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Migration, Diasporas and
Citizenship
Series Editors
Robin Cohen
Department of International Development
University of Oxford
Oxford, United Kingdom
Zig Layton-Henry
Department of Politics and International Studies
University of Warwick
Coventry, United Kingdom
Editorial Board: Rainer Bauböck, European University Institute, Italy;
James F. Hollifield, Southern Methodist University, USA; Daniele Joly,
University of Warwick, UK; Jan Rath, University of Amsterdam, The
Netherlands.
The Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship series covers three important
aspects of the migration process: firstly, the determinants, dynamics and
characteristics of international migration. Secondly, the continuing
attachment of many contemporary migrants to their places of origin,
signified by the word ‘diaspora’, and thirdly the attempt, by contrast, to
belong and gain acceptance in places of settlement, signified by the word
‘citizenship’. The series publishes work that shows engagement with and
a lively appreciation of the wider social and political issues that are
influenced by international migration and encourages a comparative
perspective.
Irregular Afghan
Migration to
Europe
At the Margins, Looking In
Angeliki Dimitriadi
ELIAMEP
Athens, Greece
The research draws from several years of fieldwork, three of which were
made possible thanks to the “IRMA Project: Governing Irregular
Migration: States, Actors and Intermediaries”, led by Professor Anna
Triandafyllidou and funded by the General Secretariat for Science
Research and Technology (GSRT, Greece). The IRMA project enabled
me to undertake my post-doctoral fellowship on Afghan migration to
Greece. I am thankful to GSRT for the financial support and to the
Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) that
hosted the project and has been my intellectual home to this day.
The postdoctoral fellowship would not have been possible without
the initiative and support of my mentor and friend, Professor Anna
Triandafyllidou, to whom I am grateful for the opportunity, collabora-
tion and friendship.
Ideas, thoughts and topics of this book have been presented in
different formats and discussed in various workshops and conferences
across Europe over the past years and I am appreciative of all comments
received.
The writing of parts of this book took place between Athens and Berlin,
where I spent a six month between 2015 and 2016 on a visiting fellowship
at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). Amidst the
“refugee crisis”, the fellowship offered a rare opportunity to see another
setting, a different country also on the receiving end of Afghan migrants.
vii
viii Acknowledgements
I would like to thank ECFR Berlin for the opportunity offered and the
Mercator Stiftung for funding the fellowship.
I am thankful to the all the institutions, and individuals that sup-
ported me in their own way. I am particularly thankful to all the public
officials, NGO representatives, law enforcement officials and volunteers
for setting aside time and sharing their knowledge and insights with me.
Their contribution was invaluable and they assisted me in understanding
the political framework and practices in place, in Greece but also at an
EU level.
I am grateful to Palgrave and the editing team for the willingness to
bring to this book to life, the guidance and good collaboration along the
way.
The book would–quite literally–not have been made possible without
the unflagging support and encouragement of my parents, Effie and
Yannis.
Lastly, I am forever indebted to all those who were willing to share
their journey, hardships, aspirations and dreams of the future. Their
strength was an inspiration. My only wish is they find the hospitable
places they seek.
Author’s Note
extensive personal notes from field visits have been included in painting a
picture of detention sites and reception places. Interviews under “con-
trolled conditions” were coloured inevitably by both mine as well as the
interviewees’ experience of those sites. Access was always granted from the
appropriate authorities and all interviews in detention facilities took place
in separate areas, guaranteeing privacy. All participants offered verbal
consent. Most interviews took place with the presence of an interpreter
either in English and/or Greek. Roughly 85% of the sample was men,
between the ages of 20 and 38, which is representative of the Afghan
population in Greece.
Where names of interviewees are used, they have been changed to
protect their identity and no personal information has been used that
could identify the persons. Law enforcement officials, NGO representa-
tives are also referred to by position rather than name, to ensure their
anonymity per their request.
Explanatory references have been relegated to endnotes, along with
links to relevant websites and media articles.
Contents
2 Deciding to Be Mobile 31
2.1 Capability to Migrate 39
2.2 In Pursuit of Destination 46
References 59
xi
xii Contents
Index 199
List of Figures
xiii
List of Tables
xv
1
Introduction: Delineating the Linkages
Lesvos lies in the far east of the Aegean Sea. It faces the Turkish coast
(Gulf of Edremit) from the north and the east; at the narrowest point,
the strait is about 5.5 km (3.4 mi) wide. In 2015, 500,018 people
reached the island per UNHCR figures, with an average of 3,000
daily arrivals until November 2015. KARA TEPE, the official refugee
reception camp is situated a few minutes’ drive from Mytilene, the
capital city of the island. “We have no migrants here, no refugees. We
only have guests”, says the camp manager in my last visit in July
2016. The camp’s philosophy is that everyone is a guest and should
be treated as such.
