Sleepless Minds
The reality of Europe beyond pushbacks
Myriam, a little girl shows severe symptoms of a complex post traumatic stress disorder - and Europe denies her the most basic rights
By reporting primarily on pushbacks, we focus on the direct border violence people face at Europe's external borders and the European policy of sealing off and criminalising migration. However, it should not be forgotten that even for those who survive or avoid pushbacks and actually apply for asylum in a European country, the odyssey is far from over. Many people on the run have not yet lost faith in a Europe of human rights, even if they have experienced numerous pushbacks. They have the hope that this is "not the real Europe", that once they arrive in Greece, Germany or Sweden, their rights will surely be respected and their suffering will be seen.
However, the European policy of foreclosure is far more perfidious and now permeates all areas. This includes abuses such as waiting for years for a decision on asylum claims, increasing rejections of asylum applications despite clearly existing reasons, threats of deportation and deportations to war zones such as Afghanistan and Congo, racist practices in authorities, challenges in access to the health care system and thus to medical and psychotherapeutic care, lack of work permits and lack of financial security. All of these practices mean that refugees in Europe are discriminated against in every conceivable way by state processes, which marginalise them and prevent them from building a dignified livelihood.
We would like to introduce some of these people and their individual stories as part of our Sleepless Mind series, alternating with previous reports about people who have had to experience pushbacks.
This month, to coincide with International Children's Day on 1st June, we tell the story of an eight-year-old Syrian girl. This young child’s experience highlights to us that a Europe which disregards the basic rights of children on a daily basis, no doubt has worse treatment in store for adults....
I met Myriam on Lesvos, where she was a patient in my psychotherapeutic children's group. Myriam lived with her family in Syria until 2018, together with her two younger sisters, her older brother and her parents. For years they had to constantly move and flee within Syria, and their house had been bombed at the beginning of the war. They lived in ruined houses until these were also destroyed and they had to find a new place to stay. Myriam was, as her mother later described her, an extremely friendly, bright girl: silly, curious and playful. Until the day when a bomb destroyed her house again and her brother Yussif died in front of her eyes in the most agonising way. Since then, Myriam has stopped speaking. Her parents decided that they could no longer stay in Syria and that they had to try to escape to Europe despite the imminent dangers, so that Myriam and her sisters might survive and Myriam might be able to get psychological help. Her mother did not tell me about the escape from Syria, but while trying to cross from Izmir to one of the Greek islands, the family experienced a shipwreck with several deaths. Eventually, they were rescued by the Turkish coast guard and brought back to Turkey. Since then, Myriam hardly sleeps at night, wets herself and screams in her nightmares.
The family saw no other way out than to try again to somehow get to Greece. This time they landed in their rubber dinghy on the beach of Lesvos and were taken to Moria, the camp which burned down in September 2020. At that time, however, the family lived in Moria for a year, in a self-made tent. At night, Myriam would often wake up and run out of the tent. The parents split up the tasks, the mother became the main caregiver for Myriam, the father took care of the now three little sisters. Through the efforts of an NGO, they were finally prioritised for the move to Kara Tepe, the "better camp" on Lesvos, where they could at least live in a container. There, the door was lockable, so Myriam could no longer run away at night. Instead, she started banging her head against the wall.
I met Myriam two years after this. Her mother came with her to the preliminary interview for the group and I was deeply touched. I have never seen such dramatic psychological suffering. Myriam does not speak, does not play, does not smile. She walks beside her mother when she leads her by the hand, sits down when her mother pushes her to a chair, and otherwise stares upward with eyes widened in terror. She does not respond to speech, does not seek eye contact or other interaction with her environment. Her mother reported that she still wets herself, wakes up screaming from nightmares, hits herself, and also hits her little sisters when they try to ask her to play. She only eats when her mother feeds her and spends the whole day sitting somewhere staring at the wall. In between, she would start sobbing, suddenly stand up and try to run away. Especially when there are loud noises or sudden movements, she flinches or cries. Sometimes she talks to herself, in a language no one else understands.
Myriam is obviously extremely traumatised. In order to have any chance of recovery, she would have to live in a safe environment that she could understand, sheltered and protected, with access to qualified therapeutic treatment for her and her parents, so that she could slowly regain confidence in life and come to terms with her experiences. Instead, she has been living in a camp for more than two years, experiencing violence every day anew in her environment, experiencing the insecurity and stress of her parents, having no access to education or other child-friendly services.
Due to the 2016 Agreement between Europe and Turkey, Syrians can simply be deported from the Greek islands to Turkey. In their asylum interview, the family are not asked to talk about the reasons for their escape from Syria, but are only asked about their time in Turkey. Hardly any Syrian asylum seeker receives protection status on the Greek islands: almost all of them are rejected and face the threat of deportation to Turkey. Myriam's family has also received a rejection in the first instance - they are waiting for the appeal decision. Myriam's mother's brother lives in Germany and has tried everything possible to start a family reunification process in order to bring his family to Germany. However, the German authorities rejected this because there was “no apparent reason why the relationship between brother and sister was particularly relevant”.
In April 2021, the Kara Tepe camp was closed by the Greek government, and all people who had been accommodated there due to their extreme vulnerability were brought to the slum camp ‘Moria 2.0’, which had been rebuilt on a lead-contaminated military area after the fire of the original Moria camp in 2020. Now Myriam and her family live again in a tent, right by the sea. The mother ties her hands with Myriam's at night for fear that the girl will run out of the tent and into the sea.
