FAQ’s About Serving Refugees in Greece

We got a lot of questions about our time in Greece, especially about our week at the refugee camp.  So, we compiled a few of the top questions we got to help give you a picture of what the week was like.  

What were you doing there?

Learn.  We came to help at Ritsona through Cross Cultural Solutions (CCS), a social enterprise that deploys teams all over the world to understand cultures and serve.  The refugee program is just one of many of their programs. 

Why is Greece involved?  

The biggest answer I can give at this point is proximity.  Greece is really close, but not directly hit by the wars and strife happening in Syria and nearby countries. Because they are willing to accept them as well.

How many refugees are there in Greece? 

While the number changes daily, a rough recent estimate is 62,000 refugees in Greece.  Ritsona has capacity for around 900 people and they are very close, if not at capacity.  

Who lives at the camp?

Most residents at Ritsona are Syrian and Kurdish.  These are also the two main languages that are spoken around camp.  Many Kurds understand Arabic as well, so Arabic is the main language you’ll see amongst residents.  The Kurdish people could be from multiple countries, but most of the people we knew of were Iraqi Kurds.  There are also a handful of Africans.  

What do residents live in?

When Ritsona first started being used as a refugee camp, all they had were tents, which after the hot week we had, I can only imagine how difficult that was to live in longterm.  Life at camp got much better when the trailers (ISOBOX’s) arrived.  These are small white trailers that house a family or multiple individuals.  There are bunk beds, a small bathroom, a little shelving, and a refrigerator.  Some are larger and have a small kitchenette, but most don’t have this.  If a family is in a trailer without a kitchenette, there are community kitchen trailers that they can go use and share with others.  All of these trailers are lined up in rows of two, so there’s a feeling of a “street” that you can walk down.  Many of the families have been there so long that they’ve done things to make the trailer more like their own.  Many have built little covered awnings or patios out of tarps and pallets.  Some have even planted little gardens outside of their trailers.  I got the opportunity to walk around and see some of these scenes up closer and as we were walking around, people were mopping and cleaning and it was customary for shoes to be taken off before coming inside.  Amidst losing so much, the residents seem to take care of this little sliver of shelter they have. 

What is the camp like?

Ritsona used to be a military base and has been looooooong abandoned by the Greek military.  There’s really not much there besides the main gate/fence and the main building we worked in.  As the week went on, we learned that the building we were working in used to be just the columns, floor, and roof.  After a while, they discovered that walls were a necessity and were added on.  All that said, the walls have concrete chipping away, paint peeling, hodge lodge of tile and other oddities that come with some wear and tear.  

The rest of the camp follows a big oval path where there are trailers all around.  The trailers might be similar to the ones used for shelter, but there also are other shipping containers used as shelters.  Near the main entrance are all of the NGO’s main trailers (non-government organizations).  Another section of the camp is where most of the residents’ trailers are.  Next to that is the main building where the “shop,” milk/tea/soap distribution, and CCS on-site location is. Nearby there is also a shipping container that has been set up as the laundry facility and houses about twelve washing machines.  Scattered around the camp are other trailers for language lessons, activities for kids, activities for women, and other gatherings.  Gravel roads and worn paths connect you around the camp and thankfully there are many large trees to help give a little relief from the intense sun!

What are the people like?

The easiest answer is that they are people just like you and me.  And when you look beneath the surface of the labels put on them, that’s the 100% truth.  They are people just like you and me.  The main difference is that they’ve been through a major trauma, and so for many of us who live fairly comfortable lives in the United States, that can be hard to understand.  

That said, there are a few polarizing things we saw during our week.  (And realize that I’m no psychologist, AND I was around the camp for only a week, so this barely scratches the surface.)  On one end of the spectrum, we saw a lot of people who were so immensely grateful for everything you could offer.  While we couldn’t always speak the language, we leaned on nonverbal and eyes can speak a lot.  Some people could not help but show their feelings in their expression, and from that, we could see a glimpse into the hard season of life they are in.  

On the other end of the spectrum, you saw frustration and acting out.  Living as a refugee is so opposite to how we live our lives.  We have choices in what wear, where we live, what we will buy from the supermarket, etc.  Many of these liberties are not available to someone in this situation as they are living off of the charity of others.  At the same time, some of these residents have been waiting for a placement in another country for months and years.  When you combine these two things, plus the simple dynamic of being an imperfect human, you can expect some acting out.  We could see it in the adults as well as the kids.  People would try to test their limits and push boundaries.  They would want you to bend the rules, or lie to get what they want.  

Did you feel safe?

Yes.  I learned this week that there are open and closed camps.  Closed camps are more secured and have more security.  You can’t just come and go as easily, and that’s as much for teh safety of humanitarians as it is for the residents.  Ritsona is an open camp, which means that there is no gate to go through and people can come and go as you want.  

Our training from CCS was great and they made sure we knew what to do if any situation with the camp or residents ever escalated.  We were never working on our own as well.  They also had good systems in place for distributing goods to the families that helped provide some order and manage the amount of people you were working with at one time.  All of the workers with any of the NGO’s also wore vests to help identify them as a humanitarian worker and not a resident.  IOM is deployed by the UN and had security during the daytime, so whenever we were working, there was security around as well.  

Did you interact with the residents much?

We got to interact with the residents, but being there only one week made it a little difficult to get to know any of them in much depth.  Also, the language barrier was very much real.  During the week, we were exposed to Arabic, Kurdish dialects, English, Greek, French, and others.  We relied heavily on nonverbal communication and a couple words we knew.  Thankfully, a few people on the team spoke Arabic on some level and that helped tremendously.  Most of the residents are learning English, as well as other languages, so they could speak some basic phrases.  

We would see the residents as they dropped off and picked up their laundry, while they came to shop at the thrift store, and when they came to pick up soap/milk/tea.  We also saw them if they came by to say hello throughout the week.  This was the case with a few residents who speak English very well and are helpful to the NGO’s to translate, as well as with many of the kids who are just bored and looking for attention.