“Why won’t they let us leave? Do they want us to die here?” A Syrian man, age 70 from Aleppo In January in the north of Greece, the border with Macedonia was shut down, blocking the Balkan route and leaving 46,000 men, women and children stranded in the middle of winter under appalling sanitary conditions and cold rainy weather. “Idomeni has been reduced to a dead end, a synonym for despair and suffering, a place where thousands of families have nothing to do but wait. I’ve watched them day after day growing weary, losing their minds, being swallowed whole by this inhuman camp. They lack even the bare necessities and live amidst garbage and sewage. They sometimes get aggressive just to get their hands on a bit of food. Their days are employed in satisfying their basic needs —water, food and warmth— and waiting. But waiting for what?!” A volunteer at Idomeni