Reaching Mithymna : among the volunteers and refugees on Lesvos Cover Image

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Reaching Mithymna : among the volunteers and refugees on Lesvos / Steven Heighton.

ISBN: 9781771963763
ISBN: 177196376X
Physical Description: 274 pages : illustrations, map ; 21 cm
Publisher: Windsor, Ontario : Biblioasis, 2020.
Copyright: &copy;2020.

Heighton, Steven, 1961- (author.).

Summary:

"In the fall of 2015, Steven Heighton made an overnight decision to travel to the frontlines of the Syrian refugee crisis in Greece and enlist as a volunteer. He arrived on the isle of Lesvos with a duffel bag and a dubious grasp of Greek, his mother's native tongue, and worked on the landing beaches and in OXY-—a jerrybuilt, ad hoc transit camp providing simple meals, dry clothes, and a brief rest to refugees after their crossing from Turkey. In a town deserted by the tourists that had been its lifeblood, Heighton-—alongside the exhausted locals and under-equipped international aid workers—-found himself thrown into emergency roles for which he was woefully unqualified. From the brief reprieves of volunteer-refugee soccer matches to the riots of Camp Moria, Reaching Mithymna is a firsthand account of the crisis and an engaged exploration of the borders that divide us and the ties that bind."-- from publisher.