First, the UNHCR (the UN’s Refugee Agency) recently released this video regarding the situation for refugees and asylum-seekers here in Greece.  Please watch, pray, and get involved!

Second, Al Jazeera just put out this video documenting the despair and disappointment that awaits asylum-seekers in Greece.  Again, watch, pray, and get involved!

Help us speak faith, hope, and love into the despair.  Get involved!

* Yesterday, at any given time, you could count five to ten young Afghan men with their heads down on a table, trying desperately to secure a few minutes of rest – something so elusive when you’re forced to make your home in a busy urban park. Despite the noise and activities of the ARC, it offered these refugees a safe and peaceful place to rest, to forget the perils of refugee life in Athens, even if just for a few minutes.  Pray for these young men!

* Walking into the Kids’ Room, you can see the kids’ artwork hanging proudly from the walls.  Paper and paint… but so much more.  It’s a lesson in self-confidence; a lesson in what is possible.  Many of the kids we work with have only known crisis; they were born as refugees; they were born into trauma.  This room provides an environment of love and safety – a kid-centered and Christ-centered place.  Please pray for these children!

* In one corner of the room, you can see a teammate paging through the Bible with a refugee (from Azerbaijan) who has questions about Jesus.  Their conversation continues for twenty minutes.  At the same time, an Afghan refugee is sharing the hope that he has found in Jesus with a newly arrived Afghan.  A seed is planted.  Please pray for the spiritually curious, those with questions about Jesus and the Bible!  Pray for understanding, faith, and courage.

* Our teammate Susie wrote about another scene that she witnessed recently:  “There were two ladies that were sitting at one of the tables near the back wall. I had never seen them before. The thing that was remarkable about these women was that they were glued to the TV set that was showing the Jesus film in Farsi. I spoke to them a bit and they responded to me, but would then turn away and look back at the TV. So I left them alone to watch the movie. At one point my teammate Tasha came to me and said, “those ladies are crying.”  She realize that they were so moved by the Jesus film that they were in tears. Near the end of the film I went back to sit with them. They said it was the first time they saw this movie. They were surprised that Jesus was raised from the dead.  It brought me to tears just about as I sat with them and “watched” the movie through their eyes.  Please pray for these ladies.”

In July and August we met many new refugees around Athens: mostly from Afghanistan; often only having been in the city for a day or two; always displaying the despair and worry of new arrivals.  With our building closed for construction, our ministry team spent extra time in the city parks and plateias (or neighborhood squares) around Athens this summer.  This is where we first encounter these new arrivals.

Refugees and immigrants continue to pour into Greece.  As the chart (above) indicates, while the numbers of illegal immigrants has tapered off in Italy and other European ports, Greece is unable to control its borders.  Almost 3/4 of illegal immigrants headed for Europe in 2009 used Greece as their point of entry - that’s over 75,000 immigrants!  Three years ago, Greece served as the point of entry for about 50% of illegal immigrants coming into the EU; 2010 estimates see that percentage swelling to around 80%. These numbers are coming from a recent article on illegal immigration in Greece in The Economist – it’s well worth the five minutes to read through.

As if not already overwhelming, we must remember that these numbers immigrants PEOPLE are entering a fragile economic and volatile social situation here in Greece.  In short, these refugees and immigrants can expect little help from the Greek government – already crippled by innumerable crises in the past year.  From the Economist article:

Detention centres for irregular immigrants in Greece are small and understaffed, and there are too few of them. Cash-strapped authorities encourage detainees to move on to Athens before their claims have been processed. And on top of the flow of tens of thousands arriving every year is a stock of an estimated 300,000 illegal immigrants already in the country. The €80m ($103m) the government spends each year on tackling the problem is far from adequate, but with austerity in the air more cash is unlikely to be found.

With this in the air, we are excited (jumping up and down, can’t hardly wait excited!) that we will be reopening our ministry center (the Athens Refugee Center) on Saturday!  Please pray for our refugee friends, our ministry team, our updated programing (more on this later) and – of course – the many new refugee friends we’ll be meeting in the next weeks.  Thanks for your support, love, and prayers!

