Fates

A workshop starts in Velos.  Two UK volunteers fill the place with colourful crochet threads and young people get really busy with knitting.  As I follow them repeating crochet movements and patterns, I catch myself almost getting mesmerised – and my thoughts start drifting.

In ancient Greece Moires or Moirai, often known in English as the Fates (Clotho the spinner, Lachesis the allotter, and Atropos the ‘unturnable) – were the incarnations of destiny.  They were the ones weaving the thread, the thread of life, and decided the fate of every human’s life.  They had power over the future.

I caught myself wondering: what are the “Moirai” of today for a refugee?  Are Moirai the Eurogroup summits, bilateral agreements, laws and regulations the ones that define, on a daily even basis, an increasingly stringent field of movement and action for refugees, to a point where it seems impossible for the latter to choose the shape of their future.

As I follow the movements of the needles, it is impossible not to think of how places like Velos, at least symbolically, point towards this desire, that one should be allowed to create one’s own future.  It is a place where, with whatever resources available, at least thought and hope of a better future, are woven together.

Georgia Lambovitiadi, Political Scientist, Velos Volunteer