Tag Archives: crossing the border

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

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.
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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.


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Aegean Islands, Afghanistan, Greece, Iran, Paris

travel of a refugee

AFGHANISTAN

I’d been living in AFGHANISTAN for almost 11 years.

In AFGHANISTAN our lives were very bad. There I never went to school because there our lives were very bad. When I was 6 years old I had to work.

When I was 7 years old my father has been killed. I wished to go to school but I couldn’t because I had to work.

At home we had just an old radio and when I was listening to it, I said to myself that one day I would be able to make something like that because I liked technology and now I still like it.
I said to my mother I wanted to go to school. But she said “you must work for us”. After my father death I was the older son of my family.

After my father death I have stayed with my family for 3 years. After 3 years I went to IRAN for work.

IN IRAN

I came to IRAN with smugglers.
I went to ISLAMQALLAH, near the border. At night I spoke with a smuggler but he told me that I needed 1 000 000 toman (name of the money in IRAN) – 700 euros- to go to TEHRAN .I said that I didn’t have 1 000 000. He told me he would bring me to TEHRAN only if I paid 1 000 000. I said it was ok and when I reached TEHRAN I would give him 1 000 000. He said ok. At last he told me we would have to walk only during the night.

From ISLAMQALLAH to TEHRAN we walked about 18 days. We slept during the days in the mountains. It was a very hot summer. We were hungry and thirsty, especially thirsty. After 18 days we reached TEHRAN.

In TEHRAN suburb the smugglers caught me because I didn’t have money. I had to stay with them during two weeks. After two weeks one of them said: “if you don’t have money you must work for us”. But I asked him: “for how many days will I have to work for you?”. He said “3 months”. “It’s a lot” I said but he told me “it’s not a lot and I started to work in the fields, buildings…
I worked there during 3months and after he told me that I was free. I was happy and then I went to the town.
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Everywhere

What I want from myself

I want to drink hot and colorful tea under the sun all the time.
I want you to wash my dishes and dirty clothes.
I want to tease all people on the telephone -with a private number.
I want them to quit nazism¬rasism.
I want to stop all bad accidents bevor they happen
I want to be shinning instead of the sun.
I want an atom reactor to make electrisity fpr all poor people in the world.
I want to kill all killers.
I want to be a bird and shit on all passports cause all birds are free and they dont need passports`
I want a long wood to jump in the sky and I want the sky to keep me for ever.
I want to knock on my neighbor`s door and run away.
I want to smooth a hard heart with sand paper.
I want to tickle my partner.
I want to confuse myself with this question [what so I want from myself]
I want some place to yell.
I want some ear to bite.
I want to be serious when I request some girls for marriage.
I want to dust the sky so that stars will fall down and then I`ll pick them up.
I want when I get up all my friends to bent down to me.
I want to search myself.
I want two chairs to sit with you.
I want to fly to the galaxy.
I want to change all dissapointment to happiness.
I want to go back home soon.