
I remember all the great people who showed me the great heart
they have.
It is in Pikpa where I stayed when I could
not even manage to go to the toilet
alone.
It is in Pikpa where many family who had
children got a place to sleep
and felt save.
I honestly cry when I remember Mitilini,
where I almost lost my leg. But
when I also remember the great “village of together” the
doctors who cured me,
physiotherapy, people who drive me, people just helping me.
Pikpa is great and
I dream one day I will came back. Please allow Pikpa to
welcome people like me
and others who absolutely can not stay in the harbour or
elsewhere. Life is
difficult.
Pikpa is great........
Pashtu, Kandara, Sedara, Mariam, Omeira,
We met
Pashtu and her 4 children in front of the police office of
Mytilene in summer
2013. They wanted to live right there on the pavement and wait
until the father
of the family who had been arrested and accused to be a
trafficker, would be
released. It was clear to them that he was not guilty. Back then
they did not
know that punishment could mean up to 75 years in prison.
With
difficulty we were able to persuade them to stay one night in
PIKPA to gather
information and think about their situation again. When we
arrived in PIKPA by
car and they saw the other Afghan children who were playing
under the trees, it
was clear that she had made the right decision. Pashtu and her
children stayed
for more than a year.
The
children were the first from the Village of all together who
were able to go to
school. Together we wrote down the story of their flight, also
to make clear to
the court that the father was not a ‘businessman’ but someone
travelling with 4
children and his wife to create a better life for them.
The
monitoring of the proceedings in court, the assigning of a
lawyer, and the
publicity created through the booklet with their story led to
the release of
the father. He lived with his family in PIKPA until they
travelled on, all
together. Now they are also in another European country, the
children go to
school and have already learned the new language, and are
dreaming to return to
Mytilene as soon as they have papers.
Pashtu says:
For 1 year and 2
months we were in PIKPA.
PIKPA was very
great as people help one another
there.
All those who
came just wanted to help. They
did not do that for money but because they believe that it is
good to support
others.
In Greece we felt
like at home in Afghanistan
due to the hospitality of the people. The children will never
forget how Stella
came with her car to collect them to go swimming, nearly every
day.
We now are in
Austria and sometimes we all want
to return to Mytilene, it was that great. Later when we get
papers we will all
go back to visit them. As one says in Greece: MAKARI.
Zivara
was the
oldest Afghan woman in PIKPA who travelled alone.
She wanted,
through family reunification, to go to her children in Germany
but the
bureaucracy and the horrible asylum process meant that she
missed the birth of
her grandchild and had to remain in PIKPA for more than a year.
In the
meantime we had travelled several times to Germany and back and
the running
joke from Zivara was: “would you take me with you in our
luggage? I am thin’.
After Syriza came to power, suddenly a flight was booked for
her.
She now is
with her children in Hamburg .
Zivara says:
The people of the
Village of all together helped
me so much, to get medicine, to bring me to the doctor and to
provide food for
me, every day.
When I was ill
they brought me straight to the
doctor and got drops for my eyes. I want to return to meet all
these people
again. I want to say thanks and see them again.
Hamid
arrived in
Mytilene and was arrested in Moria, then went to Athens only to
notice that it
was impossible to gain access to the asylum office. He heard
from friends that
he would be luckier in Mytilene and thus came to PIKPA. He then
realised that
it did not work there as well and he had to travel back and
forth between
Athens and Mytilene several times due to the Greek bureaucracy.
Hamid is a
young and active journalist from Herat who did not want to leave
but was
threatened due to his journalistic activities and was searching
for protection
in Europe.
He
experienced PIKPA when 600 people were there and he was able to
create
understanding and calm amongst the other Afghans there.
We thank him for that a lot. Today he is also in Germany
and has mixed
feelings when remembering his time in Greece. He will never
forget the
solidarity that he experienced.
Hamid says.
.. The elections went in the
second round and then
we knew we have some problem. I had to leave Afghanistan.
