When we think of slavery, we think in Cotton fields, European ships full of people from the colonies in Africa and Asia. We think that Slavery is a thing of the past, a closed and forgotten chapter. During the 700 years ‘boom’ in the slave trade between the 12th and the 19th centuries, 12 millions slaves were trade. While in the last three decades 30 millions women and girls where forced into sexual exploitation. To this group of people should be added people exploited in othe sector such as labour exploitation, in mines; diamond, gold, mineals, coltan. Child begging, organ extraction, forced labour in agriculture and domestic servidure.All these people suffer from exploitation or trafficking. This is what I bring you in this article, 21st century slavery. Where we will also have the assessment of Susana Fernández Garrido, a woman who has worked with ‘doctors around the world’, analyzing the sexual exploitation of women in Europe and in other parts of the world, and who is currently the director for Latin America of the Change.org platform.
What factors are most influential in getting a person caught up in criminal networks?
"Human trafficking is related to a desire by people to improve their lives. The desire for mobility from their country of origin implies vulnerability. We are talking about a great need, as is the case of refugees, a great desire to change their situation, their lifestyle, however displacement also induces isolation. This displacement makes people arrive in the country of destination, and they do not know well how the administration, the police, the system works".
"Displacement, in addition to the promise of work, which is implicit in human trafficking, also implies that isolation. When I manage to get to the country of accommodation, the victim is exposed to a debt, which is generated by the displacement and now has to be paid. She has to pay it to the people who brought her to this country, under the promise of a job and a promising future. This debt is never paid, there are always systems of penalties and fines imposed by the exploiters that increase that infinite doubt". Susana Fernández Garrido, partner of doctors of the world and director for américalatina of Change.org.
Human Trafficking may be closer to you than you think. There could be victims of exploitation doing bondage or forced labour on your Street. This is a problema that, although it is well known, its analysis sometimes sins of superficiality. If human trafficking  were the sketch of a picture, we will be looking from a certain distance, which gives us an overview. But we may not get close enough, and it is when we look closely at each brushstroke, each personal story of the victims, that the keys of to this criminal plot reside.
Human Trafficking is currently third on the list of most important crimes after drugs and weapons trafficking. But it is estimated that it could raise to the first position, because of the great economic benefits it brings.
"You only sell a commodity once, but in the case of a person you can sell him and resell and sell it again”. Susana Fernández Garrido.
It is a crime that operates on othe crimes, such as kidnapping, disappearances, falsification of documents, violence, physical and sexual abuse, corruption, drug trafficking and abuse.
 
Difference between human trafficking and smuggling
The differences between  human trafficking and smuggling are based on the fact that in the first case, entry into the count of destination may be legal o ilegal. While in the second case, entry across the border will always be ilegal. Human trafficking can occur both within and outside national boders, while human smuggling o trafficking requieres international movement. Trafficking in persons is carried out by coerción or decepción, but in smuggling it is a voluntary act, there is no subsequent exploitation of human beings.
Reasons that promote the vulnerability of people and favour human trafficking
The contextual vulnerability of people who are victims of trafficking may be the result of policies taken by an administration. Such as the failure to grant work rights to people with certain types of immigrant status.
Trafficking and the abuses it entails only occur because people are vulnerable, exposed to dangers and do not have the capacity, either internally (personal capacity) or externally (state or international protection), to resist these dangers.
The opportunities to commit crimes, in the context of migratory routes, are in many cases intertwined with the need for migrant smuggling services.
The migration that takes place between Turkey and Italy, these irregular border crossings are known as 'games'. Those who are pushed to play them can survive a series of violent events by enduring abuse: they are pushed, stolen, beaten, humiliated, attacked like dogs.
The EU-Turkey declaration imposes restrictions on transit between borders, to discourage future arrivals. However, it also helps to encourage the vulnerability of people on the move. Because they have to use more risky ways to travel. Only 20% of people who left Serbia in 2017 used some form of legal route. This means that 80% of them used irregular means and probably smuggling services.
This means that the cost of travel for these people, is high, is very high. But not only because it costs them a few thousand euros, but because when they embark on one of these routes, they put their lives and their families at risk, but they really have no other option.
On the other hand, people who stay for long periods stranded in the so-called transit countries, waiting for a legal possibility to continue their journey, see how their strength and resources to protect themselves are reduced. Long stays in countries such as Greece, Turkey, Macedonia, Bulgaria, etc. They lead to an unclear legal situation, delays in family reunification, delays in appointing a guardian for unaccompanied children. These risks also increase trafficking and abuse. They lead to a serious situation of insecurity, you don't know who is going to rob you, who is going to attack you. They are illegal in the system and therefore cannot expect any protection from the system.
Afghans, Iraqis, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Iranians and Syrians, traveling on the eastern Mediterranean and Balkan route, are deprived of their freedom through extortion, Iran, Turkey, the routes of Greece, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Hezegobin. People are forced to stay in prison camps, not only for the purpose of extortion, but also for forced labor.
The most vulnerable groups and characteristics in these cases are young people, women and girls, LGBT people, health problems, the context of the country of origin (war, persecution), family needs, previous trauma, border restrictions and migrant trafficking. On the other hand, psychological strength, family or group support, higher economic or educational level, digital resources, coverage by organizations or NGOs favor the resistance of victims to trafficking.
 
