… and an opportunity for a chain of transnational actions?
In summer 2025 it will be ten years since the struggle for freedom of movement in the Aegean Sea and along the Balkan route culminated in a historical march of hope. At the beginning of September 2015, thousands of refugees and migrants primarily from Syria gathered at a train station in Budapest-Keleti. Because access to trains was refused by authorities, they decided collectively to walk on highways to the north. They publicly demonstrated their determination to reach their destination cities in northwest Europe, even by foot if necessary.
March of Hope from Budapest
“The images of this march will surely find their place in the iconography of this long summer of migrations: a long line of people who, after a week of waiting, reappropriated their own mobility and collectively left Budapest. Under the impression of these images and the knowledge that a repressive strategy had failed, Germany and Austria announced that they would open their borders and receive the refugees, whereupon the Hungarian government organised the bus transport to the border. Over the course of the weekend, at least ten thousand refugees reached Germany. The borders were finally open.“ (1)
This incredible breakthrough against the European border regime was a hard-fought success of many months of daily fights along this eastern Mediterranean route. In the weeks afterwards, struggles for freedom of movement continued wherever Balkan governments tried to block the people on the move.
People on the Move in September 2015 at the Croatian-Slovenian border Credit: Moving Europe
“Dublin” collapsed and a Corridor from Athens to Stockholm
The ongoing mass arrivals between Turkey and Greece and the dynamics of these weeks not only led to the full collapse of the so-called Dublin system: for the first time, a new corridor from Athens to Stockholm was opened.
For a few months, refugees and migrants could move freely by bus and train through many parts of Europe. Moreover, they were able to choose where they wanted to apply for asylum freely. The enforced suspension of border controls also led the business of smugglers to break down.
The summer of migration proved again that smuggling apparatuses can only exist as long as border guards and Frontex create the conditions for them. When safe passages were opened on the Balkan route, people no longer paid the high costs associated with dangerous and clandestine border crossings. And while people continued to die at sea as a result of closed borders between Turkey and Greece, the death rate fell to a 20-year low in the Mediterranean. In the end, about two million people made it to Europe in 2015/2016, where many were welcomed by solidarity groups at train stations.
Chain of Actions in September 2025?
Various solidarity networks have started to discuss if and in which way the 10th anniversary of the summer of migration and the march of hope could become not only an occasion to remember but also to intervene against the brutalization of borders.
Can we imagine in such times of ongoing rollback and growing rightwing dominance breaking the normalization of death and pushbacks? Is it worth trying to mobilize additional capacities for a chain of transnational actions in September 2025 to overcome the very defensive mood in left wing movements? And if yes, how is it possible to organize interconnected activities between the 10 years of civil sea rescue and the 10 years of summer of migration?
no one is illegal, Hanau
Lesvos in Summer 2015 Credit: Moving Europe
To read further about the summer of migration and the march of hope:
