International Organization for Migration English

How dangerous is the road to escape for Asian and African refugees?

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20 15 On September 3, local time, a rubber boat carrying Syrian and Afghan refugees deflated near Lesvos Island in Greece 100 meters, and local people and volunteers provided assistance to the refugees. (CFP/ figure)

According to the statistics of the International Organization for Migration, as of September 20 15, the number of refugees who entered Europe from the Mediterranean this year has exceeded 400,000. Greece is the European country with the largest number of refugees.

It was Gaddafi, a madman in the Middle East, who first predicted this wave of European refugee crisis. As early as 20 1 1 when the war in Libya was tight, he warned that once overthrown, no one would stop illegal immigrants from "invading" Europe.

"The Mediterranean will be full of chaos." Gaddafi said.

This article first appeared in Southern Weekend.

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Alari, a 55-year-old Syrian businessman, only uses a yellow towel to protect himself from the direct sunlight at noon. He stood only five or six meters away from the barbed wire used to mark the border, but in front of him, Macedonian soldiers with shields and guns temporarily put him and other Asian and African refugees on the Greek side.

Such a long distance is concrete and vivid in the face of man-made obstacles.

1 "We once faced death in the sea" This is a field on the outskirts of Edumaini, a border town in northern Greece. The sun at 345 degrees Celsius in midsummer bites the skin like a poisonous insect. As far as I can see, there are few trees, grass and grass are dry, and only one rail shows rigid movement, extending to the northwest. Although along the railway track, what the naked eye can see is only the heat wave of transpiration in yellow, which is the reason why refugees flock here. The railway starts from Athens in southern Europe, crosses the Balkans and goes straight to Central Europe. This is a milestone in the flight of refugees. Leaving Central Europe is the destination of refugees: Western Europe and Northern Europe.

Unlike other refugees who avoid the camera, Alari always smiles happily at the camera and gestures to talk to reporters. A young refugee beside him volunteered to be an interpreter. Therefore, when he proudly said that he had 20 children and 5 wives, everyone around him, including Macedonian soldiers on duty, laughed. The fourth wife, who was with him, wrapped her head and laughed happily with everyone.

In fact, the story of this 55-year-old refugee is not funny, but thrilling. "We fled to Turkey during Ramadan last year." Alari began to narrate. Alari lives in Aleppo and is good at trade. He is a local rich man with a lot of property. More than a year ago, Syrian government forces entered Aleppo and occupied all his houses as barracks. He tried to reason, but he was beaten. He had no way to beg and it was difficult to return to China, so he had to flee to the north, hoping to recover his assets one day. Unexpectedly, the people of the "Islamic State" came again. The Alari family are Kurds themselves. They are in extreme danger, so they fled to Turkey in July.

Although Alari is rich, life in Turkey is still very difficult. In fact, the "Kurdistan" mentioned in Alari's talk-meaning "the land of Kurds"-was originally a province of the Ottoman Empire, which promised to make Kurds independent with other nationalities after the First World War. However, in the Treaty of Lausanne, the interests of Kurds were betrayed, and most areas were still ruled by Turkey, the successor of the Ottoman Empire, while other areas were later divided up by Iran, Syria and Iraq, forming today's situation.

Alari's extended family was far apart in flight: two sons fled to Lebanon with their families; The two daughters followed their husbands to "Kurdistan" in Iraq; One son lost contact in Turkey, and the other son went to Africa ... Five days ago, they paid the smuggler's smuggling fee from Izmir at the price of $65,438 per adult+$0.200 and $600 per child, and put it on a ship full of 40 people and sailed for Lesvos Island in Greece.

"We used to face death in the sea." Alari said that the ship began to enter the water, and the refugees threw clothes and packages into the sea in panic to delay the sinking time. A refugee called the Greek coast guard for help with a mobile phone, and the latter arrived in time with two boats, only to survive.