As highlighted in this report, asylum-seekers transferred under this piece of EU legislation face a range of human rights violations due to Greece’s failure to meet its obligations under human rights and refugee law. Until such time as these are remedied, state parties to the Regulation risk breaching their own obligations by sending asylum-seekers to a country which is unable to effectively protect their rights. Amnesty International has serious concerns about the risk of refoulement [i.e. returning an asylum seeker to his or her country of origin], occurring through failings in the asylum system in Greece, including through the obstacles faced by individuals in accessing the asylum system; the absence of fair examinations of asylum claims, particularly after the entry into force of new legislation that abolishes an effective appeals procedure; the lack of access to legal counselling, interpretation services and information about the asylum procedure; and the lack of a specialized/competent body to decide on asylum claims. The current practice of expulsion to Turkey of people, who might have applied for asylum, creates a further risk of indirect or “chain” refoulement. In addition, the lack of accommodation facilities and inadequate access to healthcare impact on their economic and social rights.

And finally…

Until such time as the reality of the vastly disparate standards of protection across the EU is addressed, in a coordinated and concerted way, asylum-seeker who are unfortunate enough to have Greece as their first port of call will face being left outside the refugee protection system and serious risks to their human rights and safety.

Want to go deeper?  Download and read the entire report HERE.

The teenage Afghan boys – great for chasing and throwing!

Reading Together

The Kiddies

Even Sofia gets in on the burying action!

Filed under: Loving the Overlooked Tagged: Pics, Refugees ]]> http://lovingtheoverlooked.com/2010/07/16/friday-photos-16-07-2010/feed/ 0 bsanner DSC00449 DSC00444 DSC00453 DSC00469 http://lovingtheoverlooked.com/2010/06/28/beyond-hope/ http://lovingtheoverlooked.com/2010/06/28/beyond-hope/#comments Mon, 28 Jun 2010 02:58:35 +0000 Brett & Kristin http://lovingtheoverlooked.com/?p=1836 ]]> A friend directed me to this UNHCR (the UN’s refugee agency) video on refugees in Greece.   Caution: while the video certainly isn’t gory, it does contain footage of corpses – the result of failed attempts to cross into Greece from Turkey over the Evros (or Maritsa) River.  Very real… but not pretty, if you’re easily bothered.

Please continue to pray for Greece, for refugees, and for our ministry here!  It is so easy to lose hope when looking at this situation (both for refugees and those who work with refugees).  Pray that the hope of Christ would transform lives in the midst of such despair and desperation!

Cuddle Time: Sofia and Emma

World Refugee Day celebration: food, music… and politics

Some lovely Afghan food

Sofia’s favorite play place

Greece still gateway for migrants

The European Union’s border-monitoring agency Frontex said yesterday that fewer would-be migrants tried to enter Greece illegally last year but noted that the country remains the preferred gateway of immigrants seeking a better life in Europe.

According to Frontex figures for 2009, 48,000 would-be migrants entered Greece illegally by land and a further 30,400 by sea last year, as compared to 56,000 and 31,700 respectively in 2008. The figures for immigrants trying to enter Greece in 2009 represent 50 percent of the total number trying to enter EU countries, down from 75 percent of the total in 2008, Gil Arias Fernandez, deputy executive director of Frontex, told reporters in Athens.

“Despite a significant drop in 2009, Greek borders remain the principal entry point for illegal immigrants in Europe,” Arias Fernandez said. He said Frontex was due to open an operational office for Southeastern Europe in Piraeus by next month.

Lack of job opportunities in EU countries, suffering the repercussions of the global financial crisis, is a key factor for the drop, the Frontex official noted. He added that measures taken by Libya, Mauritania and Senegal to prevent illegal immigrants from leaving their countries in the first place had also helped stem the flow.

In a related development, the Athens office of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported a 25 percent increase in the number of undocumented immigrants arrested at Greece’s land and sea borders. The UNHCR’s Athens office added that the rate of approval for migrants applying for political asylum in Greece remained low with more than 48,000 applications currently pending. Many awaiting the processing of their asylum applications live in cramped and unsanitary conditions in the city center. Deputy Citizens’ Protection Minister Spyros Vougias yesterday described the burgeoning population of undocumented migrants in the city center as a “huge social problem.”

Please continue to pray for our ministry among migrants (especially refugees and asylum-seekers) in Greece.  Thanks for your love and support (speaking of which, click HERE to give a gift online).

Let one simple act change the way you see refugees… and yourself.  World Refugee Week is here.  Celebrate by doing something simple – click here for some ideas!

Every once in a while, a refugee friend returns the favor by inviting us into their home.  There is always great food, great company, and great hospitality.  Afghans could teach the world a lot about how to treat a guest.  Saturday we spent the afternoon with a family from Afghanistan.  Kristin chatted with the women (our Afghan friend and a few teammates); I played with the kids (Sofia and the other kids get along so well, despite the lack of a common language; it’s pretty amazing!).   Plus, I really, really love Afghan and Persian food.  Delicious.

Kristin and the ladies