up in the air
For more than six weeks, Greek debt crisis refugee Athanasios "Sakis" Tsitiridis and his family have been living in the check-in area at Terminal 1, section A of Munich International Airport.
The 40-year-old radio DJ from Thessaloniki left his home in 2008 when the global financial crisis first hit Greece and he lost his job. Together with his 37-year-old Bulgarian girlfriend Albena Haralampieva, he came to Germany in search of a better life. Albena's son Nikola Rumenov Iliev, then ten years old, went to Bulgaria to live with his grandmother.
Since their arrival in Germany, Sakis and Albena have been getting by with odd jobs lasting from a few days to a couple of weeks. They have not been able to find permanent employment or even accomodation. Between jobs, they keep returning to Munich airport where they collect bottles and return them for deposit money to make a living.
On October 18, 2012, now 15-year-old Nikola joined them in Munich because his grandmother could not afford to feed him any longer. After appealing for help in vain to every government agency and exhausting all their options, they are left with nothing but the hope for a miracle to happen.