Questions without answers
I’ve learned you can’t be afraid of volatility. In fact, in Lesvos volatility and uncertainty is what thrives. Nobody is really sure of anything…not the authorities, nor the volunteers, and especially not the refugees! You learn to live with the unknown; yes you struggle with it, challenge it, attempt to wrestle some kind of direction or truth or answer. But often it’s just empty questions that remain. Here are some I constantly asked myself:
Why are the smugglers still in business? How does this kind of criminal activity continue to flourish? Where do the thousands of dollars earned by smugglers’ actually go? Why are people charged 1000's when a ferry costs you or me 15euro?
What kind of evil human being uses water cannons to deliberately deter, or even worse, sink refugees’ boats? How can smugglers live with themselves letting the boats take off then sending someone on a jet-ski to steal the engine? No wonder hundreds continue to die at sea.
Why are basic human rights being neglected, abandoned, forgotten?
Why is the UN Registration Camp not operating 24/7 when majority of boats arrive in the middle of night? Why are wet children left to sleep outside in the cold?
Why are the authorities removing NGOs from the ‘inside’ camp? Why has BDFM’s access to refugees been restricted when it has vast amounts of supplies and services to offer? Why can’t volunteers enter ‘the compound’ without being threatened by arrest?
Why can’t I give every person 2 of every clothing item without the supplies being depleted? Who am I to say ‘your shoes are good! your jeans are good!’ when I know they’ve probably been wearing them for weeks? How can you not feel guilty only giving backpacks to women and children? Knowing that if you hand them out to single men they will be all gone in an hour doesn’t make it easier, or fair.
Why are Afghani’s no longer allowed to cross the Greek-Macedonian border? What do Pakistani’s, Moroccans, Tunisians do now that they’re stuck in no-man’s land: they can’t move forward or back, so what now? Who decides what nationality is more deserving of asylum, more in need of a safe haven? How can anyone even attempt to rank the terror, brutality and devastation of war?
Why is militant, abusive behaviour of police being tolerated/ ignorantly ignored by the EU and world leaders? How it is even possible that tear gas is being used to ‘protect’ the borders? Does no one care that thousands of innocent children are present and being hurt?
How are volunteers meant to ‘return to normal’? How do I simply ‘carry on’ not knowing if that Mother who had been carrying her disabled toddler for god knows how long is okay?
Honestly, I could go on and on but there’s not much point. These questions may never have answers, so it’s important not to get hung up trying to solve them. All we can do is solve the little problems — like how to make a little boy smile, how to find suitable size 30 men’s jeans when we literally have none, how to cure the pregnant lady’s back pain, how to get huge amounts of water to the camp when the water supply has been purposely cut off, how to teach curious teenagers some English words….
But most importantly…how to restore humanity, how to make people feel welcomed, loved, appreciated, if only for a moment.