Guests, hospitality or Filoxenia–the Greek word for hospitality,
pervaded the discourse throughout 2015. The Greek government struc-
tured its response around the notion of hospitality and humanitarian-
ism; being hospitable to those in need, being welcoming. Hospitality
was intrinsically linked with the idea of transit; one could perhaps afford
to be hospitable to those who were only passing through. A year later,
things gradually changed. Greece transformed into an archipelago of
reception/detention camps. It was not a quick transformation. Rather
the building blocks were set over the past decade, and the arrival of the
1
Carling, Jørgen. 2015. Refugees are also Migrants. And All Migrants Matter. Available online at:
http://bordercriminologies.law.ox.ac.uk/refugees-arealso-migrants/, last accessed 8 January 2016.
2
Malone, Barry. 20 August 2015. Why Al Jazeera will not say Mediterranean ‘migrants’, available
online at: http://www.aljazeera.com/blogs/editors-blog/2015/08/al-jazeera-mediterranean-
migrants-150820082226309.html, last accessed 7 September 2015.
3
Taylor, Adam. 24 August 2015. Is it time to ditch the word ‘migrant’?, available online at:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/08/24/is-it-time-to-ditch-the-
word-migrant/?utm_term=.cec095467ce2, last accessed 29 October 2015.
4
Munro, Jonathan. 21 August 2015. Why the BBC uses the word ‘migrant’. available online at:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/08/24/is-it-time-to-ditch-the-
word-migrant/?utm_term=.cec095467ce2, last accessed 21 March 2016.
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guide our men, who presently straggled in two or three at a time, till
all had arrived, with the exception of Jumbi, his assistants, and the
animals. As they had not turned up at ten o’clock in the evening, we
got out a large signal rocket, and after some searching found a
suitable stick and set it off.
Something, however, went wrong, as instead of ascending the
rocket described a low curve in the air and then pitched into the dry
grass in front of the camp, instantly setting it into a blaze. We had to
bestir ourselves then. It took us an hour of hard work coupled with
some small amount of profanity to get the flames subdued.
The humour of the situation then struck us, and we laughed till our
sides ached, to the great astonishment of our poor perspiring men,
who could not see anything funny in it at all. Another rocket was then
sent up with better results, as it ascended to a great height and burst
most satisfactorily with a loud report and a shower of multi-coloured
stars. It answered its purpose, as half an hour afterwards Jumbi and
his assistants came in with the animals, all dead beat, having been
over fourteen hours on the road.
FOOTNOTES:
[8] Professor J. W. Gregory, D.Sc. Lond., “The Great Rift
Valley,” pp. 322 and 325 (1896).
[9] W. C. Harris, “Particulars concerning the Great River Gochol
and the Countries adjacent thereto from Native Information
collected in the Kingdom of ‘Shoa.’” Trans. Bombay Geog. Soc.,
vol. vi. (1844), pp. 63, 64.
[10] Leon des Avanchers, “Esquisse Geographique des pays
Oromo ou Galla.” Bull. Soc. Geog. Paris, ser. 4 (1859), map and
p. 164.
[11] J. L. Krapff, “Travels, Researches, and Missionary Labours,
etc., in Eastern Africa” (1860), pp. 43-45.
[12] P. Rigby, “Remarks on the North-East Coast of Africa, and
the Various Tribes by which it is Inhabited.” Trans. Bombay Geog.
Soc., vol. ii. (1844), p. 80.
CHAPTER XI.
DOWN THE WASO NYIRO ONCE MORE.
Just before sunset George spotted a possibly likely place for the
descent. It certainly looked desperate enough, but by this time we
were beyond counting the risks. We scrambled down, therefore,
leaping from boulder to boulder, and every few moments having to
stop in order to cut ourselves free with our knives from the clinging
embrace of the ubiquitous “wait-a-bit.” Our clothes and skin suffered
terribly, but we were determined to reach the bottom somehow, and
plunged and scrambled downwards, regardless of minor personal
injuries. Halfway down we heard a shot from among the greenery
near the river, which I recognized as El Hakim’s ·450. I answered it
with another shot in order to apprize him of our presence, and
continued the descent. Finally we reached the bottom, breathless
and bleeding, our clothes literally in ribbons. The donkeys and cattle
followed us, scrambling down in some remarkable manner, though
how I could not stop to inquire. Most probably they, like ourselves,
were induced by the sight of the green vegetation and the smell of
water to attempt a descent which at any other time they would never
have faced.
Another three-quarters of an hour over the flat brought us to the
spot where El Hakim was already camped. The report we had heard
had been the death-knell of a Waller’s gazelle (Lithocranius Walleri),
which was at once divided among the men, so that they had at least
a taste of meat to go on with—we ourselves dining on two guinea-
fowl, one of which I had shot on the road, the other having been
secured by El Hakim. We were all tired out, and turned in
immediately we had finished eating. The tents were not needed, the
climate being so mild. Indeed, from now onwards, till we were once
more at this point on our way back to Kenia, we did not need to use
the tents at all, except for the sake of privacy.
FOOTNOTES:
[13] The rinderpest has all but exterminated the buffalo and the
eland in British East Africa, as elsewhere on the African continent.
CHAPTER XII.
IN THE RENDILI ENCAMPMENT.