UN special envoy Angelina Jolie receives riotous welcome in Greece

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UN special envoy Angelina Jolie receives riotous welcome in Greece



PIRAEUS: -- Angelina Jolie is no stranger to the spotlight, but the Hollywood actress received a riotous welcome on a trip to Piraeus port, near Athens, to highlight the plight of refugees and migrants.

As United Nations special envoy, Jolie’s mission was to boost efforts by the UN’s refugee agency and the Greek government to “reinforce efforts by UNHCR and the Greek government to step up the emergency response to the deteriorating humanitarian situation,” she said in a press release.

Her visit came a day after the fifth anniversary of the start of Syria’s civil war.

A makeshift camp at the port hosts thousands of refugees from the Middle East, but also irregular migrants.

Euronews reporter Panos Kitsikopoulos sent an update on the situation nationwide.

“Angelina Jolie’s visit to the Piraeus port gave hope to the roughly 4,000 people hosted here. In the whole Attica region, we have almost 12,000 refugees and migrants, while there are around 45,000 in the whole of Greece. In Idomeni over 11,000 people have been registered, while the Greek government is preparing measures for an imminent evacuation of the area — a request also made by local authorities. Furthermore, at Thursday’s summit in Brussels, Athens is going to put financial demands on the table,” he said.

Mahmoud, a Syrian at the port, told euronews:
“We are very pleased that Angelina came to visit, to see the Syrian refugees. We give thanks to Greece and its people.”

Panos Kitsikopoulos asked Ahmed, from Afghanistan, where he sees himself five years from now.

“As soon as the borders open and we go to a country, then we can say that we will have a future. But still we don’t know. We are in a dark place,” he responded.

Jolie was later received by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in Athens and from there is eventually expected to travel north to the Idomeni camp on the Macedonian border.






-- (c) Copyright Euronews 2016-03-17

[canuckamuck]

This is exactly what the situation requires, an actress.

[NongKhaiKid]

Her visit gave ' hope ' but should that not read false hope ?

I wonder what ' I'll do this / speak to ... / arrange ' etc BS she told the migrants who would go away believing because Angelina said it.

I saw this in Hong Kong with the Vietnamese Boat people when visitors, usually US politicians, went to the camps and spouted complete crap about what they would do often resulting in the VBP refusing to co-operate with govt plans because they really believed the last visitor was the knight in shinning armour who would get them resettlement when in fact no country wanted them.

[Scott]

Her visit gave ' hope ' but should that not read false hope ?

I wonder what ' I'll do this / speak to ... / arrange ' etc BS she told the migrants who would go away believing because Angelina said it.

I saw this in Hong Kong with the Vietnamese Boat people when visitors, usually US politicians, went to the camps and spouted complete crap about what they would do often resulting in the VBP refusing to co-operate with govt plans because they really believed the last visitor was the knight in shinning armour who would get them resettlement when in fact no country wanted them.

That's interesting. I worked in those camps and I never saw any politicians from anywhere near those camps. They were closed camps and visitors were restricted.

As far as Angelina Jolie is concerned, she is one of the few people who has a history of taking a refugee or two home with her. If there are any orphans in the bunch, they just may have found a new Mama.

[NongKhaiKid]

Her visit gave ' hope ' but should that not read false hope ?

I wonder what ' I'll do this / speak to ... / arrange ' etc BS she told the migrants who would go away believing because Angelina said it.

I saw this in Hong Kong with the Vietnamese Boat people when visitors, usually US politicians, went to the camps and spouted complete crap about what they would do often resulting in the VBP refusing to co-operate with govt plans because they really believed the last visitor was the knight in shinning armour who would get them resettlement when in fact no country wanted them.

That's interesting. I worked in those camps and I never saw any politicians from anywhere near those camps. They were closed camps and visitors were restricted.

As far as Angelina Jolie is concerned, she is one of the few people who has a history of taking a refugee or two home with her. If there are any orphans in the bunch, they just may have found a new Mama.

They were not all closed camps, there were open ones such as in Tuen Mun for example where the Viets with permission could go out freely between certain hours.

If the VBP were locked up all the time how come so many were arrested in areas such as Mong Kok and Tim Shaw Tsui for street crime like purse / necklace snatching, pickpocketing etc ?

Edited March 17, 2016 by NongKhaiKid

[Scott]

This topic isn't about the Vietnamese refugee camps, but the only open camps were the ones for those who had already been screened in and were awaiting resettlement. There was also one on a remote island that was open, but there was no access on or off the island. The largest of the detention centers, Whitehead, was absolutely closed and there was not even movement of detainees between the various sections of the camp. Access was permitted only by the police and transport to and from the camp was provided only by the police.

[apetley]

This is exactly what the situation requires, an actress.

Sadly it seems to be the way of the world that the best way to bring a humanitarian problem to the masses attention is to involve celebrity.

Bob Geldoff and Live Aid helped bring the Ethiopian famine to the world's attention. A Thai soap star dying of Dengue put the disease on the front page for weeks rather than a minor paragraph at the bottom of page 7.

