
06 Mar Idomeni – Greece 2016
Idomeni – Greece 2016
A multitude of people stranded in tents on the border between Greece and Macedonia.
The migrants have fled from the war and find themselves in fear of being stranded at the border. 14,000 people stopped to Idomeni: doctors, engineers, builders, merchants, people who had a job, are the new refugees in this large camp. People who have left everything to try to live in peace with their families now find themselves having to cope with humility and a sense of respect for others, an uncomfortable situation and sacrifice.
When I arrived at the camp I found a myriad of tents, in which migrants were crammed next to each other. The smell of burnt plastic filled the air, the parched throat after a few minutes of this black smoke rising into the sky, and penetrated every part of the body.
The land where once grow grass gives way to an expanse of mud and puddles in which men, women and children live, eat, play and sleep. Their roof is a tent, if they are lucky, or the sky and the stars.
Doctors Without Borders, the Red Cross, UNICEF, Save the Children and the common people help these people who come from different parts of the world.
From this experience I carry with me the faces of fathers, mothers and grandmothers, but especially the children: the face of hope and joy as they try to climb the hill, looking for their freedom
All the people I’ve met have left something inside me: the joy of living together with their families and a sense of deep humanity.
This humanity that Europe has forgotten!