 
Which people are most vulnerable to becoming victims of human trafficking?
"As far as sexual exploitation is concerned, demand marks everything, this menu of products for sale, of meat for sale, marks you what kind of people are vulnerable, Slavs, Poles, Romanians, Eastern European women. Which are the "products" that are most offered". Susana Fernández Garrido.
Is the regulation, classification of crimes against human trafficking sufficient and what should it include?
"Just like you can't hire a worker without insurance, without an employment contract. You shouldn't be able to pay for a person without regulation. For a person who is being beaten or harmed. Men who pay for someone like that are fine. In most cases, when clients are arrested for trafficking and sexual exploitation, they are let out the back door so as not to undermine their image, and are not even employed as witnesses. In Finland, for example, a policy has begun to be implemented in which you will be held responsible if you pay for the services of an exploited person”.
 
 

Gonzalo Del Arco

The other day Charlotte and I went to have a lunch with Sirwan’s family. In their hostel in Asprovalta.
We had no idea what to expect but as my mom always told me, always bring chocolate cake with you. Everybody loves it and if the food is not good, well at least you can always count on it.
 
We entered the room and for the first time met his parents, his father speaks a little of English and was a taxi driver back in Iraq. His mother raised 6 kids and does not speak much but smiles a lot. She waited until her son left the room to turn to me and ask “is Sirwan good?”
 
Typical mother concern.
 
To show us that they are the best family they made us eat tons of pasta, rice, chicken, vegetables and chickpies, while asking every minute: “Why don’t you eat this, why don’t you eat that.” We only ate with Sirwan and his brother Sahlem in a room on the ground. The rest of the family ate in another room.
In between Pauline an I started to feel uncomfortable because we thought all the food was for the whole family and while we were eating all the other members were waiting for us to eat the leftovers in the end. But after a while Sirwan could explain that they had more food.
As well Pauline and I were confused because Sirwan and Sahlem barely ate anything. They didn’t like chicken they said and they were not hungry. But we had to eat. And we did appreciate their hospitality. But honestly I had no problems at all to eat because it was so delicious!

Why the best family, huh? Well because we think there is a friendly competition between Sirwan’s and Zaid’s families, which both live on the same floor, and both have two sons that went everyday to the office, back in Serres.
 
The meal itself was so nice but the talks we had were even better. First of all, we asked them if they knew how to cook, as only the women seemed to be active in the preparation of the meal. They laughed and did not seem to fully understand the purpose of the question. So I asked again: “Do you know how to cook”? Sirwan answered “No, of course, if I cooked my friends would make fun of me”.
So I added “do you know that in France and in Germany, both men and women cooks from themselves and their families?”. They seemed pretty amused by it.
We continued asking them if women were allowed to work in Iraq, they answered that there are not even jobs for men there, so why should women have one? Besides, they are too busy having babies and raising huge families anyway.
 
Sirwan added that men, if they want, can marry several women “of course, no problems” he said. But of course its problematic for woman who would like to marry several men…
As for the next question “Do you think men and women should be equal in rights?” it will stay without answer as translation issues still get in the way of very specifics topics…
 
But what they were sure about was that they both only want to marry one woman. Their dad only has one wife too. Sahlems “big Love” is already waiting in Germany for him he told us.
After having this great lunch, we really needed to go to the family of Zaid to finally start our real project, which was why we actually came to visit them. But – it is not as easy as you might think to escape out of the  “empire of family Sirwan”. Before leaving, we could not say "no" to another Tsai with the family and a cigarette they wanted to offer us and to talk about the religion of Yazidis with the father. Of course we just could have said no to it, but they were already so nice to us, so I didn’t want them to be sad if we directly would leave…
We stayed more time talking about the Yazidis, Lalesh and had to drink some juices until it really was time to move to Zaids room. When we went outside the mom of Sirwan came inside to bring us plastic bags filled with a lot of stuff. She pointed to us saying one bag was for Pauline and the other me. We first started to discuss with her asking why they as refugees should give us presents, and in addition to that so many…we didn’t know yet what was inside of them, but it looked like a lot. But quickly we understood that this must be part of their culture, giving guests presents and not the other way round like we would do it in Europe. So, a little bit confused, we took the two bags and we left the room promising to come back to say goodbye later.
 
The work we did with Zaid’s family is another story we will tell you another day. And concerning what was inside the bags, well lets just say we do not need to tell you everything, do we?
 
