Fortress Europe Border Updates
Update from Edirne: Day 4
Our team on the ground (Eva and Lorenz) reporting from Edirne on 14.3.2020
We found a good spot to distribute our supplies in one of the sideways of the main road that people take to walk from the camp to the supermarket. Pretending to be lost tourists, we stayed there with our bagpacks full of wet wipes, pain killers, sanitary pads and socks. It felt a bit like drug dealing, to call the people to come to us and hand them out the stuff quickly, always watching out for police.
Some people we met today:
- An Iranian father of five children who we could give blankets, nappies, sanitary pads and medication to - he almost cried, kissed Lorenz on the head and then told us how much he loved Jürgen Kliensman.
- A Syrian man with his disabled boy in a wheelchair, who needs a special kind of medication for his lung disease that we purchased for him
- An eight months pregnant Somali women
- A Syrian father of a newborn baby, born 5 days ago - he will inform us about his special needs and we’ll try to get everything for him by tomorrow
The locals asked what we were doing. Some were super nice and brought us tea, a jacket and offered their help. They all felt with the refugees, blamed the EU and Erdogan for letting this happen. But we were also told that some locals are afraid of the huge numbers of people and stopped buying in the village’s only supermarket the refugees often que in front of.
Shortly after we started the distribution of plastic sheets, many refugees came to “our” street, as did the police. After initially only passing by, pretending not to see us (or maybe actually not noticing), they told us to leave. We still managed to hand plastic sheets to those already there, but had to give in ultimately. As the temperature is supposed to drop to -3° tomorrow night joined by rain from tomorrow on, we will focus on distributing the remaining plastic sheets as well as 100 more we got today.
We got informed about yet another emergency situation, this time an Iranian group including 15 children between 5-10 years old in need of paracetamol, antibiotics and vitamins. They live in the “tent” you can see in the pictures below. There is no medical service inside the no-man’s-land, no doctor, no medicine available.
Yesterday’s and today’s rumours about refugees getting money and a free bus ticket to Istanbul if they leave the border have been upheld by locals in contact with the police. Also, there is (even) less food distributed. Seems like the camp is going to be emptied slowly and the people will be moved from here - already resulting in more people sleeping on the streets and parks in Istanbul with no food or help. Some of the refugees here at the border might go back to the Turkish cities in which they had previously lived, others gave up everything hoping for a way to Europe. Afghans in Turkey are mostly without a legal status and have nowhere to go. The people we spoke to don’t want to leave as they already survived 12-15 days here and do not want this effort to be wasted for nothing.
So the situation might calm down for Europe soon, but definitely not for the people here.
P.S.: we share pictures sent to us from the camp, often the people ask to make sure that they will be seen in the outside world as they are need of solidarity more than anything else.
Some impressions from the border crossing Pazarkule:
We found a good spot to distribute our supplies in one of the sideways of the main road that people take to walk from the camp to the supermarket. Pretending to be lost tourists, we stayed there with our bagpacks full of wet wipes, pain killers, sanitary pads and socks. It felt a bit like drug dealing, to call the people to come to us and hand them out the stuff quickly, always watching out for police.
Some people we met today:
- An Iranian father of five children who we could give blankets, nappies, sanitary pads and medication to - he almost cried, kissed Lorenz on the head and then told us how much he loved Jürgen Kliensman.
- A Syrian man with his disabled boy in a wheelchair, who needs a special kind of medication for his lung disease that we purchased for him
- An eight months pregnant Somali women
- A Syrian father of a newborn baby, born 5 days ago - he will inform us about his special needs and we’ll try to get everything for him by tomorrow
The locals asked what we were doing. Some were super nice and brought us tea, a jacket and offered their help. They all felt with the refugees, blamed the EU and Erdogan for letting this happen. But we were also told that some locals are afraid of the huge numbers of people and stopped buying in the village’s only supermarket the refugees often que in front of.
Shortly after we started the distribution of plastic sheets, many refugees came to “our” street, as did the police. After initially only passing by, pretending not to see us (or maybe actually not noticing), they told us to leave. We still managed to hand plastic sheets to those already there, but had to give in ultimately. As the temperature is supposed to drop to -3° tomorrow night joined by rain from tomorrow on, we will focus on distributing the remaining plastic sheets as well as 100 more we got today.
We got informed about yet another emergency situation, this time an Iranian group including 15 children between 5-10 years old in need of paracetamol, antibiotics and vitamins. They live in the “tent” you can see in the pictures below. There is no medical service inside the no-man’s-land, no doctor, no medicine available.
Yesterday’s and today’s rumours about refugees getting money and a free bus ticket to Istanbul if they leave the border have been upheld by locals in contact with the police. Also, there is (even) less food distributed. Seems like the camp is going to be emptied slowly and the people will be moved from here - already resulting in more people sleeping on the streets and parks in Istanbul with no food or help. Some of the refugees here at the border might go back to the Turkish cities in which they had previously lived, others gave up everything hoping for a way to Europe. Afghans in Turkey are mostly without a legal status and have nowhere to go. The people we spoke to don’t want to leave as they already survived 12-15 days here and do not want this effort to be wasted for nothing.
So the situation might calm down for Europe soon, but definitely not for the people here.
P.S.: we share pictures sent to us from the camp, often the people ask to make sure that they will be seen in the outside world as they are need of solidarity more than anything else.
Some impressions from the border crossing Pazarkule:
