“All is well that ends well”? – The Island of Lesvos since the EU-Turkey Statement

The following article will be published by Moving Europe in the brochure "Resistance Along The Balkan Route" which will be released accompanying to the event series "We’ll come united – Let’s talk about Thessaloniki, Belgrade and Berlin - Daily resistance and structures of solidarity along the Balkan Route". More information: http://moving-europe.org/well-come-united-lets-talk-about-thessaloniki-belgrade-and-berlin/

The EU-Turkey statement – which the German Chancellor Angela Merkel had pushed for – was celebrated as a “European solution”, supposedly opposing nationalist and isolationist policies and at the same time “solving” the so-called “refugee crisis”. When the Balkan route was closed and the deal with Erdoğan concluded, the German interior minister de Maizière proudly explained in an interview: „The Balkan Route is finished and shall stay finished. (…) All‘ s well that end‘ s well.“ However, since the deal was concluded, the crisis for refugees trapped on the Greek islands dramatically deteriorated. Directly after the EU-Turkey deal was enforced, refugees arriving on Lesvos Island were locked into the camp Moria without any possibility to leave. read more

Language(s): Englisch / English
Region(s): Griechenland / Türkei