DAY 177 - Janusz Ratecki

Life vest thrown out by the sea on one of the beaches of Samos. UNHCR estiamation about drowned and missed in Mediterranean is 2,306. (07 Jul 2017).

DAY 177

20.06.2017 Lesbos, Greece. There is a place in Kato Tritos, on Lesvos, which is hard to find and hard to get. You can easily pass the road to it, and the terrain itself is locked. It is the hidden cemetery, where people who drowned during the way through the sea. The place was started by one man, who devoted his life to provide decent burial for casulties. So many people have died trying to reach Europe by sea from Turkey that the local morgue and cemetery on Lesbos were unable to cope. So a translator from Egypt - took on a new role, as a gravedigger. He buried many people in accordance with Islamic tradition. More of half were children. You can get know more about the cemetery and support it by contacting The Cemetery Of Refugees In Lesbos (FB) .

Before leaving, Wiktoria (Poland), makes the bed on the roof of Habibti. This was her favorite place of sleeping.
cmfa civilmarchforaleppo greece lesvos june 177 accomodation pikpa wika habibti car
Organisational meeting.
cmfa civilmarchforaleppo greece lesvos june 177 accomodation pikpa alex anna cornelia kuba denis
Anna (Poland), the founder of the Civil March For Aleppo in the PIKPA refugee camp, Lesvos.
cmfa civilmarchforaleppo greece lesvos june 177 accomodation pikpa anna
Anna (Poland), the founder of the Civil March For Aleppo in the PIKPA refugee camp, Lesvos.
cmfa civilmarchforaleppo greece lesvos june 177 accomodation pikpa anna
Alex (Germany) and Anna (Poland).
cmfa civilmarchforaleppo greece lesvos june 177 accomodation pikpa anna alex
Denis (Germany), preferred the CMFA when it was marching. Staying in one place, spending lot of time waiting and discussing, was not, what he expected. But at this point CMFA stucked, and there was aim to march. Finally Denis left the march to Turkey, trying to reach Syria, near the city of Killis. After this attempt failed, he returned home, to Germany.
cmfa civilmarchforaleppo greece lesvos june 177 accomodation pikpa denis
Wiktoria (Poland) and Omar (Spain/Syria) on the way in Habibti. I would have to write a separate book to mention how much help did we received from him. Visiting Lesbos without meeting Omar is like visiting Paris, and not seeing Eiffle tower.
cmfa civilmarchforaleppo greece lesvos june 177 accomodation pikpa wika
Wiktoria (Poland), travelling in Habibti, with open side doors. It was the only way to have some fresh air, while temperatures in Greece in June were as high as 42 Celsius in shadow.
cmfa civilmarchforaleppo greece lesvos june 177 accomodation pikpa wika
On the way.
cmfa civilmarchforaleppo greece lesvos june 177 accomodation pikpa wika kuba cornelia anna
Hidden refugee graveyeard.
cmfa civilmarchforaleppo greece lesvos june 177 graveyard
CMFA doing some cleaning at the cemetery. The graveyard seemed neglected to us. Actually it has been cleaned not long ago we came, before the amount of wild plants was so big that you could hardly find the graves.
cmfa civilmarchforaleppo greece lesvos june 177 graveyard
Anna reading the graves.
cmfa civilmarchforaleppo greece lesvos june 177 graveyard anna
Cleaning the graveyard.
cmfa civilmarchforaleppo greece lesvos june 177 graveyard wika
Corneia (Germany) cleaning the graveyard.
cmfa civilmarchforaleppo greece lesvos june 177 graveyard cornelia
Pieces of damaged gravestones from graves of refugees, who drowned in the sea while trying to reach Greece from Turkey. The cemetery near Mitlini (Lesvos) has been demolished by Greek ultra nationalists and was partly destroyed.
cmfa civilmarchforaleppo greece lesvos june 177 graveyard
Wiktoria (Poland) noting the text from graves. At some point the graveyard was attacked and many of the grave plates were demolished by the Greek racists.
cmfa civilmarchforaleppo greece lesvos june 177 graveyard wika
Alex (Germay) looking at the grave of 3 years old refugee child, who drowned during the way to cross the sea. Many of the child graves had some toys near.
cmfa civilmarchforaleppo greece lesvos june 177 graveyard alex
CMFA at the hidden refugee graveyard, Lesvos, Greece.
cmfa civilmarchforaleppo greece lesvos june 177 graveyard wika alex anna

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