The story of refugees in the Greek islands has faded from headline news, yet the humanitarian crisis is far from over. The underlying factors that led to more than 1.8 million people to come to Europe since 2014 are still very much a reality, and unless the conditions in their home countries improve, people will continue to flee in droves.
Moira Camp is a former prison located in a village situated near Mytilene on the Greek island of Lesbos. Enclosed in an imposing barbed wire and a chain-link fence, the camp serves as a European Union receiving center. Refugees arriving in Mytilene seeking asylum must first be screened in Moria and won’t be placed into any of the other nearby camps until they are processed there. Although the camp was built to accommodate around 700 people, over the past four years, thousands of people have often arrived in a single month. Due to the extreme overcrowding, camp authorities established makeshift living quarters in an olive grove behind the camp. Human Rights Watch has termed the camp “unfit for animals” and in October 2017, Afghan refugees protested the Moria’s poor conditions and prevalent violence in the camp.
“The simple truth is that refugees would not risk their lives on a journey so dangerous if they could thrive where they are.”
-Melissa Fleming, UNHCR
With the goal of improving quality of life and bolstering the dignity of the refugee population in Greece, Iranian Street Artist brothers Icy & Sot have been handing out plants and to the asylum seekers. Working alongside the Movement On The Ground foundation, the artists raised money through an online print sale to buy fresh plants to hand to those at the camp.
To raise further awareness of their mission, Icy & Sot worked alongside film-maker Doug Gillen (of Fifth Wall TV) to create Giving Plants, a documentary filmed over the course of a week. The documentary features the brothers building gardens, planting vegetables and giving flowering plants to the refugees at Moira Camp. It takes a candid look at life inside what is widely regarded as Europe’s biggest humanitarian crisis, and the simple effect plants and flowers can have on such an eco-system.
“In the past few years we have made works about immigration and refugee crisis. When we decided to go to a refugee camp in Greece, we thought we should do something more than just another installation. We came up with the idea of giving flower plants and making a vegetable garden because at the end they can get from the garden and flowers makes people happy. It was wonderful to see that actually put a smile on peoples faces for a moment.
We know this project didn’t really change anything for those people.
Since EU closed their borders they are stuck in the camps up to 3 years in some cases while not knowing how long they have to wait and conditions are inhumane. In “Moria Camp” asylum seekers are suffering to get a safe and adequate accommodation, basic hygiene, food and non-food items, and health care. Asylum seekers, including families with young children are living in flimsy tents and cramped containers, with an insufficient number of toilets and showers that are also poorly maintained, risking exposure to fecal matter and other health concerns. Most come from war-torn countries like Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. They come to Europe to be far with the dangers of war, far from hearing bomb explosions, for better future for their kids. They have had exhausting journey. They deserve better, they deserve our support.” – Icy & Sot
About Movement On The Ground
Movement On The Ground aims to provide a dignified way to help refugees on Lesbos by maintaining a fixed presence on the island and to work with the local community in the attempt to connect the locals with refugees. With the success of their Camp to CampUS concept on Lesbos, Movement On The Ground plans to impact the lives of over 12 million people and spread this project across the globe by 2030. After the EU-Turkey deal, they shifted their focus to the groundwork in the camps. Ever since, they have accomplished many projects, which are all based on the goal of improving dignity for the refugee population.
This video don’t have sound, because people are not being heard in Moria refugee camp in Lesbos, Greece
Movement On The Ground: donate | facebook | instagram
Icy & Sot: website | facebook | instagram
Doug Gillen (FifthWall TV): website | facebook | instagram
