Thick Board #1: Violence at the European External Borders

In the first episode, I talk to Johanna Thomé, Dean Blaževic and Dirk Planert, three people who have been working for refugees on the EU's external border between Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, helping to build emergency shelters and provide basic medical care in the informal camp Vučjak. A camp where conditions are so bad that UNHCR and IOM do not want to become active there because that would be tantamount to recognising these conditions.

"I asked the people in our outpatient clinic at the horror camp Vučjak why they come to Europe and they said that they simply want to live and survive."

Dirk Planert

"For many people, Bosnia is just absolute hell, because they have the feeling that they can't go forward and they can't go back."

Joanna Thomé

"It pisses me off that refugees arriving here are always talked about their fucking usefulness. What's the point? These are people, they're not a regular workforce."

Joanna Thomé

"What these people are doing is completely human. They are looking for a life worth living. Any European sitting on his couch and shouting "refugees out" would do the same if his life wasn't ."

Dean Blaževic