Give me your tired, your poor … the Europeans embracing migrants

Judging from the headlines, it sometimes seems no one in Europe wants to help refugees. Record numbers are arriving in Italy and Greece this year, and yet other European governments have agreed to share less than a fifth of them. Hungary is building a wall to keep them out. For the same reason, France has sealed its border with Italy. In Greece, for much of this year there were doubts over the legality of giving a refugee a lift.

But on a local level, there are thousands of people across the continent who are braving the vitriol of their peers, and filling the void left by the politicians. Many Europeans back their governments’ stance but their xenophobia masks another phenomenon – that of a huge drive by ordinary citizens to welcome refugees, rather than reject them. From the Hungarian volunteers providing round-the-clock support to Syrian and Afghani newcomers, to the Spanish priests assisting migrants with paperwork, here are seven movements from across Europe that are fighting for refugees’ rights.

Germany

Germany has more people applying for asylum than any other EU country and is this year expecting to receive more than 400,000 applications, more than double the number in 2014. Overcrowding of accommodation is seeing many asylum seekers being housed in tents, sport halls and container villages.

Mareike Geiling in Berlin believes there’s a better way. Last year she decided to offer her room to a friend of a friend who had fled Mali, while she was away in Cairo for a few months.

The experience inspired her to set up Refugees Welcome, a web-based service which has so far placed 63 more refugees in towns and cities around Germany. It also arranges for rent to be paid via benefits where possible, or via crowdfunding if the refugee has no other options.

Hungary

Civil groups have been springing up all over Hungary in recent weeks, as Hungarians rally to provide food and clothing to the beleaguered migrants entering the transit country across the border with Serbia.

The first provincial Migszol (Migrant Solidarity) group was formed in Szeged, southern Hungary, when five friends noticed that migrants – mainly Syrian and Afghan refugees – were being locked out of the city’s railway station overnight.

Migszol Szeged co-founder Márk Kékesi said: “In mid-June it was surprisingly cold and they had no blankets or warm clothes: among them were kids, sometimes babies, so we made a pot of hot tea and brought warmer clothes.

“The next day we created the Migszol Szeged Facebook group and were truly amazed: people started to join instantly: the group had 1,000 members within three or four days, it became known nationally and donations began to arrive in large amounts.”

Greece

Squinting across the six miles between the Greek island of Lesbos and the Turkish mainland, Eric Kempson has spotted something. “See that?” he said, pointing at a speck in the distance. It’s barely visible, even in the dazzle of the 6am sunrise, but Kempson knows what it is. “That’s a boat of refugees, and it’ll arrive on this side in about 15 minutes.” And sure enough, it does, leaving its 50-odd Afghan and Pakistani passengers to haul themselves up a craggy scree to reach the road above.

Lesbos has become the Lampedusa of Greece, with more than 1,000 refugees like these arriving daily. The Greek authorities, struggling to deal with an economic crisis, cannot cope with the influx – so the vacuum has been filled by volunteers such as Kempson and his wife, Philippa. Boats arrive just metres from the Kempsons’ front door, and as a result the British couple have become what a medic might call the island’s “first responders”.

Read the full article on theguardian.com