syrias' best

Ideas arrives today at another refugee centre in the Netherlands where his procedure for a status will start. 

Again, like in the Hungarian prison, he is surrounded by Syrias' best.

eurodac

Ideas is now in the big refugee machine: rows and rows of people, waiting for their intake-meeting of the IND, the Dutch Immigration Service.

 A relief is that his prints do not show up in the database. This means that his choice to allow the Hungarian police to take his fingerprints for illegal border crossing (they kept him in prison for 2 weeks for that) and his refusal to have his prints taken as a refugee worked  out well. 
There are many stories on Whatsapp that fingerprints taken in Hungary for border crossing did show up in the Eurodac database -the Schengen migration database.
And according to the second treaty of Dublin, the first country of entrance, where fingerprints have been taken, has to offer asylum. Which means that when your prints are taken in Hungary, you have to be sent back there. And after 2 weeks of prison, Ideas is not very fond of the Hungarian legal system.
Ideas will soon be transported to a refugee centre somewhere in the Netherlands.

bed

Intake centre Ter Apel: Ideas' bed for the night.

North

Ideas on his way to ter Apel, in the North of the Netherlands,

where he will apply for his refugee status. He's not the only one..

press

Al Jazeera reports on the sunken boat between Turkey and Greece we posted on 2 days ago because we received Whatsapps about it. Of the 4 missing at sea 2 have drowned: death toll 4 total. Not much about it in the press here.

#اللاجئين #السوريين #في #هولندا #وأوروبا#فيديو لتقرير المراكب التي تعرضت للغرق قبل الأمس في بودروم تركيا وللقارب الذي تم تشليح المهاجرين في البحر المتوسط

Posted by ‎اللاجئين السوريين في هولاندا و أوروبا.‎ on woensdag 24 juni 2015

yacht

Ideas says: a yacht for every refugee!

Ideas story

for those interested: Ideas tells the story why he fled from Syria

boat sank

Ideas just received from several sources the message that the weather is bad in the strait between Lesbos and Turkey. There are reports of a raft with 70 people that sank. Until now a boy and a woman are reported drowned and 4 are lost at sea.

MC Donia

It's official now: as we reported last week: Macedonia lets refugees pass! MC Donia was a major pain for many refugees until recently. See below Ideas experience.

(thanks Help for refugees in Molyvos for this posting)

‪#‎refugeesGr‬ are allowed to take trains in Macedonia. legal to enter, catch trains and leave within 72 hours due to law change last week.Come on Greece stop letting them walk and blocking entry to Greek counties near the border, making their lives misery and fraught with danger. Most refugees just want to travel through Greece I have not met any with plans to stay. Let them through!

makeshift refugee centre

Whlle Ideas is typing away to get in touch with a lawyer to apply for his refugee status, 

the Whatsapp group sends a pic of a -from the look of it- makeshift refugee centre in Germany. Ideas has an emailadress now on which you can reach him: ideas@poppeenpartners.nl

tree

The Whatsapp group of Syrians is redhot: people that have already arrived at their destination are exchanging experiences. But there are also still many people walking. Ideas shows me a pic of a Serbian/Hungarian border crossing. At exactly the same spot where Ideas crossed the border, 2 weeks ago. The police is patroling and there are trees to hide behind. I hope the police did not notice the flash.

refugees and tourists

Ideas says: all are welcome!

walking through Serbia

From the Syrian refugee Whatsapp group: at this moment, large groups of Syrians walk through Serbia while insulting the Assad regime. 

World Refugee Day

Ideas says: today is World Refugee Day!

sleep

Ideas' friend M. sends a picture of refugees in Macedonia, just before they go to sleep. Roughly, of course

sticks

Ideas' friend M. sends this picture of refugees with sticks in Macedonia to defend themselves against the mafia. Refugees have no bankaccounts so they use cash and that makes them vulnerabe.

large groups of refugees overwhelm Macedonian authorities

Ideas gets a message via Whatsapp: a large group (600) of refugees entered Macedonia.

The police offers them to charter a train to bring them to Serbia. The refugees don't trust it and ask for advice.
Soundbite from the scene:

on the road

irl

Finally, we meet, after over a month of Whatsapping. Somewhere in Europe, the digital image is replaced by irl. And that's an emotional affair. I realize how much Ideas invested in this project and how much guts he must have to report to us like he did. We keep you posted.

back to Hungary

Another part of Ideas' journey to Vienna apped by him last night. After the police released them at the border in Serbia, his group walked for about 10 hours through the woods, back to Hungary

Finally they reached border city Szeged. Because the Hungarian police actively hunts down refugees, they hid in a room, while police cars were patroling down the road. From here they were transported to Budapest.

in and out of Hungary

Now he is more or less safe, Ideas s playing the movie of the last weeks and first tells about the journey from the prison in the north of Hungary back to Serbia. 

After an exhausting ride they were forced to pay 50 euros and locked up in a small room. In the morning they were set free.

