Ryuzaki
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When they appear, hundreds of young migrants run to the receiving line. Lolo from Madrid greets his Pakistani friends with hugs.
"They are some of the ones I saved from the sea," he told me.
Young Pakistani men after taking a bath in the sea on the island of Lesbos, where hundreds of Pakistanis have been stranded since the Balkan route was closed down at the Greek Macedonian border, at which time Greek authorities decided to prevent migrants from traveling to the mainland, which is already overflowing with migrants.
A young Pakistani man named Amer cut Abdil's hair at the No Borders Kitchen, an unlicensed camp run by European anarchists on the shore of Lesbos island in Greece.
Nineteen-year-old Omar who was in his second semester of studying electrical engineering at Gujrat University when he decided to leave Pakistan three months ago. After a long journey, he arrived in Greece, but he was too late. The Balkan route had already closed and he, like more than 50,000 other migrants, is now stranded. Although he has brothers working on another Greek island, Greek authorities are not permitting migrants to board ferries or planes to reach other parts of Greece. He said that, "a lot of people cry here for many reasons."
Ijaz, 38, a labourer who is the main provider for his family, including his wife and two young sons and his elderly parents, sold his house to finance the trip to Europe. "I am a very poor man. My children have no education, good food or clothes." Now his dreams of lifting his family out of poverty has been dashed. "I'd rather die than be sent back to Turkey," he said.
The people living at the camp are neither happy nor calm, probably the two things they left home in search for.
Instead, they are on constant alert, knowing that at any time the police may raid the camp, dragging the migrants to detention.
A spokesman from the mayor’s office told me that if they don’t go peacefully, police will have to be called in and migrants will be taken to the detention facility.
Even more threatening is the probability of being deported to Turkey which intends to sends migrants who do not meet asylum criteria back to their countries of origin, under readmission agreements. Last week, 326 migrants were deported, among them 200 Pakistanis.
Pakistan migrants hold a hunger strike sit in protest at Moria Camp, a detention center on the Greek island of Lesbos on April 7, 2016. Hundreds of Pakistanis are trapped on the Greek island of Lesbos. Greece began deported immigrants to Turkey last week, among them more than 200 Pakistanis, vastly more than any other group.
Pakistani men warm themselves by a fire in the evening at the No Borders Kitchen camp. The weather on the Greek island is hot during the day but drops significantly at night.
Migrants, the vast majority of whom are Pakistani, line up to receive food donations from Spanish volunteers. Between 300 and 400 migrants, about 90 per cent Pakistanis, are camping at the unauthorised No Borders Kitchen camp, which is overdue to be vacated.
An announcement, posted in English and Urdu, regarding the rights migrants have in Greece to ask for asylum, at the No Borders Kitchen, an unauthorised camp on the island of Lesbos in Greece.
At the same time, Turkey has been working on the details of a readmission agreement with Pakistan, in order to implement a second wave of deportations from Turkey to Pakistan.
"My hair turned white due to the tension," explained Ijaz, a 38 year-old father from Gujrat. The sole provider for his family (including two small boys, wife and elderly parents), he sold his family home to pay for the dangerous journey from Pakistan through Iran, Turkey and then by sea on small flimsy rubber boats to Greek islands like Lesbos.
Sitting on the rocks by the seaside, Ijaz told me: "I am a very poor man. My children have no good education, good clothes or good food."
He covered his face with his hands, then looked at me forlornly. Like many others, he has lost hope. He is terrified to be deported back to Turkey, neither a safe country nor an easy place to find decent employment.
Hassan from Lahore, who spoke to me by telephone from inside the detention center, recounted how he was kidnapped in Istanbul. He told me that an Afghan man offered to help him find accommodation. The accommodation ended up being a basement apartment, where he was beaten and held for ransom, until more than a month later, his family paid 3,000 euros in ransom.
Other Pakistani men told me similar stories.
For these migrants, Greece — where they are treated as less than human, where they reside in sheds and eat food that the other inhabitants of the island country would not even touch — is still lesser of the two evils.
"We'd rather die than be sent back to Turkey. It is not a safe country," they said.
http://www.dawn.com/news/1251418/
"They are some of the ones I saved from the sea," he told me.
The people living at the camp are neither happy nor calm, probably the two things they left home in search for.
Instead, they are on constant alert, knowing that at any time the police may raid the camp, dragging the migrants to detention.
A spokesman from the mayor’s office told me that if they don’t go peacefully, police will have to be called in and migrants will be taken to the detention facility.
Even more threatening is the probability of being deported to Turkey which intends to sends migrants who do not meet asylum criteria back to their countries of origin, under readmission agreements. Last week, 326 migrants were deported, among them 200 Pakistanis.
At the same time, Turkey has been working on the details of a readmission agreement with Pakistan, in order to implement a second wave of deportations from Turkey to Pakistan.
"My hair turned white due to the tension," explained Ijaz, a 38 year-old father from Gujrat. The sole provider for his family (including two small boys, wife and elderly parents), he sold his family home to pay for the dangerous journey from Pakistan through Iran, Turkey and then by sea on small flimsy rubber boats to Greek islands like Lesbos.
Sitting on the rocks by the seaside, Ijaz told me: "I am a very poor man. My children have no good education, good clothes or good food."
He covered his face with his hands, then looked at me forlornly. Like many others, he has lost hope. He is terrified to be deported back to Turkey, neither a safe country nor an easy place to find decent employment.
Hassan from Lahore, who spoke to me by telephone from inside the detention center, recounted how he was kidnapped in Istanbul. He told me that an Afghan man offered to help him find accommodation. The accommodation ended up being a basement apartment, where he was beaten and held for ransom, until more than a month later, his family paid 3,000 euros in ransom.
Other Pakistani men told me similar stories.
For these migrants, Greece — where they are treated as less than human, where they reside in sheds and eat food that the other inhabitants of the island country would not even touch — is still lesser of the two evils.
"We'd rather die than be sent back to Turkey. It is not a safe country," they said.
http://www.dawn.com/news/1251418/
