Category Archives: Europe

Europe, Greece

Journey back Part III: What solidarity means to me!

It was a great journey back to the border 2015. And I got a lot of experience and we did so much together.
It was my dream to help those people that they don’t have any support and are leaving their country because of some problem. All of my us supported each other so we could do the best job possible.
We’re strong together and able to climb every high wall or fence.


I heard about solidarity as a word before but fortunately you showed and translated it. In this journey I saw the real solidarity with refugees: everywhere and anytime.
Now I understood what means solidarity .
I am proud of myself that I was able to support the new arrived refugees and be a part of this journey back.

It’s impossible to explain it by words or writing because you all did the best of you
I don’t know what will happen in the future and next year.
I would like to join in this sweet group in the next journey back to the border 2016 but I’m not sure if I can?
Now I left you and sure miss you all so much and your place is here ❤️❤️ forever . Thank you all so much. Special thanks to the Drivers,translators and cooks, that they were really so much busy.
Bye bye . I hope see you all again

Aegean Islands, Europe, Everywhere, Greece

Traces back 2014: Programm of the jouney back

  • Wednesday, 6th August – 7 PM – Welcome to Europe: Party in Pikpa with Food and Music
    Pikpa is a selforganised Welcome Centre for Refugees. We will join with the newcomers and some refugees who stay already for a while in Pikpa and with local supporters.
  • Thursday, 7th August 9 PM – Platia Sappho

    Pagani: A Museum of resistance, voices from inside and outside – Return and Remember (+ Film-screenings). Stories from the former prison Pagani and of resistance against all prisons at Europes outer borders. Some of us have been imprisoned in Pagani themselves others struggled for their freedom from outside. We will exchange our memories.

    • Programm Traces 2014 Greek
    Programm Traces 2014 Greek

    Continue reading Traces back 2014: Programm of the jouney back →
Aegean Islands, Central Asia, Europe, Everywhere, Germany, Greece

Jawad’s Journey

Hier gibt es diesen Artikel auch auf Deutsch

Hello I am Jawad and I live in Hamburg now for the last three and a half years. I am from Afghanistan and I want to tell the story of how I came to Hamburg. It is a long story. That I had to leave my country was not my decision and it was also not my decision that I was born in this country.

When I was four years old I had to leave my village and country because of the war in Afghanistan. We fled to Iran. The situation in Iran for refugees was not good. We got a paper to stay only for a short while. We were not allowed to go to school or to work and we could not buy anything in our name. They put a lot of pressure on us so that we would leave quickly again. When they saw us on the street we were always controlled and it also happened that men, when they got back from work, were arrested and deported. In Maschat at the border there was a concentration camp for Afghan refugees. There was no food but a lot of torture. I was not in the camp but my friends told me about it. They had to stand the whole day in the sun or in the winter in the cold. They had to do forced work and when the guards found out that one had been to Iran before, they tortured them. Nearly all of those who left the camp became mentally ill and were deported to Afghanistan. Still today there are people who get shot by soldiers at the border. Many are afraid of that and do not try to escape to Iran.
Continue reading Jawad’s Journey →

About, Aegean Islands, Europe

Now on Mytilene I hope that we can help the people here who are going through that what I had experienced myself.

fearsIch bin Arash, ich komme aus Afghanistan und momentan lebe ich in Kiel in Deutschland. In 2006 bin ich nach Europa gekommen und am 16. Oktober 2006 war ich auf Mitilini. Zweieinhalb Tage war ich in Pagani und danach bin ich nach Athen mit der Fähre gefahren. Dort war ich zwei Tage und ich hatte keinen Schlafplatz. Ich musste im Alexander Park schlafen. Danach bin ich nach Patras gefahren und wollte weg. Zwei Wochen lang habe ich versucht weg zu kommen aber habe es leider nicht geschafft. Dann habe ich entschieden nach Athen zurück zu gehen.

I am Arash, I am from Afghanistan and I live in Kiel in Germany at the moment. I came to Europe in 2006, on the 16th of October I arrived on Mytilene. I stayed in the detention centre Pagani for two and a half days and then went to Athens by ferry. There I stayed for two days and had no place to sleep. I had to sleep in the Alexander Park. I then went to Patras and just wanted to leave. I tried for two weeks to leave but unfortunately it did not work. I decided to go back to Athens.

Continue reading Now on Mytilene I hope that we can help the people here who are going through that what I had experienced myself. →

Aegean Islands, Europe, Everywhere, Greece

Traces back 2013: Meeting with the Mayor of Mytilini

Hello Friends,
today, on the 10th of October 2013 we had an appointment with the mayor of Mytilene, Greece. The goal of this meeting was to negotiate the closing of the prison of Moria. We wanted to thank the city of Mytilini which helped us to set up the camp in Tsamakia beach of Mytilini for a short time. We also invited the mayor and his staff to join us for our welcome party which will take place tonight.