After Lesvos handled the relevant legal documents, the Greek police took them on a ship. They paid 60 euros for adults and 30 euros for children and were sent to Athens. Then, take a long-distance bus from Athens to the border at the price of 55 euros for adults and 22.5 euros for children.

Alari's other wives crossed the border with some children; Now he is waiting to meet them with two wives and seven children.

Alari said that his most valuable thing is a black briefcase that he always carries under his arm, which contains a series of legal documents, including video materials, proving that assets worth more than two million dollars in his hometown belong to him.

Alari and his family are very happy to set foot on the land of Europe. "Here is much better. People give us food and try to help us. " But Alari is not sure which country he wants to go to. He even consulted reporters on the spot and asked everyone to give him advice, showing the true nature of a shrewd and pragmatic businessman. "I hope to go to a place where human rights are respected." He said that he began to inquire about which country in Europe is more suitable for doing business.

British Royal Navy soldiers rescued more than 400 North African refugees crossing the Mediterranean by boat with rubber boats and landing craft, and took them to amphibious assault ship aboard HMS Bulwark. (CFP/ figure)

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The Alari family's experience of "crisis in crisis" in Greece is a microcosm of the 3 10000 refugees who entered other European countries from Greece this year. With the deterioration of the civil war in Syria, Greece has become the European country receiving the largest number of refugees. According to the statistics of the International Organization for Migration, as of September 20 15, the number of refugees who entered Europe from the Mediterranean this year has exceeded 400,000. The total number of refugees entering China last year was 2 1 10,000.

Statistics show that 80% of the refugees come from Syria, while others come from Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and other countries.

Southeast Turkey has a 900-kilometer-long border with Syria, so it is not difficult to understand why there are 2 million Syrian refugees in Turkey, and it is not difficult to understand why Greece, which is known as the southern gate of Europe and close to Turkey, has become the first stop for refugees to land in Europe. In 20 12, Greece built more than ten kilometers of barbed wire along the Efros River on the border between Greece and Turkey, blocking the land entry passage, so refugees turned to enter Greece by sea.

Just like the Alari family, most of the refugees paid high fees to Turkish snakeheads and crossed the Strait by boat to reach Lesvos Island, Shios Island, Samos Island, Kos Island, Rhodes Island and other islands in the eastern part of the Greek Aegean Sea. The narrowest distance between these islands and Turkey does not exceed 10 km. In summer, the Aegean Sea is calm and relatively safe. Ships used for smuggling are usually rubber boats or small wooden boats. Snakeheads choose to send refugees to ships at night, and usually temporarily train young men among the refugees to sail at the helm, and each ship will be seriously overloaded. According to the police officer of the Coast Guard of Shios Island, refugees occasionally have life jackets. If they are in danger at sea, they will ask the Greek coast guard for help. If they encounter a patrol boat from the coast guard, they will even try to overturn the boat and float on the sea by themselves, waiting for rescue.

Even if they arrive on the island safely, the first thing the refugees do is to get in touch with the coast guard. The latter will send them to temporary resettlement sites in batches, where basic food, clothes, baby milk powder and supplies are generally provided by charitable organizations. At the same time, refugees need to go through all the procedures such as identification and registration, and then obtain the legal residence qualification for half a year or one month from the police station-the legal residence qualification for half a year is only for Syrian refugees, and refugees from other countries usually have only one month's residence qualification.

Under normal circumstances, it only takes two days for refugees to register on the island. "Then they will be free, completely free, and no one will follow them, watch them and go wherever they want." A police officer of the Shios Island Police Department said.

Refugees will leave the island for Athens as soon as possible. There are social networks composed of Syrian Greeks and Syrian refugees, as well as other international organizations and non-governmental organizations that help refugees, providing accommodation, medical care and legal assistance to refugees according to the situation.

After almost a short rest, the refugees will immediately take a bus from Athens to Adumini for a transit. Upon arrival in Macedonia, each refugee will receive a subsidy of 100 euros, and then they will cross Macedonia, pass through Serbia and Hungary, and enter rich European countries such as Austria, Germany and the Netherlands-that is the destination of the refugees.

