EMERGENCY AID EUROPEAN BORDERS
European Borders
Borders are guarded with heavy force. MiGreat provides emergency assistance to people left out in the cold by border policies in Lithuania, Poland, Serbia and Bosnia. The focus is on providing medical assistance, food, clothes, sleeping bags, firewood etc. Which are critically needed to survive and complete the journey to Western Europe!
Fleeing or migrating is not only hard, but also life-threatening due to, for instance, hypothermia, lack of food and drinking water, border violence and 'cold torture'. Emergency aid is, therefore, very important. In solidarity, we aim to make the borders a little less deadly and the journey a little less arduous.
Currently, we support two groups financially:
With your donations, we are helping people through the freezing winter. Donate here!
Read more about the criteria we have for funding aid groups below.
Apply for emergency funds
Do you provide emergency aid to people on the move in Lithuania, Poland, Serbia or Bosnia? We could help you with a one-off or monthly donation! We have a few funding criteria for the groups/coalitions/organisations we support. These are related to practical requirements as well as the way you work. But first of all, let us introduce ourselves.
As MiGreat, we believe that people need to be able to move. Our mission is to establish migration as a human right. We challenge the State’s exclusion of non-nationals and advocate for opportunities for migration, especially from the global South towards the EU. We campaign against the brutal EU border regime, which is ineffective, harmful and deadly. As long as these policies do not change radically, we provide emergency aid to people on the move.
Practical requirements
You work with people on the move in Lithuania, Poland, Serbia or Bosnia
You work outside government (camp) facilities
You do not receive government funding
You focus on emergency aid (we do not fund activities related to campaigning, integration, education etc)
Ideally, you also advocate for the rights of people on the move, and/or report on rights violations
Maximum 3 months after you received the money, you fill out a short form to report how you used the received money
We also support groups that are not officially registered
Your annual budget is maximum 100.000 euros
You request maximum 5000 euros (one-off) or 700 euros (per month, for a 6 month time period)
How you work
You regularly assess what the needs of the people are and take their opinions and ideas into account.
Initiatives led by people on the move and / or local people are prioritised.
You work with everyone who needs it, without distinction based on nationality, race, gender, religion or any other distinction. You make sure you have enough to distribute items fairly to all in need.
You work safely and respectfully, both with the staff, local people and the people on the move.
As our main goal is system change, we want to report on the situation where you work and hold those responsible accountable. If you collect information on pushbacks, evictions or other kinds of state violence against people on the move, please share it with us. We also have to explain to our donors where their resources (money, material donations) went. At the same time, we do not want to add too much stress to you, as we know you can spend your time much better than on detailed accounting reports and you need to feel free to decide where the money is most needed.
We try to keep the accounting as simple and straightforward as possible. Please be aware that information you send us can be shared publicly, unless you explicitly ask us not to. Fill out the application form here and send it to info@migreat.org! We will try to get back to you within a month.
Borders are guarded with heavy force. MiGreat provides emergency assistance to people left out in the cold by border policies in Lithuania, Poland, Serbia and Bosnia. The focus is on providing medical assistance, food, clothes, sleeping bags, firewood etc. Which are critically needed to survive and complete the journey to Western Europe!
Fleeing or migrating is not only hard, but also life-threatening due to, for instance, hypothermia, lack of food and drinking water, border violence and 'cold torture'. Emergency aid is, therefore, very important. In solidarity, we aim to make the borders a little less deadly and the journey a little less arduous.
Currently, we support two groups financially:
- Kompas71 in Sarajevo, Bosnia. This organisation runs a small community centre in Sarajevo, where people on the move can receive clothes, food and other items needed to continue their journey. Bosnia is a major transit country on the Balkan route, and people moving through Bosnia towards EU countries Croatia, Slovenia and Italy are often hunted down, robbed, beaten up and forcibly returned to the Bosnian border by European border police.
- Sienos Grupe in Lithuania. Sienos assists people in the border zone between Belarus and Lithuania, bringing them food and other essential supplies to continue their journey. They also monitor and provide legal assistance to people in detention centres. Lithuania has become a transit route for people crossing from Belarus and Russia, and the pushbacks, border violence and detention of irregular migrants by border police has been relentless.
- On an ad hoc basis, we may support other organisations in Balkan and Baltic states and France. Organisations can apply for regular or one-off donations if they meet the criteria.
With your donations, we are helping people through the freezing winter. Donate here!
Read more about the criteria we have for funding aid groups below.
Apply for emergency funds
Do you provide emergency aid to people on the move in Lithuania, Poland, Serbia or Bosnia? We could help you with a one-off or monthly donation! We have a few funding criteria for the groups/coalitions/organisations we support. These are related to practical requirements as well as the way you work. But first of all, let us introduce ourselves.
As MiGreat, we believe that people need to be able to move. Our mission is to establish migration as a human right. We challenge the State’s exclusion of non-nationals and advocate for opportunities for migration, especially from the global South towards the EU. We campaign against the brutal EU border regime, which is ineffective, harmful and deadly. As long as these policies do not change radically, we provide emergency aid to people on the move.
Practical requirements
You work with people on the move in Lithuania, Poland, Serbia or Bosnia
You work outside government (camp) facilities
You do not receive government funding
You focus on emergency aid (we do not fund activities related to campaigning, integration, education etc)
Ideally, you also advocate for the rights of people on the move, and/or report on rights violations
Maximum 3 months after you received the money, you fill out a short form to report how you used the received money
We also support groups that are not officially registered
Your annual budget is maximum 100.000 euros
You request maximum 5000 euros (one-off) or 700 euros (per month, for a 6 month time period)
How you work
You regularly assess what the needs of the people are and take their opinions and ideas into account.
Initiatives led by people on the move and / or local people are prioritised.
You work with everyone who needs it, without distinction based on nationality, race, gender, religion or any other distinction. You make sure you have enough to distribute items fairly to all in need.
You work safely and respectfully, both with the staff, local people and the people on the move.
As our main goal is system change, we want to report on the situation where you work and hold those responsible accountable. If you collect information on pushbacks, evictions or other kinds of state violence against people on the move, please share it with us. We also have to explain to our donors where their resources (money, material donations) went. At the same time, we do not want to add too much stress to you, as we know you can spend your time much better than on detailed accounting reports and you need to feel free to decide where the money is most needed.
We try to keep the accounting as simple and straightforward as possible. Please be aware that information you send us can be shared publicly, unless you explicitly ask us not to. Fill out the application form here and send it to info@migreat.org! We will try to get back to you within a month.