source/sign the petition at http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/free-milena-ivanova-now.html

Free Milena Ivanova Now!

Background (Preamble):

We are witnessing yet another incident of a legal indictment for Milena Ivanova, a Bulgarian national, an EU citizen. