A fire in a sawn oil barrel lights up the street stump where some 30 villagers have gathered. They laugh and have a good time. If food was served it could have been a small village party. A bus slows down. An older men gets on board and checks who is going with them. Then the driver gets the clear sign to drive on. So we have come to a roadblock. Here you just let familiar faces run into the village.
These are not violent people. It is mostly older men and women who have lived here all their lives. In the village of Moria. Unfortunately, there are violent extremists who spread terror on the island by relying on relief workers and journalists. But this text is not about them. At the roadblock we are warmly welcomed as long as we do not film. People are afraid to be portrayed as fascists.
Some migrants who want to pass are stopped. They are shuttled away and allowed to make their way around the village to come home to their camp - which is also called Moria. The camp was built for a few thousand. The idea was that people would be quickly registered and then taken into the EU for asylum testing. But more and more have been staying longer and longer. In the camp Moria now lives 20,000 people. It is starting to approach the island's capital Mytilini, which has 30,000 inhabitants.
A few years ago, the islanders became known for their solidarity, by washing the refugees' clothes, cooking for them and opening their homes in the fall when Europe received a million. Around the fire at the roadblock, several people come to me and tell me where the shoe is pinching. People from the camp steal their chickens, goats. They cut down olive trees with them to fire with. In addition, a chapel outside the village has been vandalized this week, and the villagers say it is the migrants.
Even an older woman who previously helped migrants and refugees testify to a fatigue, perhaps even an exhaustion, that what would be temporary has become everyday. An everyday life that one does not enjoy and cannot influence. The power to change lies outside the island. In Athens, in Brussels and in the other capitals. Many people on the island simply want to get back to their normal, quiet lives.