What does #LeaveNoOneBehind?

#LeaveNoOneBehind is solidarity in action for people on the move! We become active where states fail to act.

Solidarity in action with #LeaveNoOneBehind means: We support people on the move and initiatives who do the same.
We try to react quickly in crisis situations and provide a platform for active initiatives and organizations at the EU’s external borders and beyond.

The year 2020 was marked by the beginning of the pandemic: while people were supposed to stay at home, there were many refugees who neither had a home nor could socially distance themselves. In the Greek camp of Moria, 20,000 people lived in a camp with capacity for about 3,000 people before the pandemic began. In a confined space, without adequate sanitation and access to medical care, adequate protection from the virus was impossible. 

With more than 100 people from media, culture and civil society organizations, we therefore launched the #LeaveNoOneBehind campaign to draw attention to the catastrophic situation, enforce the evacuation of the overcrowded camps and raise funds for humanitarian projects.

In the fall of 2020, the largest camp in the EU burned down completely. When this obvious failure of Europeans asylum politics did not lead to a rethinking, it became increasingly evident that our work was needed in the long term: To provide the civil society and the many small NGOs at the EU’s external borders a structure capable of supporting educational as well as fundraising campaigns administratively, financially and creatively. Out of this need, the #LeaveNoOneBehind campaign grew since September 2020 into a support structure that not only raises funds for small NGOs and initiatives, but also does political education and launches its own projects and actions in crisis situations. The full-time team of #LeaveNoOneBehind is based in Berlin.

Where are we operating by now?

  • The European External Borders, where we campaign against the EU’s deadly policy of closure. Every day, people on the move are subjects of border violence, their rights violated in brutal pushbacks, during the dangerous crossing of the Mediterranean or in inhumane camps. Our areas of operation are: The Greek islands, the Croatian-Bosnian border, the Belarusian-Polish border and the central Mediterranean.
  • In Afghanistan, where since the Taliban took power, no federal reception program appropriate to the situation in Afghanistan has been created. With the Kabul Luftbrücke, we are helping vulnerable people to flee.
  • In Ukraine, we are providing emergency aid in the wake of Putin’s deadly war of aggression, together with our partner organizations.
  • In Turkey and northern Syria, we support by delivering relief supplies after the severe earthquakes.

Here you can find an overview ourown projects and oursupported projects.

Our mission

  1. We advocate solidarity at the European external borders and in places where people on the move are left behind or their rights violated.
  2. We step up when countries fail to do so.
  3. We step in with our own teams anywhere where people are forgotten.
  4. We support local aid organizations, offer a platform for solidarity projects and create a critical public with our educational work.
LeaveNoOneBehind Team

What does LNOB do with the donations?

One of the main focuses of our work is to promote civil engagement on these issues and to raise funds for projects on the EU’s external borders, in the central Mediterranean, in Afghanistan, in Ukraine and in newly emerging hotspots through targeted fundraising campaigns.

These funds are used in numerous projects:

  • Emergency aid with food, clothing, medicine or medical equipment
  • Coordination and documentation platform for emergencies and dangerous situations in the Mediterranean Sea
  • Support for civilian sea rescue and observation missions
  • Evacuation missions in crisis areas
  • Support for educational programs in camps and Afghanistan

It is important for us to build a support structure without stabilizing the unsustainable conditions. We do not want to make up for the shortage, but to abolish it. A non-profit association alone cannot alleviate or abolish the suffering at the European external borders and the politically intended structural isolation – but it can intervene within the scope of the possibilities and actively support the people seeking protection.

More detailed information on where and how donations are used can be found in our annual reports.