By Fella Boulazreg
On the upper floor of a coffee shop in the dandy neighbourhood of The Laines, Brighton, a young woman is struggling to get her shattered Ipad working. She rather resembles any common student, lost in a seemingly insurmountable pile of readings. However, I can say that despite being in her early twenties, she has done more than any student I have met so far.
Zoe Gilchrist has thrown herself into action during one of the most disastrous geopolitical and social situations to affect Europe since WW2, though she takes umbrage with the term ‘refugee crisis’;“It is not a refugee crisis; it is a European crisis that is created and sustained by European policies. I think we need to not forget that.”
Based on statements from the International Rescue Committee, over one million people have travelled to Greece since 2015. Forced to stay behind the Greek/Macedonian frontier since the EU-Turkey deal, temporary housing has been created along the border. In December 2015, Gilchrist took the plunge – leaving her teaching job in Istanbul to work in the Idomeni camp in Greece. At the time the camp still existed and welcomed buses full of people seeking asylum in Europe everyday. Among other independent volunteers, the Sussex student was cooking 16 hours a day to respond to the needs of refugees arriving mainly from Syria.
I wondered what made her leave the privileged, comfortable life she was leading. The ‘European crisis’ that was and is still happening has been disastrous, but it has spelled helplessness on the majority, particularly when the choice means abandoning comfort to witness inhumane living conditions. Refugee camps, often described as ‘jungles,’ have been scenes of violence, squalor and danger. A rolling media narrative stigmatising refugees and those desperate to reach safer shores has allowed inaction on the part of governments.The United Kingdom for example, announced it will ‘welcome’ 20,000 people from a crisis in the millions. And this is at the centre of Gilchrists’ motivations – a void where European governments are failing to help;
“You look at the figures. In one day in November we had 6000 people who crossed the border. So 20,000 in 5 years is nothing. I’ve always done a lot of reading and research and was part of a solidarity structure here before so I’ve always been interested to go in and meet people who are seeking refuge or who are going through this kind of situation because being on the move like that is just not right… It’s pretty horrible.”
Gilchrist herself has experienced the feeling of ‘being on the move’ from one place to another. From the age of 5 the future student, teacher and activist, was on a frequent back-and-forth to the US (her mother is an American citizen) which made her relate to the Iraqis, Syrians, Afghans and North Africans seeking refuge in Europe, though she also recognises the context is incomparable; “Obviously not in the sense of some people are fleeing war and are forced to leave their homes, but they’re uprooted”, she explains.
Whereas most of the people joining the solidarity movements would only stay few weeks at the Idomeni camp, the Sussex student spent in total seven months on the ground, resigning from her job as an English teacher in Istanbul.“Not enough was being done by the official structures. People were not getting support in Europe. They were just repressing and further,” she tells me.
As well as standing both physically and metaphorically beside refugees, Gilchrist hopes her initiatives will awaken consciousness against stereotyping; “People who are seeking refuge are almost seen as threatening. People are afraid of that situation and I think this is what also happens on the camps, is that the human aspect is taken out. Everybody’s story is totally personal and each individual is finding their own struggle. I think that people who see the headlines need to actually remember [that], because the headlines generalise the whole crisis [under] one umbrella – ‘refugees’.”
In spite of her opposition towards the media, Gilchrist has published articles for the Huffington Post, and was the subject of a story on the BBC website, where she aimed to counter recurring bias and stereotypical coverage of refugees, and denounce European policies.
Now, Gilchrist is back in the UK ready to turn the next page of her life as a student but she is still embroiled in raising her voice against the abandonment and mistreatment of refugees in Greece and throughout the world. I met her at a conference during Migration Awareness day at the University of Sussex. Throughout the year she is expected to reunite with volunteers who have been involved in camps in Greece in order to raise funds to directly impact people’s lives. I encourage anyone interested in taking part to look out for the next event and if possible, assist. Dinners, concerts and storytelling are the typical kinds of activities brought to you by the volunteer, who remains hopeful for the future as she continues her work and is planning on talking to the youth at schools around the UK challenging the misconceptions towards refugees.
As I mentioned to her the potential humanitarian disaster in Mosul, Northern Iraq, creating more refugees, Gilchrist warned of a high probability that thousands of families will be forced into Turkey. Crossing the Greek border has become mostly impossible due to the high prices of the smugglers. The number of people fleeing is and will increase in the following months especially with forthcoming combats against Daesh (ISIS). I am certain that by the end of this year she will embark in another flight, in the hope of assisting as many as possible.
Meeting Zoe Gilchrist has been eye opening, in the efforts of ordinary people and the measures taken by some where governments are failing – deferring a crisis that will only grow. I cannot be the only one who has been persuaded to believe in and act for change and continue hope for better.
