I am an academic and I have been working with people displaced by war and other intolerable conditions for several years. I first met this wonderful Syrian family - mum (a teacher), dad (an engineer), and their three young children - when they had just arrived in Athens in 2018. They want to work, speak English, and have been teaching themselves Greek. They survived in the squats for some time, always cheerful and hopeful, trying hard to fill in the relevant paperwork to obtain the necessary documents to be able to work, pay tax, and contribute. Since then, Greece has elected a right-wing government.

Along with hundreds of other families with young children, my family were violently evicted from the squat at 4am, without warning, and detained in a camp, far away from the municipal city centre. This too, they endured with dignity and hope for more than two years. Recently, they obtained residency documents but these give them no recourse to public funds or housing in Greece. They are now being evicted from the camp and told to fend for themselves. But with no options - no right to work, no housing, no money, no capacity to travel anywhere else, they are forced into abject poverty, through no fault of their own.

I am raising funds to help my family rent a small, inexpensive apartment and to buy food. Thank you very much for even the smallest of donations (just £2 goes a long way to buy fresh vegetables in Greece). People deserve so much better. I will post regular updates here so that supporters are kept informed. Inshallah/thank you.