Long before the pandemic paralyzed the world, tens of thousands of asylum seekers trapped on the Greek island of Lesvos were forced to endure inhumane conditions in camp Moria. Before all the national lockdowns, brazen acts of violence by fascist elements, both local and imported, destroyed long-standing refugee community centers, forcing humanitarian actors to scale back their critical work in support of 25,000 people seeking asylum. In response to peaceful protests led by refugees and locals, police consistently chose tear gas and force.
With Covid flashing across Europe, and international journalists physically locked out of the story, real-time reports from inside Moria came from a collective of refugee citizen journalists training for professional careers with ReFOCUS Media Labs. Their reporting continued throughout the fires that destroyed Moria camp, the homelessness on the streets of Mytilene, and the forcible relocation into a new camp dubbed Moria 2.
“Trapped in the Playground“, an insider perspective through multimedia installation of photography, video and audio elements, conveys an immediate sense of what it means to be a refugee enduring constant uncertainty and danger within the borders of Europe.
All images and multimedia elements were produced by participants of ReFOCUS Media Labs in 2020-2021. Reporting continues from Lesvos, mainland camps in Greece, Central Europe, and new citizen journalists inside Afghanistan have joined the collective.
