North Aegean Region

“I have been in the project since the beginning. Since we started working in the period of the refugee crisis in 2015 we felt strongly the need to connect with other realities in Europe to find all together the solutions of such a massive phenomenon. And when Pietro Pinto contacted us to join this path, with Lampedusa as the leader, it was natural for us to join. We wanted to learn and tell what we had learned from our experience”.

Mary Kostantoglou, director of Eloris S.A., lives the reality of being a ‘border’ on the island of Lesvos first hand. The foundation she heads was established in 1995, focusing on research, education, and development in the North Aegean region of Greece. In addition to the island of Lesvos, other large islands, a few kilometers from the Turkish coast, such as Samos or Chios, are part of it. And it is precisely this that makes them a destination for landings of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers for some time, but since 2015 with a surge in arrivals.

“Common problems, common solutions. It was natural for us to be a part of this. At the beginning I didn’t want to have any particular expectations, but I immediately thought that the network that was born with Snapshots from the Borders was a great opportunity for all of us. And it has been just so,” says Mary. “The fact that we represent an entire region, of course, is different from the participation that a single municipality has, and it’s also different from the common realities of civil society, because our foundation is tied to the region. We were in some ways a unique entity within the project.”

The nature of Eloris S.A. – Society for Research, Education, Innovation and Development of the North Aegean Region is particular. It was founded in 1995 by the Government of the North Aegean Region together with the Regional Association of Municipalities of the North Aegean Region. These two public bodies are the shareholders of the company until today, although it works autonomously from the local authorities, it remains an institutional reality.

“We work with both regional and municipal authorities of the islands and Mytilene in particular, like Lesvos in general, are affected at the forefront of migrant flows. We are practically facing the Turkish coast, it is a part of our lives to be on the border, but this should not become a problem, in fact, an asset,” says Mary. “As a foundation we work on the development of local communities, economically and culturally. The islands are worlds apart. There is a sense of isolation and remoteness that we have to learn to live with and turn into an asset. After my studies in Great Britain I decided to come back here, because living here is a choice, which has its advantages, for example here the economic crisis of the past or the pandemic were less serious”.

Mytilene is the most important center of Lesvos, where a third of the island’s population of about 90 thousand people live. Between 2015 and 2016 alone there were 650 thousand people who arrived from landings on the island, while today there are about 3000 people in the transitional center that replaced the Moria camp (burned in 2020). A complicated situation that has led the whole community to live moments of great solidarity, but also of difficulty.

“The most important moment of the Snapshots project, for me, was the kick-off meeting. The kick-off impressed me, it gave me the opportunity to compare myself with other border regions and cities, to share our experiences,” says Mary, “but also to grasp the differences. Because Lampedusa is not Grand-Synthe. The specific differences and common issues gave me a full picture of the work that can be done here as well.”

In a region that has known the border and migration for as long as I can remember. “The numbers that have affected this area are very different, and much larger, than the rest of Europe. It is not easy to expect only solidarity from our community, which also has not been lacking. But here people feel distant from the central government and Europe, left a bit to their fate. So, the idea is that we need to be in solidarity with the migrants, who don’t want to be here, and with the local population, which sometimes feels imprisoned by this situation. No island is a prison and should never become one. Everyone has the right to be free: migrants and local population. And no one wants Lesvos and the other islands to become prisons.”

A feeling that the Canary Islands, in Spain, and Lampedusa, at times, due to the choices of the central authorities have had. “We want a sustainable solution, in every sense. Human sustainability, economic, for human rights, equal opportunities for all, migrants and locals,” Mery replies.

“The work is not finished, in fact, it is just beginning. Although we represent a region and not a municipality, we want to be in the Board of Towns and Islands Network to continue to work together with the network that was created with Snapshots From The Borders and continue to bring proposals to the Greek central government and European institutions to govern migration flows in a humane and legal way. And governments must listen to our voices, because they are far from here,” Mary concludes.