Gemma Bird

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 and Identification Centre that can no longer cope with the… »

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, 25,590 people arrived by sea on the Greek islands, according… »

In July of this year New Democracy came to power in Greece with a promise to crack down on immigration and the networks of solidarity surrounding refugees. In the last few weeks they have started to put this process into action suggesting that they are ‘cleaning up Exarcheia’, evicting… »

Men between the ages of 18 and 39 are often assumed to be the most likely to survive troubling conditions in refugee reception centres. Drawing on recent research on the Greek island of Samos, Gemma Bird highlights that this is now always the case. Vulnerabilities are not fixed, and in environments… »

There is an island in the South Aegean Sea that, until a few years ago, was known only as a tourist destination, then it was the ‘Hotspot’ or Refugee Reception Centre that got ignored, and then, of late, the media arrived. The media arrived to tell the stories of the… »