Because the mayor is a nice and friendly person he accepted our invitation.
He told us that he agrees with us about closing Moria. He does not like the prison of Moria. He told us that he could open Pikpa.
Pikpa could be an open and welcoming place for the refugees arriving in Mytilene.
Pikpa could be a better alternative to Moria. Pikpa is a symbol for freedom and hospitality while the prison of Moria symbolises imprisonment and unfreedom.
In the end the mayor wished us well for our project and journey!

Aegean Islands, Europe, Everywhere, Greece, Uncategorized

Traces back 2013: Arrival in Mytilene

Our little home for the next daysSunday night, arrival in Mytilene. We, a little group of 10 people were really exited when we arrived at the beach of Tsamakia. With the feeling: Finally we did it again!

Here in Mytilene we were looking forward to meeting people who were in solidarity with us. We were glad to see the Mediterranean Sea and at the same time Turkey which is the place that is for a lot of people the last step on the journey to Europe. All of us brought hope and expectation but we also felt sadness because we know that a lot of people lose their lives when fleeing. Some of us also had to take the same route of escape and arrived back then in Mytilene.

The nice sight of the island is still connected to our painful memories

. Some of us were unable to sleep in the first few nights. We had hopes and expectations on the one hand but we were also personally affected on the other hand. Just imagine seeing the sun and sea and then suddenly seeing the refugees standing at the sea front…
Continue reading Traces back 2013: Arrival in Mytilene →

Aegean Islands, Europe, Everywhere, Greece

Traces back 2013: Letter to the people in Mytilene

On a journey back to the border, we track back our traces to Europe.
Letter to the people in Mytilene

Dear people in Mitilini and on Lesvos island,

We came via Lesvos and/ or Greece to Europe, most of us some years ago and we are living now in different cities in Germany and Sweden. We finally got a right to stay and arrived. And we want to start a journey back to the border to track back our own traces to Europe.

A lot of us have made our first steps on European soil on your island. And many of us have been in Pagani, this very bad place on your island that is now history – after a long and hard struggle from inside and outside. We have made a lot of bitter experiences in Greece – but we have also met you and others who had been in solidarity with our struggle.

Also today refugees arrive on Lesvos, among them unaccompanied minor refugees, like us. They are like we have been, without help and support. As we said already we have made a lot of bitter experiences: we have survived the dangerous trip on the small boats, we have seen prisons and violence by the police. We have experienced homelessness and push-backs and racist attacks also on our further journey and with the fingerprints the border followed us until our countries of destination.

But we have also seen you and many others who helped us, sometimes with seemingly very small things like giving us a pair of shoes or food or just a friendly welcome. Many of us came to the island in a time when a lot of things were different than usual: during Noborder 2009 we stayed in the circus tent in the harbour of Mitlini directly after our arrival. In the very first moment we found friends from all over Europe. Others have spent some time in Agiassos, among us also known as the “Villa Azadi”, the villa of freedom. We come to meet you again and to thank all those on the island, who set their welcoming against the cruel borderregime. You gave us the hope that was necessary to reach our right to stay. For many of us this has been a starting point of a common struggle for the vision of another, a welcoming Europe, that maybe exists in the future.
Continue reading Traces back 2013: Letter to the people in Mytilene →

Europe, Germany

I thought … I will find my future in Germany … But

Hi, I am Eternal I bornd in Iran.
My father was Mechanic, I was student and I did Mechanic as a part time job.
Up to the day life for refugees getting worse and worse in Iran.


The refugees can’t continue learning in colleges and that’s why I moved to Germany.
I had good life, I didn’t have any limit during my life, I could reach any thing that I want.
I mean I didn’t have any problem about money.
With all the beautiful wishes that I had about Germany I arrived to this country.
I’ve always told myself: I can have a greatest life there. I will have good job, good university and a good life.

Continue reading I thought … I will find my future in Germany … But →

Athen, Germany, Greece, Paris, Patra

I hope that one day I continue my life again

In the name of God
Hi,I am M. J. 17 years old from Afghanistan.
I was forced to leave my land because of having enemy and fathers dead.
It means they killed my father,and my mother ran away from there.
Actually I am from Behsud (a city in Afghanistan) that I lived about two or three month in Afghanistan.
I was born in Afghanistan, I was two or three month that we moved to Iran,and we went back in Afghanistan, and after two month because of some reasons that I’ve told you we went back to Iran again.


Continue reading I hope that one day I continue my life again →