tbs eFM Highlights

Interview with Efi Latsoudi

tbs eFM This Morning interviews the legend, Efi Latsoudi 2016.9.28

[What Happens Out There Affects Us All]

Asylum seekers; refuges by the hundreds of thousands, people escaping war are flooding into Europe. A breakwater has been Lesvos, Greece a tiny Island home to Efi Latsoudi, winner of the 2016 UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award.

So the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has appointed two remarkable figures for this year’s Nansen Refugee Award. As part of our special interviews in celebration of the new season, we welcome one of them, Efi Latsoudi, cofounder of PIKPA, a self-organized camp in Lesvos taking care of women, children and the disabled. This has been the scene this month as well of a huge fire on this otherwise picturesque Greek island that has become famous for really anything but the sort of luxury holidays that maybe people would have dreamed of in years fairly recently gone by. Thank you very much for taking the time Ms. Latsoudi.

-Thank you very much for inviting me, thank you.

So this big fire, we know thousands of asylum seekers were displaced as a result of that, how much more challenging did that make your work?

-Look, we live in a situation that is really difficult, this crisis happening for more than one year now; it started in May 2015 and of course the reasons are there. There are thousands of people that need to flee their countries because of the war. So our country, Greece and the islands that we are living in like Lesvos are very near to a region that many people need to cross and to try to reach Europe. So it’s something that we are facing since many years. Lesvos has been receiving refugees since 2001, but in smaller numbers. Last year it was a huge number; 500,000 refugees arrived in Lesvos in one year, which is enormous for a small island.

Well, you were one of the arrivals in 2001 having moved from Athens from what I understand it. So what was it like for you then and how does it compare now fifteen years on?

-Look, the situation was very difficult always, even one refugee to deal with is a huge responsibility. Every person needs protection, and protection of his human rights, so every person is very important. But when you have like one hundred refugees per month it’s a different thing than having five thousand refugees per day. So for our island and for our capacity, it was huge. And also you have to have in mind that Greece is facing an economic crisis since years. So it’s even more difficult to deal with the situation and the solidarity that people in Lesvos showed to these refugees was even more important in this situation. And for me, it was not only the numbers of the people but, and the poor conditions, the deaths of the people. Many people died in the sea and we’ve had to deal with the relatives, we’ve had to deal with mothers that lost their kids and with families that lost mothers fathers; it was overwhelming for us.

I can imagine.

-Sometimes it was very difficult to deal with.

I’m sure many of us would find that tremendously challenging to offer comfort and to strangers effectively as well. But from your perspective, you did found PIKPA back in 2012 I understand? Tell us a bit more about what drove you to do that, I know you’ve given a few good reasons for setting up such a facility already but, you know, not every local person has gone this far.

-For us it was clear, when the flow of refugees started again to arrive to the island in 2012 we wanted to create humane conditions and an open center for the refugees. We didn’t want detention conditions for the refugees, and also it was really important to create an open facility because it’s very important that the refugees not to be isolated from the local community and to live near us and to be able to help them. For me at that point it was very crucial, the fact that the fascist party, the Golden Dawn, had raised their percentages in the Greek parliament and there was xenophobia and racism and there were murders of refugees, which was terrible. It was something that threatened us and the refugees, and so we believed that if we do something, if we have a shelter that we participate and we take care of the refugees, this will create a protection for the refugees for pull our society too.

From a selfish perspective, how difficult has it been seeing Greece and Lesvos for example undergo the challenges of economic stagnation and deterioration, especially when tourists have obviously been put off going on holiday to some of these places that were reliant on tourists before?

-It’s very difficult to, this year for Lesvos was very difficult because of the fact that tourism went down like seventy percent. For the islanders and for the economic crisis of the island it was a big crisis on top of the other crisis, but I believe that we have to face a humanitarian crisis and when we, as society we have to deal with people that flee from war, we cannot close our eyes and we cannot say that, you know, I have to only look for my job, which is more important. I have to look for my family and our wellbeing. It is important and we have to not forget this and we have also to support our lives, but what is happening out there concerns us all, because people that flee from war can be us very easily. We need not to forget that. It’s something that is very connected to our lives too and to our future. It’s very important to choose solidarity for me. It’s very important to participate to the solutions and to give solution as a society to these kinds of crisis. The economic part is very important, I know, nobody underestimates that, but the human part also is very very very important.

Well I hope your voice is heard there from the ground, we know at policy level there are international leaders discussing these issues all of the time without coming up with firm solutions so far. Maybe a voice like yours, now with this kind of recognition, can be better heard. And thank you for taking the time to speak with us today.

-Thank you very much for asking me to speak with you, thank you.

And good luck with your efforts. Efi Latsoudi, 2016 UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award Winner.

-Thank you very much.

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