Leros — Escape into Life

Abstract

Ten years ago the Greek island of Leros became notorious throughout Europe as one of the worst examples of the inhumanity of the ‘total institution’ still existing within the European Union. With the expansion of the Union in the next century we may well find more such examples and we will need to apply the lessons learned from the transformation of Leros ‐ both the successes and the unresolved problems. This account by John Henderson and Bob Grove ‐ both of whom were involved in monitoring the reform programme for the European Commission, is inevitably the view of outsiders. It does, however, set the scene for one of the most dramatic processes of escape into ordinary life that has been seen anywhere in the past decade. We hope that in future editions of A life in the day we will be able to persuade the participants to give first hand accounts of their experiences.

Citation

Henderson, J. and Grove, B. (1999), "Leros — Escape into Life", A Life in the Day, Vol. 3 No. 2, pp. 5-10. https://doi.org/10.1108/13666282199900012