ABSTRACT
In two decades of covering migrant and refugee flows across Northern Greece for a regional newspaper as well as one of the world's largest news agencies, the author of this chapter was often moved by the local villagers’ warm welcome for desperate newcomers – giving dry socks to migrants who had just come across the river bordering Turkey or offering to take in for a bath or shower the tens of thousands of refugees stuck in the tent city of Idomeni after the route north from Greece was blocked. This essay traces those solidarity experiences and the author's personal unforgettable encounters with refugees such as day-old babies in mud-ringed tents or Iraqi men beaten by police when the borders closed – heartrending stories of perseverance and betrayal that were often ignored in a public sphere awash with negative news of dubious veracity, where tabloids pandered stories of “blood, sperm, lies.”
