Asociación Projuven would like to share with you the experience of one greek youngster who worked as a psychologist in a Refugee Centre in Greece.
Hello Alex! Can you tell us, why did you decide to work as a psychologist in a Refugee Centre?
For the past three years, the refugee crisis has been a matter that has drawn the attention of the whole world. Living in Greece, which is one of the most used destinations amongst refugees who are looking for a shelter, it would be a personal shame for me not to, at least, try and provide whatever I can from my profession’s perspective.
In the first years, I tried to regularly visit some certain concentration camps, near the suburban of Athens. It was a great pleasure to, not only spend some recreating time playing with the children, but also to provide psychological support for the adults. At that time, the greatest reward for my volunteering was the honest and humble ‘’thank you’’ I got from these people, and the feeling that I somehow managed to alleviate their psychological burden, even in the slightest.
The great experiences and the remarkable people I have met through the above situations, coupled with the growing and urgent need for help in the newly arrived refugees, made me consider working in an NGO centre for unaccompanied children, which was located in Athens.
What were the biggest challenges you faced in your daily work?
As you can imagine, the population that I was working with was pretty vulnerable from a lot of perspectives. First of all, we are talking about human beings who have literally escaped war, searching for shelter in another country, by following a very uncertain and dangerous route. And as if this was not enough, most of the times these people were not even feeling welcome in the asylum – seeking countries in which they were lucky enough to arrive. Secondly and most importantly, we are dealing with children and teens. There is no need to argue on the mental repercussions that were created in these kids after the exposure in these hazardous situations, that normally no human should ever experience. Occasions of PTSD were, as expected, a common fact among the teens.
As I was listening through the unrealistic experiences that each teen in front of me was narrating, and while I was safe and sound in a well – equipped and modern office, I couldn’t help myself from feeling a bit guilty somehow. Saying that I could actually understand their pain and what they have been gone through, would be an understatement. However, my occupation there was not meant for me to perform my personal introspection, but to ensure that I will make the refugees feel safe, by starting to build up the confidence and mental power which were really important, in order for them to stare into the future without losing hope.
That was constantly becoming an even more difficult task for me, considering the fact that regulations from the European and the World Committee were not in favour of the refugees, making it difficult for them to find a shelter or to reunite with their families across Europe. So, in order not to raise false hopes among the children, I had to follow a mix of realistic as well as optimistic therapeutic approach.
In your opinion, how the refugees look at smugglers? Is it smuggling of migrants: the harsh search for a better life?
From my experience, I have come to the conclusion that sometimes calling upon smugglers, is the only option that refugees have, if they want to survive or reunite with their family. It is a disgrace that due to the lack of action from the state apparatuses all over Europe, we consider something like the smuggling industry, which is illegal and dangerous, to be the most desirable among the options that these people have.
Although smuggling is, and should be, prohibited, in extreme situations like the ones previously described can give a choice to the refugees in order to search for a better standard of living. So, it is not so weird that a big part of the asylum- seeking population, think of the smugglers as ‘’heroes’’. Unfortunately, even among the traffickers, there are individuals who do not even follow the unwritten law of the, let us call it, ‘’underground ethic code’’. They are dishonest people who present themselves as smugglers, stealing the money from the refugees without even transferring them where they promised to.
However, refugees have an online network, where they can review the smugglers and rate their services, thus protecting the others from a potentially harmful or fraud trafficker. I can understand that this situation seems surreal, but reality can be pretty harsh sometimes and one has to consider every option available.
It is understandable that these actions are illegitimate, but we should maybe consider that the biggest problem is the violation of the human rights against these people in their time of need. Smuggling is just a RESULT of this violation.
I, by no means, applaud the existence of the smuggling industry. On the contrary, I feel ashamed that due to the fact that world leaders can not solve the problems that they have created in the first place, this industry is presented as the less time – consuming option that refugees seem to have, in search for a better life.
What do we have to improve in the future to avoid today´s problems?
To be honest, I am not the most optimistic person regarding the way that we humans are, day by day, shaping our future. All over the course of history, we have seen numerous examples that resemble, or that even surpass today’s crisis. In every known human era until today, we can ascertain that greed and misanthropy were a common trait among a high proportion of the population. We can almost assume that these traits are now in a sleeping mode inside all of us.
Fortunately, in this bubble that we call earth, there is also exists a great amount of well – intended individuals, who struggle daily in order to ensure that all of our human rights are being respected. From my understanding, the distribution of these good -natured humans among the total population, is the reason that we can find some sort of balance in this world.
For me, the above realization is of great importance and gives me hope. Although, it is not of course just a problem of statistics, this means that no good action is going to waste. Each person helped, is one less person being neglected. And this is not something that actually refers only to the refugee crisis, but it also has to do with the greater moral crisis that the world has been facing, till the dawn of humanity.
It goes without saying that what we have to improve the most, is ourselves. During that process, we will help more, we will influence more, we will deprecate the injustice, we will not tolerate the intolerant, we will not accept the corruption, and we will protect the nature and all its components. By the end of that process, we will have achieved both a slightly better version of the world and for sure a better self.
