Protest on #Lesvos, #Samos and #Xios regarding the #refugeecrisis on the #AegeanIslands - 22 January 2020

Many of you are aware of the refugee "crisis" in Greece and other Mediterranean countries. Lesvos is arguably at the "heart" of it, given the number of asylum seekers currently on Lesvos, which is about 27,000! 20,000 of these refugees live in #MoriaCamp which is built to host around 3,000 people! The population of Mytilini (locals) is 32,000.

Additional Background

The new government came into power less than 6 months ago with the promise that they would "address" the refugee situation- they won by a significant margin on Lesvos, given the concern of locals about the refugee situation. At the time of the elections, Lesvos had 7,000 refugees and now has 27,000!!!

The main reason for this situation is pretty simple. The local / municipal / provincial / national governments do not have an implementable solution-the solution lies with European governments / regions / cities / citizens! The other "solution" would be:

a) to contravene #humanrights 

b) for locals to take matters into their own hands

Protest on Lesvos- 22 January 2020

The protest that took place today was arranged by local, municipal and regional governments. The general requests, supported by most parties, were as follows:

- Immediate decongestion of the island until the closure of all existing "hospitality" centres (ie support for a 1 "closed" hospitality centre)

- No new "hospitality" centres on the island

- Acceleration of asylum procedures (speed up the process)

- Equal distribution of refugees and immigrants across the EU on the basis of the 1% principle for each country 

- "Control" / investigation of NGOs

- Strengthening security services and bodies

- Compensation for those that have incurred damages

The biggest problem with this protest is that it only puts "pressure" on the National Government! ANY impact is highly questionable, given that the only solution is to have EU support. A suggestion to the Regional Government (North Aegean) to support a European wide movement ("#ShareProposal) that is lobbying for European regions to take a share of refugees to their regions, which is driven by the Basque Government at the EU Level, has fallen on deaf ears. 

Why? Well, the local, municipal and regional government do not have the capacity / experience to handle this matter and are therefore "passing" on the responsibility to the National Government, in order to appease their, understandably, restless voters. 

In my opinion, the result / outcome of this will be as follows:

- continued rise of tensions of the local islanders

- continued increase of nationalistic views 

- continued increase of fear of the unknown 

- most importantly, and most concerning, the national governments support for the request to "Strengthening security services and bodies", as well as control of NGOs.

I say that this is concerning as this will arguably only increase the tensions on the island and whilst the measure will be put in place to provide "security" for the locals, the actual effect will be the opposite!

It will arguably only increase "security" that may mistreat asylum seekers and result in the camp on Lesvos been a closed camp (restricted access) which will be far removed from the centre.

Similarly, possible discrimination against NGOs will take place that do not support the “ideals” of the ruling government.

Certainly understand the governments frustrations as the daily lives of locals have been significantly impacted and their concerns understandable. The way the locals have to date responded, should be used to inspire the rest of Europe: if the people of Mytilini / Lesvos can host a population of over 33% of asylum seekers in their city, over the last few years, surely the rest of the EU can host 1% in their city? 

It is time that we, as Europeans, show solidarity to fellow Europeans and remove the unjustified fear that we have of asylum seekers! 

These poor people, whether refugees or migrants, have already endured so much hardship, leaving their beloved home countries in the hope to find an opportunity to work hard, to earn a better future for themselves and their loved ones.

We should all encourage our governments to support the "Share Proposal" of the Basque Goverment.

More so, we should lobby that #coworkingspaces within our cities, hold weekly / monthly events where we bring locals and refugees together to hold dialogues and identify ways in which we cocreate impactful and sustainable solutions, using social (tech) entrepreneurship as a tool for #integration.

As we enter this new decade, let's take action where we uphold the values that are dear to us all! Let's embrace the #4IR and come together to cocreate / codesign solutions that will inspire an impactful and meaningful future that we all want! 

We hope to welcome you to Lesvos for our annual #ChangemakersSummit on #EuroepDay, 9 May, where we work together to address the above and turn this "crisis" into an opportunity.

#SDGs #SDG3 #SDG4 #SDG8 #SDG16 #SDG17 

#Dialogues #Diversity #CriticalThinking #EULesvos

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