Refugee Pathways — How an experience in Greece shaped our work
By: Refugee Pathways
Tags: Refugees, Europe, Protection, Greece, Humanitarian Aid

Arrival point on Lesvos, Greece by Jim Black

Four years ago, when I was working in humanitarian advocacy in New York, I decided to leave New York for Greece to work on the refugee response. I arrived in Lesvos, Greece in August of 2016, just after the European Union and Turkey struck a deal to curb the large numbers of refugees arriving in Europe at the time, by controlling the crossing of refugees and migrants from Turkey to the Greek Islands.

Protracted conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, as well as central and north Africa, had displaced hundreds of thousands of people over the past years with over one million refugees embarking on treacherous passages across the Mediterranean and Aegean seas to reach Europe, which had been viewed as a firm protector of human rights. However, when I arrived in Lesvos and started working in the various refugee camps on the Island, I saw how many refugees saw their human rights being neglected. In Greece, the situations in which the refugees found themselves in were (and still are today) intolerable, which had been aggravating their needs. In 2016, the conditions that I saw were degrading, and they continue to worsen today. Refugees arriving in Greece since 2015, lack adequate accommodation, shelter, food, water, sanitation, health care, and legal services. Holding refugees in depleted camps on Greek islands, where refugees face conditions that compromise their mental health and safety, has retraumatized an already highly vulnerable population.

I was devastated by what I witnessed in Greece and wanted to empower refugees to make well-informed decisions to relocate safely and in dignity. While working in Greece, I realized a significant lack of comprehensive information among refugees regarding safe and legal pathways to relocation. Every single refugee I met and worked with had crossed the Mediterranean Sea, exploited by smugglers and traffickers, yet hopeful that a better life would await them on the other side. Little did they know that upon arrival in Lesvos, they would be placed into makeshift camps that lack basic humanitarian standards. Many of the refugees that I worked with remain stuck in adverse conditions on Lesvos today.

Realizing there was a need among the refugees for greater access to information regarding safe and reliable options for relocation, I decided to create Refugee Pathways, an online platform that offers refugees and displaced persons with free access to information regarding legal resettlement opportunities.

There is a significant need for more complementary resettlement opportunities for refugees, as, for example, in 2019, “only 4.5 per cent of global resettlement needs” were met. Therefore, we at Refugee Pathways are committed to develop further and maintain our information platform, which aims to serve as an information point that will continually expand, providing essential information about complementary resettlement opportunities for refugees. In addition, we are dedicated advocates for refugee rights as well as increased complementary resettlement opportunities for people in need of safety. While the programs we currently feature are specifically for Syrian nationals, our goal for 2020 is to expand our platform to offer our service to other populations as well.

Julie Meier, Founder @refugeepathways