Emma Wallis – Published on : 2019/06/26 – By InfoMigrants
Many refugees and asylum seekers can face discrimination, even on arrival in Europe. For members of the LGBTQI+ community, the threat of violence and discrimination can be even more pronounced. That’s why a project in Greece has been working to create a safe place for LGBTQI+ people in the heart of Athens.
“Right here is where my long journey ended,” says Joseph Baruku staring out at the grey winter waves of the Mediterranean on a seaweed strewn Athens shoreline. Joseph is originally from Uganda. He came via Kenya and Egypt to Greece to escape the discrimination he faced at home. However, Europe was not really his target. “I thought Europe was one country,” he explains.
In Kenya, Joseph experienced similar prejudices towards gay people that he had faced in Uganda, and so he went to Egypt. There, it seems it was a chance meeting with a group of Eritreans which led him to Europe via a container ship to Turkey, he thinks, although he’s hazy on the details of his journey. “I had to cross this deadly sea which has claimed so many people,” he says quietly looking down at the debris gathered on the beach, children’s shoes, rubber boots, lifejackets and old tyres.
Joseph is speaking in a video for his project in Athens, “Athens Housing Collective”, which is a collaboration between him and Safe Place International, a US registered non-profit organization which “seeks to empower refugees, immigrants, single mothers, LGBT+ and other marginalized communities develop and implement projects which benefit their communities.”