However, the above description of the "road map" is only "the usual situation". The debt crisis that Greece can't get rid of has caused Greece to fall into the predicament of sustained economic recession and high unemployment rate for five consecutive years; The rapidly increasing number of refugees, even if it is only a transit, has undoubtedly become another heavy burden for Greece, which has always been "sparsely populated". No wonder Prime Minister Tsipras, who just resigned, called it a "crisis in crisis".

20 15 route of refugees fleeing to Europe (photo/beam)

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The "ghost ship" crossing the Mediterranean first predicted this wave of European refugee crisis, and the result was the madman Gaddafi in the Middle East. As early as 20 1 1 when the war in Libya was tight, he warned that once overthrown, no one would stop illegal immigrants from "invading" Europe.

"The Mediterranean will be full of chaos." Gaddafi said.

Even when he visited Italy earlier, Gaddafi regarded illegal immigration as a bargaining chip with Europe. He told the media that Europe should not blame him only for his attitude towards immigrants, but should pay him a large sum of money for successfully stopping illegal immigrants. Of course, Gaddafi's method to stop immigrants from smuggling is simple, rude and effective, with distinctive "Gaddafi characteristics", that is, throwing bombs at them.

Gaddafi is irreversibly heading for his destiny; The Mediterranean did respond to the influx of refugees. It first crossed the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy. Among all kinds of stowaways, the most famous one is the "ghost ship", which is named because it has no captain and helmsman crew. Specifically, the snakehead buys the eliminated cargo ship from the shipowner at a low price for smuggling. Cargo ships usually have good automatic navigation systems, so snakeheads only need to set the route and speed through the computer and start the self-driving program. These "ghost ships" with no crew, no driving and full of illegal immigrants will sail unscrupulously to Italian ports.

No one knows whether Gaddafi also predicted the future of Syria at that time; Political changes in the Middle East and Africa have forced thousands of people to leave their homes. The narrow Mediterranean is a natural geographical barrier between Europe, Africa and Asia. However, the popularity of the Internet and advanced means of transportation have greatly weakened the barrier function. Going to Europe and Germany has become the only unpredictable and displaced dream of refugees.

According to the information provided by UNHCR, there are three routes for Asian and African refugees to flee to Europe. The west road fled to Spain, and the number was small; The middle road fled to Italy, once the largest number, and is currently in the middle road; The east road landed in Greece. In the past, the number was small, but this year it jumped to the top.

The route that refugees fled seems to prove the simple principle of "voting with their feet" once again. Whenever possible, they will instinctively choose the safe road and avoid dangerous or even unfriendly places. When refugees were asked why they didn't choose to enter Bulgaria from Turkey, the answer was that the route was more dangerous. Bulgaria is not a Schengen country, nor is Albania. In these two countries, if refugees are found by the police, they will be sent to detention centers immediately; Other risks such as being stolen and robbed along the way are much greater.

Therefore, entry from Greece has become the first choice, although the three countries that Greece needs to pass after are not particularly friendly. Macedonia and Hungary closed their borders and accumulated a large number of refugees, making their situation even worse; Doctors from Doctors Without Borders, headquartered in Adumini, said that they had treated refugees who were beaten and injured by gangsters in Macedonia and had to flee to the Greek border.

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When the "order" of the Greeks met with the "disorder" of the refugees, former Turkish Prime Minister Auzard once ridiculed the ancient enemies of Greece and Turkey: "We don't need to go to war with Greece. We only need to send millions of illegal immigrants from Turkey to complete them. " Although it is a joke, it also partly tells the embarrassing situation of Greece, which lacks human resources.

At present, the influx of refugees into the eastern islands of Greece has exhausted Greece.

