Wandering the streets of Athens with two small children in tow, Fatima had nowhere to turn.
Left homeless following a massive fire that closed the Moria Refugee Camp in 2020, the native Afghani was arrested and imprisoned after unknowingly becoming involved with drug dealers.
Devastated and alone in a Greek prison — her two little ones sent off to a shelter for unaccompanied children — Fatima may as well have been invisible, until her case was supported by a refugees legal aid organization, which referred her cause to Lesvos Solidarity.
Anthony was dealt a bad hand in life. Looking intently into the eyes of the Rev. Charles Harrison, pastor of Barnes United Methodist Church in Indianapolis and president of the board of the Indy TenPoint Coalition, the young man visiting from Chicago made his tearful confession.
As COVID-19 circles the globe, mission co-workers the Rev. Ryan and Alethia White in Germany believe that working together, in our respective corners of the world, can improve protection for human rights everywhere.
Just off the coast of Turkey, the Moria Refugee Camp on the Greek island of Lesvos has become an important stop for migrants fleeing Syria, Afghanistan and other places around the world. After a massive fire at the Moria camp last month, the Greek government has notified Pikpa camp it must cease operations by Oct. 15.
As COVID-19 circles the globe, mission co-workers the Rev. Ryan and Alethia White in Berlin, Germany believe that working together, in our respective corners of the world, can improve protection for human rights everywhere.
“When I left there, I was ashamed — and I consider myself a convinced European — to be a member of this European Union,“ said Martin Dutzmann, the authorized representative of the Protestant Churches in Germany (EKD) at the German government and the EU after returning from his recent visit to the overcrowded and chaotic refugee camp Moria on Lesvos Island. And, he adds, “the EU has kept the situation in the camps on the Greek islands at bay for years.”
Who are you passing by today as you hurry to get to your next destination?
Christina Cosby, mission specialist for the Middle East and Europe with Presbyterian World Mission, remembers a few months ago she was watching a TV documentary about the refugee crisis in Europe and a camp, Moria, better known by its nickname “Hell on Earth.”
The Greek island of Lesvos, just off the coast of Turkey, has become an important stop for migrants fleeing from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Africa. The Moria Refugee Camp was built as a temporary shelter for 3,000. Today it shelters more than 13,000 people living in terrible conditions while their asylum cases are being processed.
