Greece (MNN) — Refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria remain in limbo in Greece. At the same time, new arrivals from Ukraine stretch resources even thinner. More than 45,000 Ukrainian refugees have fled to Greece since February.
“They’re going through a lot; leaving their countries, and they didn’t want to leave in the first place,” MENA Leadership Center Communications Director Fatan Faraj says.
“They’re sitting in camps, not knowing what tomorrow holds. It’s this limbo of not knowing what’s next and, at the same time, not being treated like human beings.”
To reveal the people and stories behind the statistics, Faraj directed and produced a documentary called LIFE JACKET.
“It sheds light on the plight [of refugees]; what the refugees go through, how they were hoping to get to a safer place when they reached Moira camp, which is one of the worst,” she says.
“Soon, it will be available online for people to watch it [without a fee]. It can be watched on FaithChannel.com and SAT-7Plus.”
(Photo courtesy of Fatan Faraj)
Each discarded lifesaving device on the shoreline represents a narrative. “One woman I interviewed, her name is Estera. She faced many traumas while in Syria; she saw massacres happening by ISIS,” Faraj says.
“She fled with her husband and son, [and then] she faced tons of hardships [in] the camp. The most significant thing about this lady is that she had hope,” Faraj continues.
“After all the heartbreaking stories, she said, ‘I’m still dreaming.’”
Pray believers in Greece will find ways to communicate Christ’s love with refugees. Pray God uses the hardships and uncertainty in refugees’ lives to reveal His hope.
“The documents and the paper processing takes forever; some people spend six, seven years in camps just waiting for their papers to be processed. That’s not fair, and that’s not right,” Faraj says.
Header and story images courtesy of Fatan Faraj.
