Both creating and ameliorating suffering for refugees are profitable businesses. Refugees are aware of this, and they looking for solidarity in an unsolidaristic world.
The term ‘economic migrant’ has been a key weapon in the authorities’ war against refugees, yet it hides much more than it reveals.
Refugees are entering a Europe that sees some of them as terrorists and Islamist extremists. The reality is that the vast number of refugees are victims of terrorism themselves.
With winter approaching, the journey that refugees face to reach Europe is becoming ever more dangerous. Why are they being denied safe passage and what can be done to help?
The issue of making refugees walk 20 or 25 kms in the blazing heat is just one example amongst many that demonstrates the casual cruelties which are routinely inflicted on the refugees who arrive on Samos.
As Samos islanders stand in solidarity with the refugees arriving at their ports, again and again we hear locals saying: “they are just like us”.
A red line is crossed when you start thieving from refugees in order to survive or feed your addiction. ‘We can only survive as human beings through our solidarity.’ There is nothing else.
For many refugees, it is only the smugglers who can get them into and then out of Greece. All other legitimate and safe channels are cut off. For the smugglers, many of whom are poor, income from the refugees means that they can survive.
We cannot just sit back and wait for the government to act for us – any government. We believe that nothing will change unless the people as a whole are engaged, involved and united.
The revolutionary left denounces Russell Brand, but the poor know he is right. His lack of a proper alternative doesn't hurt his analysis of what is wrong. People must realise how many skills are available on the street that should be used to replace the old, corrupt system.
