Gemma Bird

Samos has, for many years, been viewed as an ‘emergency’ situation. As the number of people ‘housed’ in the Reception and Identification Centre (RIC) on the island, built to shelter 648 residents, rose dramatically in 2019 and 2020 the conditions…

When we tell stories about displacement, asylum processes and claiming refuge we often focus on the process itself, the violence of borders, the conditions in camps, the numbers of people who find themselves stuck waiting for a decision. The reason…

Over the last 5 years the Greek island of Samos has become synonymous with the struggles faced by displaced people. With the fight against encampment, against limited access to food, to healthcare and to education. It is an island with…

Europe is thought of by many refugees escaping persecution, war, poverty, and violence as a place of safety, of Human Rights, of protection, security, and kindness. These narratives are further supported by the rhetoric of the European Commission that presents…

Fires at a reception centre for asylum seekers on the Greek island of Lesbos have left thousands of people without shelter. Around 13,000 people – including those from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and west Africa – lived at the Moria Reception and…

Community cinemas across the UK play a valuable role in bringing communities together to engage with film, build relationships, combat loneliness, to educate. In times of physical distancing they, and their representative body Cinema For All have found new ways…

At this time of year often people talk of going home for the holidays, of travelling to see family and friends, and of spending time in places where they grew up, reminiscing about the past and discussing, or even arguing,…

On the 6th of November the Committee for Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs welcomed the Minister of Citizen Protection in Greece to the European Parliament to discuss the Dublin Agreement and the conditions faced by refugees in Greece. As…

Last night there was a fire on the island of Samos, a fire that ripped through the temporary homes of human beings living in ‘the jungle’, the overfill space relied upon to house men, women and children in a Reception…

The hotspots on the Greek islands of Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Kos and Leros are struggling to manage an increase in the number of refugees and migrants crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey in recent months. Between January and August 2019,…