Since my last trip to Athens in 2018, everything has changed! The Greeks are barely surviving between the repeated economic crises, the Corona, and the migration crisis.  Greeks, who in 2018 were generally jovial, sought contact while laughing with us clowns, seem closed and sad, they seem often physically and mentally very tired.

Sure, the freezing temperatures did not help to warm the atmosphere in the city!

No more compassion, place to eviction: A drastic shift in the governmental strategy for refugees support with the shutdown of all shelters and camps!

There is now only one refugee camp left in Athens, Eleonas camp , where we went to play on Tuesday (this camp will close in May this year).

The squats housing the refugees are also almost all closed. Through our work with local NGOs, we have heard many testimonies from refugees and also from the volunteers who all describe a well-established refugee pushback strategy, supported by a well-orchestrated bureaucracy.

This is the way it works:

The legal procedure asks refugees to make an appointment by email with the police in order to receive or to extend their authorization to stay. Their (repeated) emails are simply ignored and remain unanswered, so with the time, the applicant become illegal!

That way they are also thrown out of the social housing/shelters they occupied and find themselves homeless and can be arrested! The police make regularly raids with identity control, to arrest the people, transfer them to deportation camps (name given by migrants and volunteers) and finally deport them to Turkey or their countries of origin. That is of course not official acknowledged but it is effective to reduce the number of people and create a climate of fear among the refugee communities.

This is why the refugees are afraid and live hiding themselves, as if they were criminals! We accidently attended such a raid by the police in our street and we effectively watch a very discriminatory and muscular way to treat people!

So unfortunately, no, we couldn’t play for hundreds of children this year!

But we played for all children and adults who were in our sight! In the camps of Lavrio and Eleonas, in the only one squat where we were allowed to enter, in the park, in the streets!

We have sought and seized all opportunities to engage and play with people ! Yes, there were lots of great encounters with children and adults happy to see us, eager to give and receive all the love in the world in a playful way!

Many thanks to you Anne Heddes (Clown Teun) and Jeroen Hunnekens

(Clown Joen) for these 12 amazing and inspiring days together.

Since my last trip to Athens in 2018, everything has changed! The Greeks are barely surviving between the repeated economic crises, the Corona, and the migration crisis.  Greeks, who in 2018 were generally jovial, sought contact while laughing with us clowns, seem closed and sad, they seem often physically and mentally very tired.

Sure, the freezing temperatures did not help to warm the atmosphere in the city!

No more compassion, place to eviction: A drastic shift in the governmental strategy for refugees support with the shutdown of all shelters and camps!

There is now only one refugee camp left in Athens, Eleonas camp , where we went to play on Tuesday (this camp will close in May this year).

The squats housing the refugees are also almost all closed. Through our work with local NGOs, we have heard many testimonies from refugees and also from the volunteers who all describe a well-established refugee pushback strategy, supported by a well-orchestrated bureaucracy.

This is the way it works:

The legal procedure asks refugees to make an appointment by email with the police in order to receive or to extend their authorization to stay. Their (repeated) emails are simply ignored and remain unanswered, so with the time, the applicant become illegal!

That way they are also thrown out of the social housing/shelters they occupied and find themselves homeless and can be arrested! The police make regularly raids with identity control, to arrest the people, transfer them to deportation camps (name given by migrants and volunteers) and finally deport them to Turkey or their countries of origin. That is of course not official acknowledged but it is effective to reduce the number of people and create a climate of fear among the refugee communities.

This is why the refugees are afraid and live hiding themselves, as if they were criminals! We accidently attended such a raid by the police in our street and we effectively watch a very discriminatory and muscular way to treat people!

So unfortunately, no, we couldn’t play for hundreds of children this year!

But we played for all children and adults who were in our sight! In the camps of Lavrio and Eleonas, in the only one squat where we were allowed to enter, in the park, in the streets!

We have sought and seized all opportunities to engage and play with people ! Yes, there were lots of great encounters with children and adults happy to see us, eager to give and receive all the love in the world in a playful way!

Many thanks to you Anne Heddes (Clown Teun) and Jeroen Hunnekens

(Clown Joen) for these 12 amazing and inspiring days together.