Eric Raimondi

Eric Raimondi, Still I Rise, Greece

My work this summer is coming to an end. When I first envisioned interning with Still I Rise as a Gallatin Global Human Rights Fellow, I was excited to return to this organization because I know the work they do consistently has a positive impact on the people they serve. I wanted to assist Still I Rise in the areas of research and communications, and thanks to the flexibility of the organization agreement, I was able to do that.

As my past blog posts demonstrate, my work has involved a range of tasks, including drafting press releases, researching data and legal developments related to migration, and writing internal and external reports. I wanted to have an impact on the organization while at the same time learn from the work in order to guide my future endeavors. For example, my most recent project was to research and draft a report on the parallels between the EU and Greek asylum legal frameworks. While this experience allowed me to contribute my skills and previous knowledge to Still I Rise, this was also exposure to working alongside human rights researchers.  

Due to unforeseen circumstances, my work ended up being a blend of remote and in person work in the field. For about a month and a half, I was based in Greece to collect testimonies and engage with people involved in the asylum process on the Aegean islands. However, for the remainder of the internship timeline, I was based in other locations and completed the work remotely. When I wasn’t in Greece and worked remotely, I found it more difficult to schedule my time and coordinate all my tasks. Although I was still successful when I worked remotely, I largely preferred the in person work because of the face-to-face interactions with colleagues it offered.  

Overall, I am pleased with my experience with Still I Rise and am more knowledgeable about the human rights field. In the future as I consider other career and academic opportunities, I hope to draw from this informative experience.

Eric Raimondi, Still I Rise, Greece

My first two weeks working with Still I Rise (SIR) has been challenging yet rich. My first week consisted of orientation and a thorough introduction to my responsibilities over the summer. During the course of this week, it has become clearer what kinds of projects I will be working on. My focus this summer will be on reports released by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and how they relate to the Greek context, European Union refugee integration programs in Greece, and the impact of the new Samos camp on refugees. This will give me both the opportunity to focus on my stated interest in carceral camps in Greece while also engaging with other issues that Still I Rise is cares about.

My first task has been to review and analyze a UNCRC report, which was published on June 9, 2022. This report, “Concluding observations on the combined fourth to sixth reports of Greece,” reviews the state of the rights of the child in Greece. SIR has followed the developments of the UNCRC’s review of Greece for at least the last year, as evidenced by a report published by them before the start of my internship. In this most recent report, SIR raised specific concerns regarding de facto detention and inhumane living conditions, deficiencies in age and vulnerability assessment procedures, lack of access to asylum, and lack of services. Now, it is my job to integrate this previous SIR with the UNCRC report published this past week, to help determine if the concerns raised by SIR were confirmed, and to most importantly communicate this perspective in the form of a written press release to funders and other NGOs.

After an initial review, it appears clear to me that the UNCRC has officially acknowledged violations of the rights of the child by the Greek government and has thus confirmed SIR’s concerns regarding the state of refugee children and Unaccompanied Minors (UAMs). I believe these reports constitute a major victory for both SIR and other actors that advocate for the suitable living conditions, services, and access to asylum that are enshrined in the UNCRC.

Although my interests lie in the development of carceral refugee camps in the Aegean, this experience has introduced me to other important dynamics that affect refugees, and I am excited to see where this research project and future ones lead me.

Eric Raimondi, Still I Rise, Greece
My name is Eric Raimondi. Through the Gallatin Global Fellowship in Human Rights Program, I am traveling to Greece, where I will be interning in the advocacy department of the Italian organization Still I Rise and conducting research on Samos island that will complement my work with them. Since Still I Rise used to but no longer is present on the island of Samos, I will be working with them on a hybrid schedule. My tasks with the advocacy department will be to draft press releases, social media reports, and collect information on the ground from other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Greece.

On the island of Samos, human rights are disregarded on an unimaginable scale. This island, as well as the islands of Lesvos, Chios, Kos, Leros, are places of transit through which many refugees and asylum seekers pass on their longer journey to other European countries. These spaces, and significantly how they are designed by the authorities and navigated by refugees and migrants, signify the future of Europe.

For the last seven years, Greece has been in the spotlight in how it manages migration. The old Samos camp, initially a military base that was converted into a reception center, was physically unequipped to house the displaced population, but due to its location on the periphery of the central town, was accessible to the multiple humanitarian NGOs that emerged on the island. Now, both Greece and the European Union (EU) are embarking on a path of segregation and exclusion through new surveillance techniques, heightened security, and physical infrastructure. The new camp, officially named the Closed Controlled Access Centre (CCAC), although still under construction, received the island’s refugee population on September 18, 2021.

Through advocacy work with Still I Rise and research on the new CCAC, my project seeks to use testimonies from refugees and migrants, security guards and camp officials, humanitarian aid workers, and members of the local Greek population to explore how recent changes in camp design, location, and infrastructure impact human rights of the displaced at Europe’s border. What about the EU’s projects to construct new, isolated, and contained camps suggest about the union’s evolution regarding the human rights of displaced populations? How does the physical infrastructure of the camp – and the new technologies of surveillance– reflect and inform the EU’s handling of human rights?