On May 1, you can learn more about the poor health conditions of refugees at Europe's borders. It happens when the film festival Global Health Film Days in collaboration with Doctors without Borders Denmark and Weekend Trampoline House invite the public to a film and debate event in the Apostle Church in Copenhagen about the living conditions of refugees and asylum seekers in the notorious Moria refugee camp on the Greek island Lesvos.
This is the second time that Global Health Film Days takes place to focus on global solutions to the global health problems of humans and the planet through film and debate.
Two short films are shown, "Ghosts of Moria" (2022) and "Nothing About Us Without Us" (2022), which reveal the current situation of refugees and asylum seekers in Europe's largest refugee camp, Moria, on the Greek island Lesvos. In 2020, the overcrowded camp burned down, where conditions even before the fire were extremely critical.
"Ghosts of Moria", directed by Michael Graversen & Florian Elabdi, follows the two Syrian friends Khalil and Ayham, who live in the burnt out camp. Here they live in a post-apocalyptic cemetery full of starving cats, whistling rats, and garbage. And every day, they collect metal in competition with other scrap collectors and sell it at a discount to be able to afford to make a little bit of food that can remind them of the time in Aleppo before the civil war forced them to flee. And while waiting in a bureaucratic limbo to get their future decided, a unique friendship created out of a common suffering and a common understanding emerges in their tent.
"Nothing About Us Without Us" is directed by Refocus Media Labs, a collective of young filmmakers caught up in the EU asylum process on Lesbos. The film depicts the struggle of refugees and asylum seekers for survival before, during, and after the fire that destroyed the Moria refugee camp. The film asks a number of questions: How can asylum seekers tell their own stories; how to create counter-images to mainstream media's stereotypical representation of refugees; and how can refugees help shape political discussions in Europe?
The film screenings are followed by a panel debate on the poor health conditions of refugees at Europe's borders with Michael Graversen and Florian Elabdi (directors of "Ghosts of Moria"), Kamma Skaarup (nurse with Doctors without Borders Denmark on field mission in the Moria refugee camp when it burned down in 2020), and Rolin Ali (Syrian refugee who lived in the Moria camp for a period of time). The panel debate is conducted in English.
After the panel debate, you can buy food and refreshments made by Sisters Cuisine, a food club in the refugee community center Weekend Trampoline House, which hosts the event.