Europe’s Colonial Amnesia & Repercussions
By Henriette Johansen for MEMO - The daily updates I receive from volunteers working in Calais and on the Greek islands of Lesvos and Chios are heart-breaking. As I sat to write this, a volunteer nurse from Denmark described her night shift to me, driving up and down the coast of Chios, turning off all lights with the other volunteers in order to be able to see the refugee boats come in. They stand outside, listening for the smallest sounds over the beating of the merciless winter waves. Another volunteer from Lesbos told me that they sometimes receive as many as 800 to 1,000 people on the Greek island during such night shifts.