Greece entry-zones - The Route’s starting points
By Emma Beatrice Farina
From the 10th to the 12th of June, I conducted explorative fieldwork in Patras at the abandoned “Ladopolous” makeshift camp. I was accompanied on the site by a volunteer from a local association assisting refugees. For decades, Patras has been a point of convergence for refugees, who passed through the city either to board ferries or to continue their journey to Western Europe by land.
The abandoned camp is located inside the former Ladopolous paper mill factory. The factory dates back to 1928 and had been a pillar of the city’s economy until its closure in the 1980s. The building was inhabited by refugees from 2016 circa until its definitive eviction in 2023.
The aim of this preliminary research was to establish contacts with local activist and solidarity movements who had worked in the camp, and to document the material traces of the refugees’ presence inside the building. Here refugees appropriated and reshaped the space by setting up living spaces and communal areas to recreate a sense of home and marking the walls with graffiti and drawings.