In Siaos, as early as May, when the number of refugees was not too large, there were more than 2,000 refugees in the "Identification Center" originally designed to accommodate 1000 refugees. In Kos, there are too many refugees, the registration time is greatly extended, and the resettlement sites are already overcrowded. Many refugees can only brave the high temperature of more than 30 degrees and sleep on the streets with their families for five or six days, which is extremely difficult. As a result, the refugees lost patience and attacked the police station; In Lesvos, the reception facilities set up by the Greek government can only accommodate 900 people at most, but in the past two months, the number of refugees arriving every week has reached 1 10,000, and many refugees have not received help. The situation in Athens is not much better. Refugees sleeping on the streets can be seen everywhere in the city center.

The most difficult thing for Greeks to deal with is the chaos of refugees.

As the greatest symbol of the splendid civilization of ancient Greece, the Parthenon still stands high on the Acropolis, overlooking the city of Athens proudly. The pillars of the Parthenon have a special name called column, and the English word is order. In addition to the meaning of paradigm, they also have the meaning of arrangement and order, which embodies the rational spirit of ancient Greeks. For thousands of years, "order" has penetrated into the bone marrow of Greeks.

However, refugees originally came from Asia and Africa, where it was not so orderly. After a long journey, they are more anxious and confused.

Summer is the peak of Greek tourism. The surge in the number of refugees has led to a tight ticket in the Aegean Sea, and even a ticket is hard to find on weekends. At the port, refugees are eager to board the ferry, which makes it difficult to maintain order during boarding. Under normal circumstances, ferries often have special garages, and large trucks and cars are connected in series, with passenger passages on both sides. In the past, people and cars went their separate ways, occasionally, but they were generally calm. Now, the crew must stop the immigrants and other passengers in a safe area and let the vehicles enter the warehouse before they dare to let people get on the bus to avoid accidents. Despite this, there was a scene in Coase where the ferry was full and stopped carrying passengers, while the refugees still pushed forward and tried to board the ship by force. The police finally had to use tear gas to force them back.

On the ship, refugees are either curious or don't understand the different prices of each cabin. They will wander around and even sit in cabins that don't belong to them, so English-speaking crew members will run up and down and persuade them to leave cabins that don't belong to them.

Obviously, more people who know English and even Arabic need to communicate and coordinate on the ferry. On the ferry from Samos to Piraeus, the reporter witnessed such a scene in the restaurant: a Syrian youth of about seventeen or eighteen bought a drink and squeezed in front of the customers. The restaurant staff kept telling him to "line up" in Greek, and the teenager wore a humble, friendly and shy smile, but he just didn't understand.

This contradiction is particularly prominent in the border area of Adumini. On the side 400-500 meters away from the Macedonian border, Greece deployed 20 8-hour police officers to maintain basic order and help refugees cross the border in an orderly manner. The normal process is as follows: the police are responsible for gathering refugees, and they are divided into two rows in groups of about 50 people, including children, women and men. They are taken to the UNHCR station to collect water and food according to the principle of giving priority to children and women. Then, under the guidance of the police, they go to the border guarded by Macedonian soldiers and enter Macedonia through the gap less than two meters in the middle of barbed wire.

However, usually after a few trips, a large number of refugees arrive and everyone wants to leave quickly. Order began to be chaotic, refugees gathered more and more, and began to argue with the police with shields. The police used hand-held horns to persuade the refugees to be patient, which will definitely let everyone cross the border. But the refugees didn't listen at all and continued to insist. There is a big difference in the number of people on both sides, which is in danger of pushing and trampling. The police had to hand their bottled water to the crying children in the hot sun. On the other hand, pepper spray and tear gas were used to disperse the crowd. The refugees fled in all directions and took the opportunity to break through the defense line and rush to the border.

In the fog of dust and smoke, refugees who got married with their children fled. When they rushed down a ridge, many people fell down and were pulled up by their companions to continue running. This scene, like the "great migration" on the African grassland seen on TV, is enough to make people cry. Wrapped in the crowd and dust, the policeman looked around blankly with a shield in his hand.

