Help the Helpers!!

After clashes which started when Macedonian (FYROM) police and soldiers stopped refugees from crossing the Greek/Macedonian (FYROM) border on Sunday, some of the mainstream media are blaming activists who support refugees in Idomeni for inciting refugee protests.

 
It seems that some of the media don’t believe that refugees are people like you and me, and capable of making their own decisions. In the last 2 days Greek anti-terror units have detained an estimated 45 people (29 13th May) from several European countries in Idomeni, many of them volunteers from the “Aid Delivery Mission”. The “Aid Delivery Mission” cooks thousands of warm meals each day for refugees who are still stuck in Idomeni.Various reasons including possessing 2 way radios, possession of a pen knife were arrests included a group of 6 medics, and 4 members of Intervolve International Volunteers.
11 people are appearing in court in Kilkis in the morning. This is seen by volunteers an attempt to remove Volunteers from Idomeni camp and therefore removing aid.
Not only the Greek government, but also the European Union (EU), are embarrassed because activists and volunteers from all over Europe are doing work that they should be doing – supplying refugees with basic needs like food, sanitary products, and medical help. When they started throwing volunteers in jail, it was a sign of things to come. The first five were locked up on smuggling charges after they rescued 51 people from a stranded dinghy (boat) the coastguard would not look for. “They treated us like terrorists,” said one, when they were released on bail for €5-10,000 per head, facing a custodial sentence of five to ten years.

Here is the statement of aid delivery mission:

Independent Volunteers Are Not Responsible For EU Violence

We, the independent volunteers of the Shorba Crew and other groups in Idomeni have not been starting protests in the camps and strongly resent accusations by the media that we are ‘fake volunteers’. Since January, The Shorba Crew have cooked over 500,000 meals and served them in and around Idomeni camp. Media and police has accused volunteers of starting the protests in camp which have been responded to with the sickening and indiscriminate violence of the FYROM border forces. As a result volunteers have been subject to intensified police harassment.

(...)

We have never advocated or encouraged any mass crossing of the border as we are aware of the hopelessness of this kind of action and the violence it invites from border control forces.

We are completely against the building of false hope and the disappointment and injury it has resulted in.

(...)

We have not organised any protests and have strongly attempted to discourage them. When we became aware of the river crossing flyer being circulated in Idomeni, we immediately informed Doctors Without Borders and UNHCR then attempted to communicate as much as possible it was untrue and dangerous.

We have been portrayed as being present at all the protests. This is easy to do because we are in camps every day and when we become aware of protests, we act to minimise harm.

We strongly resent accusations we are fake volunteers here to cause trouble.

Further we regard it as incredibly racist and patronising to imply that people need ‘western activists’ or ‘fake volunteer groups’ to organise protests for them. Some people have been stuck here since January, struggling to maintain their dignity in abysmal living conditions without prospects of any improvement. We perceive these acts of protest to be ones of frustration and desperation as the reality sets in that Fortress Europe has locked its doors.

(...)

We continue to release regular online statements, videos and pictures concerning our activities and position regarding these issues. These have either been too hard for members of the media to locate or they have chosen to deliberately ignore them.

http://aiddeliverymission.org/

(text from https://revolution-news.com/eu-detains-29-volunteers-for-working-with-refugees-in-greece/

Sign this petition to stop police violence against volunteers and let everyone know!