90: Trapped on the Borders: Poland and Greece

In the summer of 2021, after Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko enticed migrants and asylum seekers to come to Belarus and use it as a staging area for entering the European Union, the number of people trying to cross into the EU through the Baltic states and through Poland began to increase from the hundreds into the low thousands. And since that time draconian security measures, pushbacks, and the level of desperation of those caught between borders has increased along with the drop in temperature, leaving many freezing, starving, and stuck; pushed back and forth in a heavily forested “no man’s land” on the borders of the EU. 

We speak with Sonia Nandzik-Herman and Douglas Herman, co-founders of ReFocus Media Labs, a Polish NGO that has operated on the Greek island of Lesvos for years. But after spending many months in Poland they’ll also be giving us an update on sitions there and an update on the current situation on Lesvos and on the Greek mainland, where many of the same policies are in place. We’ll also be learning where and how policies and tactics differ.

New York Times article referenced in the introduction.

Photo Credit: @grupagranica and @fundacjaocalenie

Read the report.

Follow ReFocus Media Labs

Support Latitude Adjustment Podcast with a monthly donation!

Special: Introducing Latitude Adjustment Podcast Academy!

Latitude Adjustment returns to Lesvos to launch a new phase of our programming, a podcast academy!

Over the next several weeks Latitude Adjustment Podcast will be working with students and asylum seekers from the Refocus Media Labs team to help them produce their own podcasts. Be sure to look for their episodes in the coming weeks.

This special episode will also update you on major events that have taken place on Lesvos since we left in February. A lot has happened.

As you wait for the release of our students’ episodes be sure to follow our progress on Instagram, and check out our four-part series about Moria and the conditions of refugees in Greece, from earlier this year

If you would like to support our efforts you can sign up for a monthly contribution through our Patreon page. Stay tuned for more in the coming weeks!

Episode 60: Refugee Crisis in Greece - Aid

This is the final episode of a four-part series on the refugee crisis in Greece, undertaken in collaboration with Croatian NGO, Are You Syrious. This episode features a range of perspectives from locals, internationals, volunteers, and founders on Lesvos and in Athens, including: 

Douglas Herman from Refocus Media Labs; Lesvos (7:14)

Eric Kempson from the Hope Project; Lesvos (1:10:51)

Salam Aldeen from Team Humanity; Lesvos (1:36:44)

Myrto Symeonidou from Migratory Birds; Athens (2:01:49)

Mania and Mado from Network for Children’s Rights; Athens (2:22:42)

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

Clockwise from top left: Malakasa, Skaramagas, and Elionas refugee camps, near Athens; Moria Refugee Camp, Lesvos, Greece

Organizations we recommend supporting…

Episode 59: A Refugee Camp Based On Solidarity

Pikpa Camp has been threatened with closure by October 15th, 2020!

For more information on how you can help to #SavePikpa join this group.

Originally from Athens, Efi Latsoudi studied psychology and worked with a range of vulnerable communities before moving to Lesvos in 2001. Efi’s experiences and her story provide a historical perspective on the refugee crisis in Greece that we almost never get from traditional media. For starters, refugees didn’t start coming to Greece in 2015. That story starts much earlier, and many of the problems and tensions we are seeing today are a repeat of events that took place more than a decade ago. Efi Latsoudi began her work with refugees on Lesvos in the mid 2000’s but it was in 2012 that she founded PIKPA camp, a self-organized squat-camp for refugees, and a political statement about how vulnerable people might be housed and treated if communities and resources were brought together in a more thoughtful and compassionate way. To put it bluntly, PIKPA is the antithesis of Moria Camp. The camp is also very small. At its height in 2015 it hosted around 600 people. But its capacity is closer to 150. However PIKPA is far more than a space for alternative housing. It distributes food, offers language classes and other services, and since its opening in 2012 it’s served tens of thousands of people.

This episode is the third segment of a multi-part collaboration between Latitude Adjustment Podcast and Croatian NGO, Are You Syrious.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

For More Information About PIKPA Camp and Mosaik Support Center

Episode 58: Greece - Refugees Tell Their Stories

These are the personal testimonies of refugees from Moria Refugee Camp on the Greek Island of Lesvos and in Athens. These interviews were recorded in January and February and are the second of a three-part collaboration with Are You Syrious concerning the situation for refugees and communities in Greece. Much has transpired in Greece and in the world since we spoke, but their stories remain current and are in many ways timeless examples of what many of our parents, grandparents and neighbors endured before settling in our communities. As the Coronavirus bears down on the most vulnerable people it’s critical that we make space to hear and share their stories rather than reducing them to numbers, faceless victims, and political talking points.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

Organizations we recommend supporting…

Episode 57: Special Report from Greece and Turkey

Much has changed in recent weeks since we left Greece, and before bringing you the personal testimonies and field interviews that we gathered from refugees, volunteers, Greek citizens, and stakeholders during our time in Lesvos and Athens in January and February, we wanted to touch base with some people on the ground in Greece and Turkey to get up to speed on the fast-changing situation in and between these countries.

In 2016, in response to the growing alarm at the continuing movement of peoples towards Europe, the European Union struck the so called EU-Turkey Deal, effectively promising to pay Turkey approximately 6 billion Euros to contain the flow of people to within its borders. Turkey now leads the world hosting a refugee population of more than 4 million people, 3.7 million of them from Syria. At the end of February president Erdogan ordered Turkish border police to stand down resulting in a rush on Greece’s land and maritime borders, and enflaming what was already a highly tense situation in the Greek islands.

Douglas Herman a journalist and co-founder of Refocus Media Labs, a nonprofit organization that teaches media skills to asylum seekers. Douglas has been based on Lesvos for several years and more recently he’s been documenting the escalating situation on the island for a variety of news sources.

Deman Güler is a human rights attorney in Turkey and manages the Human Rights Center and Commission for Refugees for the İzmir Bar Association. Those familiar with the geography of the migratory routes will recognize Izmir as one of the principal staging areas for smugglers and for those trying to cross by sea to the Greek isles.

Are You Syrious is an indispensable resource for those trying to stay on top of policy changes and events on the ground along the migratory routes. an indispensable resource for those trying to stay on top of policy changes and events on the ground along the migratory routes.

This special podcast report is the first in a multipart podcast series covering the conditions of refugees and communities on the borders of the European Union and part of a collaborative project between Latitude Adjustment podcast and Croatian nonprofit Are You Syrious. Be sure to check out the Are You Syrious written accompaniment to this episode as well. This AYS special report is intended to provide a helpful timeline of events and offers more context for the podcast.



Correction: the initial publication of this podcast indicated that cases of COVID-19 had been reported on both Lesvos and Chios. However the case(s) on Chios are not yet confirmed, while it appears that one case has been reported in the general population on Lesvos.

Left to right: Moria Refugee Camp, Lesvos, Greece, Douglas Herman, and Deman Güler

Come for a three-minute walk through Moria Refugee Camp.

Organizations that we recommend supporting.

WE'RE COLLECTING INTERVIEWS IN THE FIELD. LOOK FOR OUR UPCOMING SERIES.

And follow our journey on Instagram as we collaborate with Are You Syrious to highlight the stories of refugees and communities along the borders of the European Union…