By reporting primarily on pushbacks, we focus on the direct border violence people face at Europe's external borders and the European policy of sealing off and criminalising migration. However, it should not be forgotten that even for those who survive or avoid pushbacks and actually apply for asylum in a European country, the odyssey is far from over. Many people on the run have not yet lost faith in a Europe of human rights, even if they have experienced numerous pushbacks. They have the hope that this is "not the real Europe", that once they arrive in Greece, Germany or Sweden, their rights will surely be respected and their suffering will be seen.
However, the European policy of foreclosure is far more perfidious and now permeates all areas. This includes abuses such as waiting for years for a decision on asylum claims, increasing rejections of asylum applications despite clearly existing reasons, threats of deportation and deportations to war zones such as Afghanistan and Congo, racist practices in authorities, challenges in access to the health care system and thus to medical and psychotherapeutic care, lack of work permits and lack of financial security. All of these practices mean that refugees in Europe are discriminated against in every conceivable way by state processes, which marginalise them and prevent them from building a dignified livelihood.
We would like to introduce some of these people and their individual stories as part of our Sleepless Mind series, alternating with previous reports about people who have had to experience pushbacks.
This month, to coincide with International Children's Day on 1st June, we tell the story of an eight-year-old Syrian girl. This young child’s experience highlights to us that a Europe which disregards the basic rights of children on a daily basis, no doubt has worse treatment in store for adults....
I met Myriam on Lesvos, where she was a patient in my psychotherapeutic children's group. Myriam lived with her family in Syria until 2018, together with her two younger sisters, her older brother and her parents. For years they had to constantly move and flee within Syria, and their house had been bombed at the beginning of the war. They lived in ruined houses until these were also destroyed and they had to find a new place to stay. Myriam was, as her mother later described her, an extremely friendly, bright girl: silly, curious and playful. Until the day when a bomb destroyed her house again and her brother Yussif died in front of her eyes in the most agonising way. Since then, Myriam has stopped speaking. Her parents decided that they could no longer stay in Syria and that they had to try to escape to Europe despite the imminent dangers, so that Myriam and her sisters might survive and Myriam might be able to get psychological help. Her mother did not tell me about the escape from Syria, but while trying to cross from Izmir to one of the Greek islands, the family experienced a shipwreck with several deaths. Eventually, they were rescued by the Turkish coast guard and brought back to Turkey. Since then, Myriam hardly sleeps at night, wets herself and screams in her nightmares.
The family saw no other way out than to try again to somehow get to Greece. This time they landed in their rubber dinghy on the beach of Lesvos and were taken to Moria, the camp which burned down in September 2020. At that time, however, the family lived in Moria for a year, in a self-made tent. At night, Myriam would often wake up and run out of the tent. The parents split up the tasks, the mother became the main caregiver for Myriam, the father took care of the now three little sisters. Through the efforts of an NGO, they were finally prioritised for the move to Kara Tepe, the "better camp" on Lesvos, where they could at least live in a container. There, the door was lockable, so Myriam could no longer run away at night. Instead, she started banging her head against the wall.
I met Myriam two years after this. Her mother came with her to the preliminary interview for the group and I was deeply touched. I have never seen such dramatic psychological suffering. Myriam does not speak, does not play, does not smile. She walks beside her mother when she leads her by the hand, sits down when her mother pushes her to a chair, and otherwise stares upward with eyes widened in terror. She does not respond to speech, does not seek eye contact or other interaction with her environment. Her mother reported that she still wets herself, wakes up screaming from nightmares, hits herself, and also hits her little sisters when they try to ask her to play. She only eats when her mother feeds her and spends the whole day sitting somewhere staring at the wall. In between, she would start sobbing, suddenly stand up and try to run away. Especially when there are loud noises or sudden movements, she flinches or cries. Sometimes she talks to herself, in a language no one else understands.
Myriam is obviously extremely traumatised. In order to have any chance of recovery, she would have to live in a safe environment that she could understand, sheltered and protected, with access to qualified therapeutic treatment for her and her parents, so that she could slowly regain confidence in life and come to terms with her experiences. Instead, she has been living in a camp for more than two years, experiencing violence every day anew in her environment, experiencing the insecurity and stress of her parents, having no access to education or other child-friendly services.
Due to the 2016 Agreement between Europe and Turkey, Syrians can simply be deported from the Greek islands to Turkey. In their asylum interview, the family are not asked to talk about the reasons for their escape from Syria, but are only asked about their time in Turkey. Hardly any Syrian asylum seeker receives protection status on the Greek islands: almost all of them are rejected and face the threat of deportation to Turkey. Myriam's family has also received a rejection in the first instance - they are waiting for the appeal decision. Myriam's mother's brother lives in Germany and has tried everything possible to start a family reunification process in order to bring his family to Germany. However, the German authorities rejected this because there was “no apparent reason why the relationship between brother and sister was particularly relevant”.
In April 2021, the Kara Tepe camp was closed by the Greek government, and all people who had been accommodated there due to their extreme vulnerability were brought to the slum camp ‘Moria 2.0’, which had been rebuilt on a lead-contaminated military area after the fire of the original Moria camp in 2020. Now Myriam and her family live again in a tent, right by the sea. The mother ties her hands with Myriam's at night for fear that the girl will run out of the tent and into the sea.
