I would have never imagined that I would witness such scenes in the margins of great Europe. My diary is full of black, colourless memories you have caused and created.
Let me ask you this:
Can we be one of you?
Integrate with you?
Can we live together?
In the same society for ever?From 'Letters to the World'
In 2019, sixteen-year-old Parwana Amiri and her family arrived on the Greek island of Lesvos. They fled Afghanistan hoping for a safe haven, but instead they encountered Fortress Europe. Constrained to live in the island’s notorious Moria refugee camp, Amiri started a journal, chronicling the experiences of people around her. This was published in 2020 as ‘Letters to the World from Moria’.
Amiri, who now lives in Ritsona, a camp north of Athens – where she continues to write her 'letters' – says it is important to draw attention to the situation of refugees. “Put yourself in our shoes! We are not safe in Moria,” she writes. “We didn’t escape from our homelands to stay hidden and trapped. We didn’t pass the borders and risk our lives to live in fear and danger.” Amiri has recently taken to the streets alongside other Ritsona residents to campaign for fairer and faster asylum processing.
EU countries have been struggling since 2015 to formulate a clear strategy for accommodating refugees, while the pandemic has brought new health and sanitation concerns for people living in camps. According to a report by the International Rescue Committee (IRC), more than 19,000 asylum-seekers wait for their claims to be processed in Greece alone. Most of them live in temporary reception centres, waiting for their cases to be heard.
