Report by Sarah Charlotte and Alexander Sankin

A group of 22 participants gathered in the town of Larnaca, Oct. 24 – 30 this year for a training course to learn and discuss about refugees, borders, religions, social media, related conflicts and how to solve them. The group included participants from 10 countries including Italy, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Greece, France, Germany, Spain and Cyprus.

Team building exercises which included drawing skills and produced a lot of laughter on the first day helped the group to quickly connect. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the issue of crossing borders/migration specifically the situation of refugees, the group had to first learn the definition of the terms “refugees”, “migrants”, and the current European policies dealing with refugees and migrants. In addition, to better understand the background of refugees, we researched specifically Syrian history and culture.

Visiting the Migrant Information Center in Larnaca, we had the chance to have a talk with a consultant working at the center. She shared her experience in working with refugees and migrants with us, and provided us with first hand insights of her work, for example in dealing with underfunded shelters, and also describing cases of specific refugees.

One of the most memorable exercises, at least for me, was when we were required to fill a form requesting asylum in Greek language. For all of us who do not speak Greek, and do not read the language, Greek is not written in Latin letters, the request form, literally, was “greek to us” i.e. incomprehensible, and we were unable to complete the form, and so the request was denied. In essence, bureaucratic requirements irrespective of the objective situation and factual needs barred us from requesting asylum. This simple exercise made us understand very keenly the problems and challenges in the process of seeking asylum, a process which has detrimental consequences on future lives of so many individuals.

In another exercise, we staged a role play. Six players had to play the role of refugees requesting asylum. Another group of players were lawyers of the refugees, and the other players formed the decision board. Each “refugee” character had to apply for asylum and the board members had the task to grant asylum. However, asylum grants were limited to only two. Four refugees had to be turned down. The challenging task for the board was to decide to whom to grant asylum and whom to deny it.

Another role play involved the conflicts arising from different religious affiliations. After we had researched on different religions, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, and Atheism, the task was to find a solution for a family conflict. As family members followed different faiths, the players representing family members in the role play had to find an answer to the question which faith the newborn should follow, an answer that was acceptable to all family member.

The whole week was filled with activities, so it is difficult to pick only a few highlights.

All things considered, the training course helped us to gain a much deeper understanding of the situation of refugees, and cross border migration. Getting to know different viewpoints, and with our different backgrounds, was key in providing a broader outlook on those issues.

Getting to know Cyprus a bit was quite rewarding as well. An island country which has been divided since 1974 and were over 150,000 citizens were relocated and had to cross borders in their own country provided a fitting background to the issues of our training course. Visiting the capital of Cyprus, Nicosia, made us keenly aware of this special situation, as we passed the Green Line from the Greek side to the Turkish checked by border controls. We also had the chance to visit the ancient city state of Kourion and the beautiful harbour city of Larnaca.

Starting each day with an “energizer exercise” brought us lots of laughter and joy as well as the intercultural night were participants had to represent their respective countries by presenting and sharing their national dishes. One of my cherished memories is our Cypriot dinner, which was, as everyone will admit, on of the most delicious dinners.

We are all very thankful to be able to take part in this training experience and would like to thank the organization Citizens in Power, JuBuk, all participants and especially the workshop coordinators, who have made this training a big success and most memorable.

Best regards