Aegean Migrant Solidarity

CPT Aegean Migrant Solidarity (AMS) has had a team on the island of Lesvos, Greece, since 2014. It works with networks and organisations while witnessing and documenting the realities experienced by people on the move at Europe’s borders.

The team’s work is focused on the Criminalisation of Migration, addressing Greek and European policies that treat migrants as criminals rather than individuals seeking refuge or better opportunities, which includes punitive policies, harsh legal repercussions and detention practices, border violence, stigmatising political rhetoric, slow asylum processes; all raising significant human rights concerns. Therefore, the team has put its efforts into organising and participating in campaigns which support people on the move who are systematically criminalised, including those incarcerated.

Courts play a central role in maintaining the border system and its violence, often legitimising anti-migration policies while criminalising migration and solidarity. To address this concern, the team actively monitors trials to document judicial practices, address arbitrary actions, and ensure transparency and accountability while advocating for the fairest possible trial processes. The team also systematically reports on the realities and experiences of people on the move on the European borders of Greece.

The latest report published by the team, “Deadly End,” examines the migrant deaths that took place in the notorious Moria camp in Lesvos. The information gathered about the circumstances of the deaths highlights the conditions that many people on the move had to endure. Deaths inside the Moria Reception and Identification Center, to varying degrees, were directly related to the camp’s living conditions and, thus, inextricably connected to European migration policies. Yet, no one has been held accountable, and in most cases, no investigation has been conducted around the circumstances. Read the report here.

Over the years, Lesvos has had countless human stories to tell: stories of struggle and solidarity and stories of racism, indifference and pain. The CPT Aegean Migrant Solidarity team plays a small part in relaying these stories as a contribution to the mosaic of the island of Lesvos.