Fortress Europe Border Updates
Update from Edirne: Day 3
Our team (Eva, Lorenz and Natalie) reporting from the ground on 13.3.2020
We started the day with distributing the goods acquired yesterday - socks for adults and children, women’s underwear, sanitary pads, wet wipes - as well as our phone numbers to stay in contact with the people in the camp and hear about their needs first hand.
Later we went out to buy 150 plastic sheets so people can prepare for the rain, expected to start falling on Sunday. The first ones we brought from Istanbul were gone within a few minutes and they have been frequently requested since.
While on our way through the city we received a call from a Syrian contact. Apparently, many people have been pushed back from Greece, where they got beaten up and had their phones and money taken from them. They were brought to a gas station 85 km from Edirne and those who could were told to leave to Istanbul. The call ended suddenly as the phone was taken away by Turkish police. Rumours say that some days ago 2000 people were brought there and then taken away by the Turkish police - nobody knows where. Allegedly there are several detention camps on the Turkish side of the border, but there is no info on where and how many there are nor on how many refugees are detained there and in which condition.
Afterwards we started to prepare for Corona prevention. The fear of the disease has spread to Turkey as one of the last countries, none the less hand sanitizers and similar products are sold out in Edirne. We will make an effort to purchase them when deliveries reach the local pharmacies on Monday where we made reservations of 300 products. For the moment we decided to provide even more wet wipes to substitute missing opportunities to shower or even wash hands, other than in muddy rivers. Especially women don’t have opportunities to wash.
We were kindly supported by two mid-aged locals that make the 75 km (!) way to Edirne regularly, whenever they saved some money to help. They have been distributing since the beginning of the situation and were able to show us local places to buy goods.
Today people were not allowed to leave the camp after 12am, so we could not distribute food, wet wipes and plastic sheets as planned - hopefully tomorrow.
Another call of a Syrian reached us, sending shocking videos of a small child stuck in the barbed wire fence between the borders. Greek police took pictures. The child was stuck there for one hour when we heard about it, his father is dead, his mother lost. After two hours, he was brought back to the Turkish side.
At the bridge crossing into Edirne we saw busses and lots of police, a maybe 12-year-old boy in their custody.
Natalie left back to Austria today with the last flight from Istanbul before travel is no longer possible to work on publishing the info we get from here. Eva and Lorenz will stay as long as police tolerates it to continue with our efforts to help as many people as possible under the given conditions.
We started the day with distributing the goods acquired yesterday - socks for adults and children, women’s underwear, sanitary pads, wet wipes - as well as our phone numbers to stay in contact with the people in the camp and hear about their needs first hand.
Later we went out to buy 150 plastic sheets so people can prepare for the rain, expected to start falling on Sunday. The first ones we brought from Istanbul were gone within a few minutes and they have been frequently requested since.
While on our way through the city we received a call from a Syrian contact. Apparently, many people have been pushed back from Greece, where they got beaten up and had their phones and money taken from them. They were brought to a gas station 85 km from Edirne and those who could were told to leave to Istanbul. The call ended suddenly as the phone was taken away by Turkish police. Rumours say that some days ago 2000 people were brought there and then taken away by the Turkish police - nobody knows where. Allegedly there are several detention camps on the Turkish side of the border, but there is no info on where and how many there are nor on how many refugees are detained there and in which condition.
Afterwards we started to prepare for Corona prevention. The fear of the disease has spread to Turkey as one of the last countries, none the less hand sanitizers and similar products are sold out in Edirne. We will make an effort to purchase them when deliveries reach the local pharmacies on Monday where we made reservations of 300 products. For the moment we decided to provide even more wet wipes to substitute missing opportunities to shower or even wash hands, other than in muddy rivers. Especially women don’t have opportunities to wash.
We were kindly supported by two mid-aged locals that make the 75 km (!) way to Edirne regularly, whenever they saved some money to help. They have been distributing since the beginning of the situation and were able to show us local places to buy goods.
Today people were not allowed to leave the camp after 12am, so we could not distribute food, wet wipes and plastic sheets as planned - hopefully tomorrow.
Another call of a Syrian reached us, sending shocking videos of a small child stuck in the barbed wire fence between the borders. Greek police took pictures. The child was stuck there for one hour when we heard about it, his father is dead, his mother lost. After two hours, he was brought back to the Turkish side.
At the bridge crossing into Edirne we saw busses and lots of police, a maybe 12-year-old boy in their custody.
Natalie left back to Austria today with the last flight from Istanbul before travel is no longer possible to work on publishing the info we get from here. Eva and Lorenz will stay as long as police tolerates it to continue with our efforts to help as many people as possible under the given conditions.