After the Greek police fired pepper spray and tear gas, the refugees fled to the Macedonian border. (Southern Weekend Special Reporter Qiu Yun/Figure)

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"The country has been hollowed out." Many volunteers who help in UNHCR, the Red Cross and MSF have lost their jobs themselves. What is more special about volunteer medical worker Andridu is that she and her medical team do not belong to any organization, but are just a group of well-trained medical staff who volunteer to collect medical materials and send them to Adumini to help refugees.

Andridu lives in Thessaloniki, the second largest city in Greece, less than an hour's drive from Mani, Ai Du. She works one day every two weeks in Adumini, treating 70-80 refugees at a time. She said that her saddest memory was treating a Syrian girl 14 years old, who was injured in an explosion and lost her sight.

Just as the reporter was talking to Andridu, a beautiful lady in blue and a red scarf limped over and sat in a chair. The mother of two children in Iraq suffered a knee injury. Andridu came to check and found that the bandage she tied to her knee was wrong, and the jeans were too tight to lift, revealing the injury. She was asked to take off her pants for inspection, saying that bandages should not be tied outside her pants. However, when the woman walked into the temporary medical point set up by MSF with several raincoats, she saw that there were other patients being infused, and she came out again and refused to carry out Andridu's instructions. She doesn't want to take off her jeans in front of others. This may be another conflict of ideas, adding immaterial difficulties to the rescue.

Finally, Andre Du had to put a bandage on her again, saying, I know it's wrong, but there's nothing I can do. You should go to the hospital as soon as possible. The lady took her four-or five-year-old daughter by the hand, stood up and took her four-month-old son, a big bag and a small bag, from her husband. She struggled towards the border.

In fact, most of the refugees who can flee with their families are well-off families. More families simply can't afford the high cost of escape, so they can only let the most powerful members of the family embark on the road of survival, and the rest can only be resigned. Therefore, there are many college students and high school students among the refugees, mostly men. They need to finish their studies in a stable land, build their own lives, and at the same time bear the responsibility of the whole family. Ahmed, a 26-year-old Iraqi refugee, is one of them.

"Two days before I left Iraq, a bomb exploded about 10 meters away from me. Thank god! I can't believe I'm unscathed, but that's not the only reason I left Iraq. In Iraq, there is no security, no electricity, no stability and no basic human rights. Most young people have left Iraq and the country has been hollowed out. "

Ahmed said that he planned to go to Austria, although he didn't know anyone there, and if possible, he planned to study IT courses there.

"I just want to live a normal life. I haven't bathed for 10 days. " Ahmed said.

As early as Homer's time, in ancient Greek culture, most of the evils opposed by modern mainstream religions, such as theft, adultery and rape, have nothing to do with the gods. The most intolerable behavior of God is to break the oath and mistreat strangers, supplicants and beggars. The oath made in the name of God is especially important because it makes the contract between individuals or groups binding.

This kind of culture is deeply rooted and constitutes a powerful folk force, which is also an important reason why Greece suffered such a serious debt crisis but did not collapse. This force has once again played a role in this refugee tide. Although the arrival of a large number of refugees had a certain impact on the social order in Greece, the Greeks showed a very high spirit of self-cultivation and tolerance-on the ferry from Samos Island to Athens, when thousands of refugees gathered on the deck, many Greek passengers immediately gave up their seats and retreated into the cabin-this is a powerful folk force, which filled the shortage of government power to a certain extent and showed the Greeks' high cultural literacy and social mobilization and organization ability.

Not only that. In the face of the refugee crisis, Greece has strengthened its cooperation with its neighboring countries. Almost all Greek refugees entered through Turkey, and almost all of them entered Macedonia. Greece and Turkey, on the other hand, have deep grievances on issues such as history and Cyprus, and have met several times in recent decades. Greece and Macedonia are at loggerheads over the name of Macedonia. However, in the face of the refugee tide, Greece offered to strengthen cooperation and coordination with these two countries and all relevant countries to jointly cope with the crisis. This not only relieves its own pressure, but also establishes a good national image, and may even become