After heavy fights last Friday in Moria, All the Kurds left Moria fearing their safety inside the infamous detention centre was greatly at risk. Mostly families with children and a small group of single men, tried to get to safer locations. They where cattled by the Police for several hours in de burning sun. Then they went into Mytillini to sleep in parks. A number of volunteers came to their aid, not only to provide basic needs, but also the local Antifa to protect people from potential threats.
After no solution was found that a smaller group went to Pikpa, and a bigger group tried to get to Karatepe, the Muncipality run “family camp”. That was not possible,so they where transferred to Stage 2, a transit centre. Then yesterday they where removed from the UNCHR run facility and are currently residing at Humans4Humanities, a grass-roots NGO that is, like Pikpa, over capcity and in no way has the infrastructure to deal with such large numbers of people. Currently there are still 350 people residing in Pikpa.
The authorities of Lesvos have once again shown their incompetence in dealing with life-threatening situations. The Kurds, fleeing from war and discrimination, find themselves facing much of the same treatment on this Island. The police and supposed authorities did nothing to stop the violence in Moria. Instead of finding a solution themselves they drop all the people on the grass-roots NGO’s so that they don’t have to worry about the situation. We cannot trust goverment institutions to safeguard the lives of people for whom they have shown total indifference in past, present and also the future.
No Border Kitchen and One Happy Family has been providing food for Pikpa since the onset of the situation, because no one else had the means to do so. We stand in solidarity with the people of Pikpa, volunteers and migrants that are trying their best to care for the people displaced again in search of safety.
For now we wait. A number of residents of Moria have said the Kurds are no longer welcome, and made a number of very colourful threats for the case when they would come back. But the current situation is also not sustainable, and the Authorities keep silent.