Funded Projects

On Easter Monday 2020, 47 people were rescued by the association SMH in Maltese waters from a inflatable boat in distress and brought to Sicily. In Palermo, the ship was subsequently detained by the Italian authorities. The Safe Passage Foundation covers the additional costs incurred by SMH during the detention.

No Name Kitchen´s goal is to support all human beings on their right to seek a better future. The organization is specialized in border-areas where people on the move are facing the difficulties of crossing borders and being pushed back, providing humanitarian assistance (food and healthcare, e.g.) and reporting border violence to raise awareness and advocate for a change in policy-making.

Medical Volunteers International e.V. has been providing medical aid for people on the move with volunteers from all over the world at three locations in Greece since 2016. They are one of the few medical organizations that were continuously active during the peak phase of the Corona pandemic. There are still additional costs due to the pandemic (especially protective clothing and disinfectants). On the other hand, MVI plans to further develop its own work (expansion to other camps, establishment of a placement platform for interpreters from the refugee community). Both areas "Covid 19 response" and "Further development of work on the ground" are improving the situation for people on the move in Greece as a whole.

In the Aegean Sea, the rights of refugees are increasingly disregarded, as they are repeatedly and with growing brutality pushed back to Turkey by the Hellenic coast guard. The Sea and Rescue Foundation supports Mare Liberum to expand the association's human rights monitoring in the region. By co-financing a second ship (50,000 Euros) and covering the most important repair costs (10,044 Euros), Mare Liberum will be able to document the human rights situation directly at the sea border. The aim is to gain a better insight into the human rights situation off the smaller Greek islands, such as Kos, Samos and Chios, which are less in the spotlight, in addition to the situation observed so far for refugees off Lesbos.

Equal Rights Beyond Borders is a human rights organisation that is strongly committed to protect the rights of migrants. We focus on family reunification, the protection of unaccompanied minor refugees, unlawful detention and serious human rights violations. We run offices on the East Aegean island of Chios, in Athens, in Berlin and from 2020 on Kos. We represent people throughout Greece and Germany towards authorities, such as the respective asylum service, and before national and European courts.

Northern Lights Aid (NLA) is a small NGO that supports the residents of the Perigiali Refugee camp in Kavala, Greece. With the distribution of food, clothing, hygiene items and other material, NLA aims to ensure basic living needs of the beneficiaries. Located just a walking distance from the camp, Northern Lights Aid provides safe environment to learn, create, and socialize, through English classes, skill-sharing workshop, community-garden and a professional free clothing store. Working closely with locals as well as the camp residents, NLA aims to promote social inclusion and solidarity within the community. The recently expanded emergency relief program supports particularly vulnerable families with assistance for food, medicine, and transport to ensure a smooth asylum process.

In the current context of inhumane isolation and migration policies, the organization Lesvos Solidarity plans to expand its advocacy and outreach activities. The funded project aims to ensure better coordination between key actors on the island of Lesvos and to build proactive strategies and collaborations across Europe.

Infomobile is an anti-racist grassroots organization - active in Greece for more than a decade. The focus of their work lies on direct support for people on the move, for example in their struggle for the right to stay, the journey to other EU countries and family reunifications. For this purpose, the organization offers legal advice and, in exceptional cases, legal assistance. Infomobile also documents human rights violations on its blog, such as forced returns to Greece, pushbacks to Turkey, the inhumane conditions in the hotspot camps of the Aegean islands and on the mainland, as well as police violence and evictions.

Since March 2020, Josoor has been caring for and supporting refugees in Turkey. In addition, the association documents human rights violations and violence at the EU external borders with Turkey, both on land and in the Aegean Sea. They advocate a humane asylum and migration system and cross-border international solidarity. As part of the Border Violence Monitoring Network and in cooperation with international media, they particularly publish the illegal and violent pushbacks from Greece and Bulgaria.

With this project, people on the move, asylum seekers and refugees in Serbia will have access to free legal aid and social support. It will target mostly the ones who are outside the asylum system and therefore are fully unaware of their rights, obligations and their status in Serbia. This project will also collect testimonies on the violent push-backs from EU Member States and police violence. Last but not least, it will monitor and provide legal assistance to humanitarian workers and activists in cases of the criminalization of humanitarian work and solidarity.