Anchorage resident Teresa Gray just returned from volunteering in a refugee camp in Lesvos, Greece. Gray is a retired paramedic who was moved to volunteer for three weeks in January with a relief organization based in Ireland, after she saw the tragic and widely circulated photograph of a small refugee boy who died and washed up on a beach.
Gray had never assisted with an international relief effort before. She says the refugees who are fleeing Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq pay Turkish Smugglers 1500 dollars a person to get to Lesvos. They are herded onto overloaded boats:
GRAY: If they refuse to get on the boat, they’re forced by gunpoint, or they’re beaten. “You will get on this boat”. And I heard that story over and over and over again. “We didn’t want to get on the boat. We realized it wasn’t safe. We tried not to get on the boat.” But they were forced on the boat. The smugglers do not boat them over. The smugglers point and say, “Go that way.” And they give them just barely enough gas in order to make that. And these second, third-hand engines that often times don’t continue running for the duration of the trip. It’s only about six miles, but I say only. So if you’ve never been on the water, you’re in an overcrowded dingy, you don’t have adequate life jacket on. The sea, even on the calmest day when you’re in that loaded of a boat, starts to swamp the boat. And someone’s driving who has never driven a boat before. By the time they get to shore, they’re hypothermic, they’re wet, they’re cold, they’re terrified and often near death or already dead.
TOWNSEND: How many people were arriving daily?
GRAY: In the month of January, unfortunately it was the deadliest month for crossing to date. So 368 people died trying to get to Greece from Turkey. In the month of January alone, in the timeframe that I was there, 60 of those were below the age of 18. And in the month of January about 62,000 people came through Greece. 62,000 people in 30 days. And if it was stormy… I was supposed to leave January 20th. January 18th and 19th: Big storm. So we didn’t have any boats that came. So I ended up extending my stay because I knew that they were backing up in Turkey waiting for the water to clear to send people over. And the 21st and the 22nd, which was my birthday, we had 15-20 boats just on our beach alone. And they come all over the shores of Greece because there’s no specific landing point. We had them land very close to our team house. One morning, we left for work. We came around a bend. There are 50 refugees wet, cold, shaking and terrified, walking in the middle of the road. Because they had landed somewhere, and just got out of the boat and started walking. No idea if they were going the right way, no idea what was going to happen. When I stepped out of the car to help them, I don’t think I’ve ever had anybody look at me with that much terror in their face before. They were absolutely terrified of who I was and what I was going to do. And they put the women and children behind them and all the men surged forward. And I don’t speak their language, so the only thing I could do was walk up and just hug them and let them know, “It’s okay, it’s okay.” And then everybody visibly relaxed and I happened to have suckers in my pocket so I passed out suckers to the babies, and then we called buses to come and get them and take them to the camps. So they land haphazardly and we get the counts because they all, eventually, have to go to the registration camp, and so that’s where those numbers come from.
TOWNSEND: You wrote to me that you try to listen to the stories of the refugees who came to Lesvos. Tell us what you heard from them.
GRAY: I thought that it was important that they have a voice and that somebody listened to their story. And a lot of them are afraid that they’re never going to complete the journey, that they’re not going to make it to wherever it is that’s safe for them. So they felt compelled. I heard heartbreaking stories. The man whose boat capsized and he lost all six of his children and his wife. They’re all gone; he was the only survivor. He only came to protect them. And so his sense of guilt, of not being able to protect them, putting them in the boat, hoping that they would make it and they didn’t. The woman who lost her child for the same reason; the boat went down and then the child didn’t survive and was never found. He was washed to sea. The 17-year-old who was sent over by himself because they had come and taken his father and then they took his brothers one by one. And he doesn’t know where they are. And he doesn’t know what happened to them. But his mother said to him, “I can’t wait for them to come take you, and she could only afford to send him. So she put him on a boat and sent him, and she may never see him again. He may never see her again. But she wanted him to have whatever was on the other side because it was better than where they were.
TOWNSEND: What do you think or want the U.S. to do and what should citizens do? What should people do to help?
GRAY: I don’t know what the answer is, but I know that when I’m standing on the beaches of Greece and I help a man off the boat who speaks English, because he used to teach English, and I say to him, “Welcome.” And he looked at me, puzzled, and he said “Where am I?” And I said, “You’re in Greece.” And he said, “They speak English here?” and I said, “No, I’m American.” And he got this startled look on his face and he took a step backwards and he said, “American? Why are you here?” and I said, “I’m here to help you.” And he said, “But you’re afraid of me.” And I said, “I’m not afraid of you. I’m not afraid of you.” And he said, “Your government is.” And I said, “I think they probably are and I’m sorry. But I’m not afraid of you. So today, I’m here to help you.” And he threw himself in my arms and started to cry and said “Thank you, Mrs. Thank you. Thank you. You don’t need to be afraid of me. You don’t need to be afraid of me.” I have 17-year-old boys saying to me, “You’re from Alaska? Alaska is very, very big. I can live in Alaska. I can live there. I can come and help. I’ll be good.” That’s what he said to me. “I’ll be good. If you let me come to Alaska, I’ll be good.” I don’t know what to say to that. What do I say? This child is pleading with me. “I want to come to America. Why can’t I come to America?” I don’t know. “Kaseem, I don’t know why you can’t come to America.” I don’t know what the answer is. I struggle with that.
Lori Townsend is the chief editor, senior vice president of journalism and senior host for Alaska Public Media. You can send her news tips and program ideas for Talk of Alaska and Alaska Insight at ltownsend@alaskapublic.org or call 907-550-8452. Read more about Lori here.
