My second afternoon in Athens saw me and half the town lining the streets to gawk at a parade of Greek military ostentations bombing (not literally thank goodness) down the high street. It was Greece’s National Independence Day and the annual “Good riddance to the Turks” parade was in town. Actually, I figured a lot of the bystanders were not so much loyal nationalists as rather nonplussed citizens, whose city commute had been rudely interrupted by the rolling tanks.
I couldn’t quite decide whether to roll my eyes at the irony or hang my head in despair at the stupidity of what those khaki uniforms, polished boots and golden epaulettes symbolised. The parade is an annual event in celebration of the Greeks declaring their independence from the Ottoman Turks and their ability to manage perfectly well without them, thank you very much. And all the while that the flags were waving and the officers saluting, a short island-hop away were hundreds of migrants waiting to deported back to Turkey so those nasty oppressive Ottomans could take on the some of the legwork of the overwhelmed Greeks. Sigh.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not accusing the Greeks of work-shunning; far from it. I’ve been bowled-over every day by the generosity and selflessness of Greek volunteers. But I am really starting to get frustrated at “The System”. Or rather, the lack of one. Before I came to Greece, I was quite settled in the belief that, yes, national borders are rather constraining, but no, it probably doesn’t make sense to allow complete free-flow of people across them; who knows whether that old lady munching on her marmalade sandwiches next to you on the plane actually has a kilo of explosives stashed away in her handbag? Or she could well be armed with poison-tipped knitting needles! And anyway, without nations and borders we couldn’t have the excitement of the Olympics, or Eurovision, or those #soverybritishproblems (may fave: “Worrying you’ve accidentally packed 3 kilos of cocaine and a dead goat as you stroll through ‘Nothing to Declare'”). But since helping at No Borders Kitchen, passing a gallery’s-worth of “Open the Borders” graffiti, and strolling around the “anarchistic” Exarchia district, I’m becoming increasingly sceptical of our Westphalian inheritance.
Nations can be beautiful. And national pride, in the right amount and context, can be admirable. Nostalgia , the literal longing for ‘home’, is a very human quality (appropriately Greek in origin: nostos, homecoming and algos, grief). And we shouldn’t knock the importance of having a place to call our own, which we can share with others. There is something indescribably gemütlich about bumping into a fellow Brit when you’re miles away from a teabag and haven’t needed an umbrella for months. But at the level of humanity, when it comes to deciding who to let into our homes (if anyone at all) on the basis of a nationality, a religion, a language, or a skin colour, then something has gone horribly wrong. Asylum should be something we grant on the basis of need. The question ‘Who should we let through our borders (first)?’ should equate to ‘Who needs help the most?’ not ‘Who do I feel most comfortable about before I have even met them?’ or ‘Who speaks my language or practices my religion?’ or even, ‘Who is skilled and desperate enough to take up the jobs I don’t want to do, but not the ones I do?’
That’s what frustrates me about The System. Currently only 11 nationalities are eligible for the EU refugee relocation programme. That means if you’re from fleeing the Taliban in Afghanistan or forced marriage in Pakistan or religious persecution in Iran you don’t get a look in. But that is not the point of International Refugee Law. In fact, it’s supposedly illegal to decline asylum on the basis of nationality alone. Help should be given to anyone in genuine need and their asylum claims assessed on an individual basis. That means the family fleeing civil war in Syria should have their case heard on an equal basis to the business-suited, well-off founder of a multi-national media organisation (cough-Assange-cough). Of course, whether or not they have an equal right to receive that asylum should then be considered on their need. Presumably, fleeing bombs is somewhat more of a pressing issue than being questioned by some Swedes (the Scandinavians that is, not the root vegetables). But I was slightly disparaged to find that the UN in February ruled that Assange was being arbitrarily detained in the UK and should be allowed to walk free and given compensation. I’ve nothing against his particular case, but my disparagement is at the ability of the UN make this judgement whilst effectively overlooking the thousands of refugees being detained in Greece with somewhat limited access to Ferrero Rochers and personal treadmills.
If it is so clear-cut that being “confined” (after walking in there freely) in an embassy in London is a “deprivation of liberty”, then surely, living in very crude detention centres and facing ASAP deportation, no questions asked, after fleeing terror and death-threats, is sort of in that area too? I recently read a shocking blog about a detention centre in Kos where “there is no access to clean water, no access to hygiene facilities”, no beds and cramped living conditions in a cell open to the elements. Whilst I cannot verify these conditions, not having been there, I’ve seen for myself the greyness and resignation that came to settle on Moria after it became a closed detention centre.
Okay. So I realise this initially tongue-in-cheek blog has kind of melted into a puddle of despair. Sorry about that; blame The System. On a lighter note, I thought I’d investigate for myself the wondrousness of refugees and why we just couldn’t do without them. So y’all who think those money-grabbing immigrants are just coming to squander our wealth, steal our jobs and not even offer to put the kettle on, prepare for an epiphany…
15 Really useful Refugees….or ‘Why Refugees are the Best Thing Since (and before) Sliced Bread)’:
- Albert Einstein – Germany (come on guys EINSTEIN – if that’s not proofof why we need to support refugees then what is? It’s not rocket science – it’s Einsteinian physics actually…)
2. Freddie Mercury (aka Queen) – Zanzibar, his family wanted to break free…
3. Sigmund Freud – wed, oops I mean
fled his Motherland Austria 😉
4. Bertolt Brecht – Germany
5. The von Trapps (aka The Sound Of Music family – yes they were real people!) – fled the lively hills of Austria
6. Victor Hugo – left a ‘Misérable‘ life in France
7. Hannah Arendt – fled the banality of Germany
8. Karl Marx – Prussia (the English refused to extradite him, mainly because they
thought it was kind of funny to wind up the French who wanted him back)
9. Mika – Lebanon
10. Marlene Dietrich – Germany
11. M.I.A – Sri Lanka
12. Rita Ora – Kosovo (‘REF – U – GEE, that’s the girl she used to be…’ – sorry, just one for her fans I guess 😉 )
13. Le Petit Prince – Asteroid B-612 (kind of, if you consider loneliness and betrayal a legit reason to flee home)
14. Omid Djalili – Iran, and were he fleeing today he would likely be stuck in a detention centre instead of making you giggle from on screen
15. Paddington Bear– deepest darkest Peru (best 
refugee since bread with marmalade)
So there you have it: fifteen very good reasons we should welcome refugees – they entertain, enlighten and educate, and may even offer you a marmalade sandwich in the process… 😉
Woes of a Second-Level Wuddhist 