By Ellen Downes
Sat 22 Jan 2022

On the 22nd of January 2017 I photographed sisters Frlan and Alia while they were living in City Plaza Refugee Accommodation and Solidarity Space in Athens. We were at the time living there together among 400 refugees and activists. Here is our interview from 5 years ago today.

Frlan:
City Plaza is my second home. Here I feel like I’m not a refugee, I feel like I felt in my country before the war, safe.
City Plaza means safety. When I was in the camps I was very afraid. Some people beat me and kicked me (Frlan shows me photos of her bruises and swollen legs on her phone). I felt very afraid and alone in the camps. Here we are safe.)

Alia:
City Plaza is like home. We’re in the centre of Athens, surrounded by mountains, the sun, white buildings. It all looks like Aleppo looked 7 years ago, before the war.

Frlan:
Love, security, relaxed

Alia:
These 3 words are mine too.

Alia:
People here treat us like humans, not just as refugees. We are shown a lot of respect here.

How long was your journey from Aleppo to Athens?

Alia:
We spent about a year travelling here. We went from Syria, to Turkey, to the Greek islands together. It was at a camp on one of the islands that we were separated because Frlan’s papers were stolen from our tent while we were sleeping.

Frlan:
When I was on my own in the camps I saw horrible, terrible things. I came from the war, I was fleeing violence and injustice but there were times that I wanted to go back. All we wanted was to find safety and peace but I didn’t see it in the camps. No respect, nobody helped me, no doctors. I was very afraid in this time (2 months after they were separated Frlan arrived in Athens and heard from a friend that her sister was living at City Plaza).

Alia:
I will miss Olga (member of the coordination team at City Plaza) most of all. She is like my daughter. She feels what we feel, she smiles with us, laughs with us, she’s sad when we’re sad.

Frlan:
Everyone. We are all together as one family here. So many sweet people.

Frlan:
We work in the kitchen like everyone else. We work for 5 hours a week, preparing and serving food.

Alia:
We do all our shifts together, we are always together.

Where is your favourite place to be at City Plaza?

Alia:
The kitchen! I love the atmosphere, everyone working and cooking together.

Frlan:
My room. I feel so glad to be relaxed and safe in my own space after living in the camps. We have hot water, our own space to drink tea and talk. I love to be in our room.

Alia:
The week of Christmas and New Year were the best times here. The parties and the food…

Frlan:
We all made cakes in the kitchen and went outside Plaza together and gave them to people on the streets. On New Year’s Eve we were all on the balconies, almost 400 of us. We watched the fireworks in the sky, we clapped together. And most beautiful of all, people on the streets shouted ‘Happy New Year!’ to us, and we shouted back.

What are your hopes for your future?

Frlan:
I want my country to be in peace. I want to be with my children again (Frlan’s daughter, 22, and son, 19, are living in Germany). I’d like to work again too, I worked as a dental assistant and nanny in Aleppo.

Alia:
I want to be with my husband and children (Alia’s 2 sons, aged 21 and 22, are living in Germany).

Alia:
To me solidarity means togetherness. It means everyone supporting each other regardless of race or religion. We are all one. If I can say a message to anyone reading this from far away from City Plaza: this place is where solidarity really exists. We all live together and share together. As refugees, as humans. We have everything we need to be healthy and safe and live in dignity. I can’t imagine what it would mean if City Plaza had to close.

Frlan:
I woke up this morning and went straight down to breakfast. Then I went to my room and spoke with my son on the phone and then my friends came to have coffee with us.

City Plaza is a hotel in the heart of Athens. It had been empty and closed for 8 years, then in 2015 its doors were reopened. Europe had just closed its borders leaving 65,000 refugees trapped in Greece. Activists occupied the building and madturned it into a home for 400 refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, Kurdistan, Iran, Iraq, Palestine & Pakistan. It provided a safe and dignified alternative to detention centres and camps.

From 2015-2019 this 7 floor building provided a safe and dignified alternative to the inhumane conditions of camps in Greece. City Plaza a refugee accommodation space may now be closed, but its spirit will always live on. It will always exist as an example of how peaceful and constructive a way it is possible to welcome refugees.