A text by Pauline C. and Charlotte S.
And a big thanks to Sirwan and Zaid families

Since September about 400 refugees live in the camp of Serres. All of them are from northern Iraq speaking Kurdish. They all belong to their ethnically Kurdish religious community of Yazidis and here we are. In the centre of their believe stands “Melek Taus” the Peacock Angel, the seven miracles and sheik ʿAdī ibn Musāfir (1073–1163). Because it is already complicated enough to organize a refugee camp itself it helps a lot to have only people of the same religion together even if this situation of being separated is not possible forever hence religion will bring up a lot more complications in future…

“A refugee is a displaced person who has been forced to cross national boundaries and who cannot return home safely.”

Why Kurdish people from Iraq had to flee? Four letters should be enough as explanation: ISIS. Or what they always mention “Daesh”. Exactly in the area of the Kurdish minority in Iraq ISIS is being active in the moment. Hence a lot of people and inhabitants fled to turkey. Suddenly their normal life turned into the life of a refugee. What is the life of a refugee like? Uncertainty. You get sent from one place to the other, one person says this, the other person that – nobody knows. And you? You just want to reach your destination, have a normal life, security.
 
“Anywhere. Anything is better than this” he said as a tear trickled down his cheek
 
After the “mass invasion” of refugees coming to Greece the past years a lot of camps are in terrible circumstances. But I am asking, what do you expect as refugee? Especially when you know that you will be not the only one who flees. To fall back on the quote, would it really have been better if he stayed in Syria?

In the middle of october we started our project with the refugees. In the camp of Serres there are about 400 refugees, all from northern Iraque.
Anna brought us (Pauline, Jule, Jan and me) to the refugee camp with all the equipment. We should already go inside by our own to set up the movie. But first we had to give our IDs to a policeman who was sitting in a policevan in front of the entrance. He wrote down our names to check that nobody stays in the camp and to ensure our security. There was a rusted fence all around, you could already see a group children playing on the big path out of concrete. Teenagers were hanging around listening to music, talking to friends or walking around. Right next to the entrance there were containers with people sitting in front on dirty, wet ground because it was raining a lot the last days. The people wore old clothes. I didn’t see anybody in jackets, a lot of them just wore shorts and shirts, some of the kids didn’t even wear shoes so they were running around bar feet while I was wearing my winter boots and winter jacket. But they didn’t really seem to care.








The movie night was inside in a building in the middle of the camp. Some people live inside this building, mostly families. Also there is a kitchen in this building where all the women went inside to wash the dishes from dinner. There was still food distribution going on when we came inside. On the way to the room all the people were really nice, saying hello and smiling. All of the teenagers were with their smartphones because there was free WIFI so called “#NETHOPE FREE WIFI”. All of them speak Kurdish and the ones who went to school are able to speak Arabic. Because of the war, though, there was no possibility for the young teenagers to learn Arabic. But quite a lot of them can speak English surprisingly good. Even small girls like six years old talked to me in English! Some of the refugees helped us setting up, mostly boys. When the little kids noticed there was going to be a movie they collected chairs from everywhere.

To start our project Anna wanted to hold a little speech for the beginning of our project but it was hard because especially the children didn’t stop shouting and we just couldn’t stop them. They were just so enthusiastic that they couldn’t calm down and I guess they are not used to be quiet in this camp without school or anything comparable. We were watching the jungle book with them. The movie was in english with arabic subtitles. When there was an exciting part the kids were so calm and showed a lot of attention in their facial expression. After the movie they were asking if we would come from now on every night because they enjoyed it a lot. So in the end we left the camp with the promise to come back the next Friday. Everybody who could speak any English was shouting goodbye, they taught us "I love you" in kurdish and lead us till the exit of the camp.

                                                                                         by Charlotte Selensky

Our trip lasted for 12 days. From Serres, we made a tour via Sofia, Plovdiv, Svilengrad, the bulgarian border, along the turkish border, Alexandroupoli, and finally Komotini.

Our aim (except for travelling) ?
1) Meet some associations for refugees which we contacted before
2) Catch different inhabitants' point of views about the refugees' host and see how is the situation in a acclaimed aversed country...
3) Try to have a permission to entry in the immigration detention center of Sofia
4) See by our own eyes how is the situation at the borders

Now, we are coming back. The eyes more opened and the spirit enriched.

Our movie become more and more feasible...

Our names are Mathilde Rouch and Camille Jego. Currently, we are two french girls volunteers of Praxis but most of all, we are two young girls looking for some clear answers about the human crisis. In our 21st century, the world is going through many crisis and changes - social, economic, ecological, cultural, societal, etc. Actually as always. 

We would like to use the EVS's opportunity to offer our help for a disruption which is close to us... The refugees' crisis in Europe. Maybe through our young eyes, our skills and our field experience, we will be able to bring an overview and lighten the ideas.

By this way, we created us a personal and engaging project : we made the bet to realize a movie about our experience among the refugees' crisis... Be patient! Waiting it, we will keep you updated on our actions and progress.

Mathilde & Camille

Here : Pictures tooks during our trips in Eidomeni refugees camp. We went 4 times there and the last time (21/11/15) was after the borders' closing for every nationalities non-Syrian, Afghani, and Iraqi.