To almost immediately start walking again: same route, over the border, to Szeged, in Hunagry.

bike

For the first time in months Ideas has time to contemplate: he found shelter with firends of friends of friends of his and is safer than he was in a long time. I app from my bycicle and we chat about bikes. 

He makes me curious about how his bike looked when he was thirteen.

selfie

Ideas sends a selfie from Vienna. He's physically ok but mentally less stable. He worries about where to go and is slowly making plans. Much of it will depend on the outcome of his research on the use of fingerprints for crossing the border illegally in Hungary.

fingerprints

There's an important question on both Ideas and my mind: 
Ideas' fingerprints have been taken when he entered Hungary illegally. A judge and 2 translators insisted that this registration won't show up when applying for asylum in a EU country. They claimed that only if you are in the books as a refugee, you get sent back to the country of first entry into the EU to apply for asylum there. The Germans, in some places, don't deport refugees back to Hungary. It can be important for further choices for Ideas. The question is: are prints taken for illegal border crossing in Hungary showing up on the Schengen database Eurodac a reason for deporting you back?

friend

The aforementioned friend of Ideas, just arrived at his destination, sends pictures of the journey. First on the boat from Turkey to Greece..

..and then from one of the three jails he and Ideas have been in..

white

Ideas is still in Vienna, waiting for an opportunity to leave. His travel companion took the -frequently checked by border patrols- train and slipped through. Thank to his main asset: he's white. The border patrol tried to wake him up to ask fir his passport, but he's just a very tight sleeper. So they let him sleep.

Vienna

Today, very early in the morning, Ideas arrived in Vienna. He slept for a while in a park in Budapest and could get a ride to Vienna at night.

He's still afraid of the police and is looking for a way to travel further..

What happened and what do do now?

Because Ideas' phone was confiscated -and returned when he was set free- he could not send the pictures of his border crossing from Serbia to Hungary 10 days ago. First they walked for hours in the pouring rain through the countryside of southern Hungary..

..to get arrested in the city of Szeged, completely exhausted and devastated. This is a picture in the prison bus to Nyirbatori. Ideas: Í did not ask them to cover their face, they were in despair. And tired, I suppose..

Now Ideas has to choose: between crossing the border with the mafia, with a slightly better chance of success or go independantly. With the mafia costs 1500 €. Is there anyone monitoring the mafia in the Balakns? Do they have a chance of being prosecuted like in italy at the moment? I seriously doubt it. 

free

Ideas Whatsapps (in prison he was only able to FB) he's free: He's been deported from the north of Hungary to the north of Serbia. Near the Hungarian border. He will soon croos it again. Aided by the mafia.

and now?

Ideas is biding his time, chatting sometimes and preparing the rest of his journey. He says hsi company is not bad: university professors, doctors and even a tv journalist are with him in prison. I wonder what will become of the but in the meantime, we keep you posted.

meanwhile, on Lesbos

The press has finally ackowledged the situation of the vastly growing numbers of refugees landing on the Greek Isles near Turkey, and the repercussions for the population. Many reports come from exactly the same spot where Ideas landed, more than 3 weeks ago..

http://www.itv.com/news/2015-06-01/migrants-desperate-flight-from-one-life-in-the-hope-of-another/

and even the Dutch press is there: an item by public tv in the Netherlands with quotes of Melinda, who we interviewed also, the day we met Ideas.
http://nos.nl/artikel/2038761-vluchtelingen-bereiken-juichend-grieks-eiland.html

We really hope the world press will not look the other way this summer when more than 100.000 refugees are hiking the devastating route described by Ideas.

Nyirbatori

More photo's of Nyirbatori,  on:
http://www.pictorialcollective.hu/en/archives/1841

Sometimes, Ideas can't help himself and complains:

And also according to USA Today (and teh UNHCR) Nyirbatori has a reputation.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2012-04-24/hungary-refugees-un/54501558/1

to Hungary

Ideas is really afraid to go to Hungary. The Hungarian police actively hunts refugees down. Fingerprints will be taken and a long stay in one of the detentions centres is not uncommon. 

There's an eerie radiosilence of several days and then he Facebooks he's in Nyirbatori Prison, near the Ukranian border in Hungary.

He has to stay for 2 weeks and will then be deported back to the Serbian border, to try it all over again. The whole situation has inflated the mafia in the Blakans to enormous proportions

Belgrade

In Belgrade, Ideas finds it hard to fly under the radar. He tells about friends who have witnessed a killing spree of robbers in MC Donia.

He sleeps with friends of the mafia but, litterally, with a knife at hand.

Serbia

The police in Macedonia finally allowed Ideas to go to the border with Serbia and he crosses it with litle complications, of course always aided by the omnipresent mafia, who facilitate almost all illegal border crossing at an industrial scale..

This is a picture also taken stealthily because the mafia does not want to risk being compromised in any way.

Then he is able to take the bus to Belgrade, from where he will try to cross the border with the Hungarian Republic..