This was
very hard for
me because i dont want to leave my country. Because i had
everything there, i
was a lecturer at the university of Herat, i have got salary, i
have
everything: a house, a car a family a good job, i had a very
good life. But
finaly i lost everything.
In Athens
it was not
possible to aply for asylum, the system does not work, that is
why i came to
Mitilini. Thanks to all fo you keeping Pikpa open, i could stay
there and try
to aply for asylum. It is not easy to run such a place, we saw
it when 600
people wer there. But it helps if people talk with one another
and understand.
Nasimgül
survived 18
hours in the sea without being able to swim. She fell into the
water from the
boat on which her small daughter Asma and her cousin travelled
as well.
When the
police brought Asma and the other survivors to PIKPA we all
thought we would
witness a tragic story.
Helicopters
searched for Nasimgül without success for several hours. She was
able, however,
through her own strength to use a wave and be washed up on a
beach in Mytilene.
There she asked people she met at the beach for help.
Nobody
believed that she was still alive. When she was in hospital her
daughter had to
identify her. It was a very touching encounter.
Nasimgül remained
a few months in PIKPA until she regained her strength after this
experience.
They left in autumn and moved to another European country. We
hope that she
arrived safely.
Nasimgül says
I should
never forget
how i arived alive here. As long as i live, i will remember.
And i am
so lucky that
i arived here in Pikpa, where i met the best people in the
world, i will never
forget you.
Now that
i am strong
again I will continue my journey.
I wish to
finaly arive
in a country where my daughter and me get asylum and Asma can go
to school.
Ghazem
came to
Mytilene in 2014 to search for his younger brother who had not
been in touch
after crossing the sea from Turkey.
He looked
for him in the prisons of the island, without success.
Then the
message came that told of someone who drowned which fit his
description.
Ghazem, who found accommodation in PIKPA and people who
supported his search,
had to give DNA evidence to receive the sad fact that his
brother had drowned.
Ghazem
remained in PIKPA for a long time to grieve and went daily to
the cemetery and
the grave of his brother. In August 2014, together with us, he
added the name
of his brother to the memorial and we collectively mourned.
Afterwards he could
finally leave the place his brother never reached, and went back
to Paris where
he lives.
Ghazem says:
Thanks that I
could be here with you and for
your great support when I lost my brother. I wanted to find
him alive and it
was very difficult to accept that he had died. Thanks you that
you were there
for me. Now I have to find the strength to tell our parents
about it.
I want to return
with the names of the dead
that I have engraved on a marble plate, for the memorial. In
Iran I used to
work as a stonemason so that I can contribute in this way to
your solidarity
work.
Abas
arrived in
PIKPA in September 2013. He
stayed for two weeks waiting for his friends to be released.
Finally he left by
himself as his deportation order was going to expire after
another two weeks
and his friends were still in Moria detention.
He tried to
leave Greece a few weeks
later, but was caught and arrested. First detained in different
police stations
he finally applied for asylum and was transferred to Amygdaleza
pre-removal
centre. He stayed more than 9 months in detention until he got
accepted as
political refugee and released,
Abas says:
When
I
arrived in PIKPA in the first moment I thought this place is a
camp of the
government, but after a few hours I understood that it is a
welcome place for
homeless people. I met very nice people there. I felt that
they were like my
own people. They prepared for us whatever we expected and
needed. They were
friendly and respectful. Me and two of my friends had slept in
the park in
Mytilene for three days without anything and nobody had helped
us. No one had
asked if we needed anything. We were disappointed from Europe
before we came to
PIKPA as we passed very hard days. In PIKPA we could relax. We
received
clothes, food, a place to sleep, medical aid.... and honour.
PIKPA
is
a great place with great people. I never experienced another
place like that
and I also never heard something about such a place before. I
say this from my
heart. My best time during my clandestine journey were the
days I spent in
PIKPA.
I
wish to see more PIKPAs. I hope PIKPA will never close.
I
wish best luck and god bless all those good People trying to
keep PIKPA
running.
April 2015
collected
from: w2eu– Welcome to
Europe
Marily Stroux- translation:
Maurice Stierl , Aristos.