Until politicians actually give a f*** more power to her I say.

[Hayduke]

The AJ person is probably well intentioned but she also comes across as dramatically self-centered and more than a little sanctimonious.

So she could be on a wonderful goodwill mission to save the world...

But it's also possible she's playing attention whore (again) and/or shopping ("Look Brad, do we have one in that color?") for a new 'trophy' kid.

I certainly hope it's the former.

Edited March 17, 2016 by Hayduke

[kamahele]

The UN utilizes actors as enfoys for good reason. Will the press follow a career diplomat experience in handling refugees? Not so likely but they will follow a famous and beautiful actress. So good on Angelina and the UN for keeping the press focused on this important issue.

[i claudius]

Just another luvvie that lives in an area where they never see an immegrant ,except maybe the guy that guards the gate to their Beverly hills mansion . SHUT UP AND GET ON WITH YOUR ACTING ,OH SORRY ,YOU WERE .

[MockingJay]

An actress, born and raised in the country that initiated and kept the the Syrian civil war going ever since, certainly will help to change things to the better. The whole world has gotten crazy...

[MockingJay]

The AJ person is probably well intentioned but she also comes across as dramatically self-centered and more than a little sanctimonious.

So she could be on a wonderful goodwill mission to save the world...

But it's also possible she's playing attention whore (again) and/or shopping ("Look Brad, do we have one in that color?") for a new 'trophy' kid.

I certainly hope it's the former.

Love your post - said everything I wanted to say but couldn't find the right words for.

Edited March 17, 2016 by MockingJay

[billd766]

This is exactly what the situation requires, an actress.

I think that she has done far more things in her life than just being an actress and far more than you will ever do in your lifetime.

If you turned up in Greece would you get the kind of welcome that she has?

What have you achieved in the same period of time?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelina_Jolie

Jolie was named a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador at UNHCR headquarters in Geneva on August 27, 2001

Over the next decade, she went on more than 40 field missions, meeting with refugees and internally displaced persons in over 30 countries.^[96] In 2002, when asked what she hoped to accomplish, she stated, "Awareness of the plight of these people. I think they should be commended for what they have survived, not looked down upon."^[92] To that end, her 2001-02 field visits were chronicled in her book Notes from My Travels, which was published in October 2003 in conjunction with the release of her humanitarian drama Beyond Borders.

Jolie aimed to visit what she termed "forgotten emergencies," crises that media attention had shifted away from.^[97] She became noted for travelling to war zones,^[98] such as Sudan's Darfur region during the Darfur conflict,^[99] the Syrian-Iraqi border during the Second Gulf War,^[100] where she met privately with U.S. troops and other multi-national forces,^[101] and the Afghan capital Kabul during the war in Afghanistan, where three aid workers were murdered in the midst of her first visit.^[98] To aid her travels, she began taking flying lessons in 2004 with the aim of ferrying aid workers and food supplies around the world;^[15][102] she now holds a private pilot license with instrument rating and owns a Cirrus SR22 and Cessna 208 Caravan single-engine aircraft.^{[103][104][105]}

On April 17, 2012, after more than a decade of service as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, Jolie was promoted to the rank of Special Envoy to High Commissioner António Guterres, the first to take on such a position within the organization. In her expanded role, she was given authority to represent Guterres and UNHCR at the diplomatic level, with a focus on major refugee crises.^[106] In the months following her promotion, she made her first visit as Special Envoy—her third over all—to Ecuador, where she met with Colombian refugees,^[107] and she accompanied Guterres on a week-long tour of Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, and Iraq, to assess the situation of refugees from neighboring Syria.^[108] Since then, Jolie has gone on a dozen field missions around the world to meet with refugees and undertake advocacy on their behalf.

[mcfish]

This is exactly what the situation requires, an actress.

I bumped into her the other day and she was asking about you, are you still in that 4k condo and how is the mongering going?

[canuckamuck]

Strange how folk who earn zillions of $ from acting, singing, weight lifting, are taken seriously because of the amassed $.....Strange that...

If only they would listen to you and me Trans.

[Scott]

Strange how folk who earn zillions of $ from acting, singing, weight lifting, are taken seriously because of the amassed $.....Strange that...

If only they would listen to you and me Trans.

Hey, come on, be fair. I always listen to you guys. Of course, I have to.

The difference between you guys and Angeline Joline is, I listen to you guys, but I REALLY pay attention to her!

[canuckamuck]

Strange how folk who earn zillions of $ from acting, singing, weight lifting, are taken seriously because of the amassed $.....Strange that...

If only they would listen to you and me Trans.

Hey, come on, be fair. I always listen to you guys. Of course, I have to.

The difference between you guys and Angeline Joline is, I listen to you guys, but I REALLY pay attention to her!

Lets not bring big boobs into this..............

Are you feeling OK Trans?

Edited March 17, 2016 by canuckamuck