The most important and most asked
question in Idomeni is, what is the West waiting for? Your agreement
with Turkey does not handle our cause. The Europeans are using us to
scare other refugees away.






A long and a wretched line of young
men has lined up and they are waiting impatiently for the former
regiment to get finished with their response to the call of nature.
And doing that is not at all an easy matter, because eating, drinking
and going on with everyday life has become such a difficult task in
Idomeni.


Everything around here has turned into
lines. Standing in that line with the others, the only thing I
thought about was to take a deep look at the dark sky and try to make
my waiting time go by quicker. That could also make me forget, even
for a few moments, the most hateful smells I have ever had around me
in my whole life. It’s no wonder given the dire quality of the food
that we have been getting for about a month now. A few mobile toilets
have been sent to serve many thousands of refugees.


The medical treatment around here is
not doing well either, and both climate and general atmosphere are
everything but healthy for adults, not to mention the kids.

While I am standing there observing
that dark sky and asking God how much longer this tragedy is going to
last, I take notice of a group of stars that have formed into the
shape of a question mark, as if God himself is asking the same
question.

For a second I shiver all over my
body, followed by half a smile that betrays my thoughts: nobody cares
about you. 
Nobody cares about that little boy who was playing above a
parked railway carriage, got struck by the railway electricity and
whose body fell half-charred onto the ground. 

Nobody cares about the
two women who drowned crossing the river border to Macedonia, who
died and buried with them an unsuccessful collective attempt to draw
the world’s attention to our misery. And no one cares about that
Syrian refugee who desperately set fire to himself in front of the
world media to protest against the closed doors of hope. 


Lastly nobody cares even a bit about
the open sit-in strike that is still taking place near the border on
the railway tracks; women, children and men are waiting for a train
that still doesn’t want to come.


And then: the moment of the explosion,
the first collision of its kind in Idomeni between Greek police and
refugees for nearly three months. The collision of several hours was
preceded by a moment of anger by a young Syrian who was trying to
persuade the United Nations staff that it is useless to convince
people to go to the official camps. And then screams began to mount
slowly until they reached a desperate pitch and cries rang out about
the West parking refugees in Idomeni in preparation for the final
phase of closure: after the evacuation of the people gradually slow
starvation, according to the policy, which will eventually push us to
leave.


Widespread suffocation occurred in all
parts of the camp which was covered by a giant cloud of gas
canisters. The smell was still prevalent for days after the end of
the fray.

Nothing yet can shake the Europeans
out of their cold calmness to make them help the 10,000 of us human
beings who are stranded here. I ask myself, what would they have they
done if we were animals? Something, I suppose.

Every new day Idomeni is becoming a
never ending story to its inhabitants and our calls have no echo at
all. 

The most important and most asked question in Idomeni is, what
is the West waiting for? Your agreement with Turkey doesn’t handle
our cause, your frequent meetings don’t even mention us, your highly
respected United Nations doesn’t have any satisfying answers to our
questions. And when they do answer, they tell us that relocation is
the only answer to our situation. We should move to the ‘relatively
acceptable’ camps the Greeks have recently set-up for us until we
get ‘fairly divided’ between the countries of the EU.


Yes, we witnessed a small evacuation
of some who got fed up with our wild camp, but no, we have not yet
seen anything of that suspicious relocation program. So what is
really happening, we ask the UNCHR, and nobody answers. After they
have had enough of our questions they tell us that they don’t know
what’s going on, they don’t know if anybody is thinking about us, our
case is an issue for the Greek government who ‘should’ have some
answers to our questions.


So it’s a devil’s game. Every
refugee in Idomeni now believes that the Europeans are using us to
scare other refugees away from Europe. They have made up their minds
and they are telling other refugees: ‘We have no more place for any
refugees in our countries, and every refugee who even dares to think
of seeking asylum in Europe should first take a look at our own
Zaatari Camp in Greece, where he or she might end’.


Who knows, maybe there are some
European countries who want to help us but they are still waiting to
get some prizes of appeasement such as Turkey did before they move
and get us released out of this prison. Until that time comes, when
mercy gets a chance and the EU makes a move towards us, we will be
waiting.


And so I write. In this ongoing quest
by the Greek state to pre-empt attempts by journalists to enter the
camp and transport a real live picture of what will happen later. 
Things will probably get worse before the silence of Europe is
stirred; before something rattles the country’s millions of souls for
the cause of a few of the thousands that want protection and safety
and decent living.




Source: Open Democracy