Refugee border crossings… with a little help from Facebook!

Facebook helps refugees get organized in pedestrian crossings, offers boat trips too!

The internet, especially social media, are the new tools for refugees on the move so that they know where to go and what to avoid. Greek newspaper Kathimerini points to a Facebook page, titled “Crossing no More”, offering a barrage of information and helping refugees get organized.

One of the posts on the page states: “We, I mean refugees from Syria and Iraq, decided to gather near the Greek-Turkish border and enter the European are on September 15 so as to avoid the boats of death…”

Turkish security forces tried to block thousands of refugees trying to cross the Evros River around Andrianoupolis. Kathimerini reports that there are huge problems at the Evros border. Specifically, around part of the boundaries have been destroyed due to flooding in February.

Former national defence minister Panos Kammenos holds much of the blame for lack of work to fix the problem.

CROSSING

Calling on refugees to travel like tourists

Yachts sailing into the sunset, smiling faces of children on boat trips to Greece fill Facebook pages of makeshift ‘travel agencies’. They are run by traffickers whose goal is to draw refugees desperate to head to Greece.

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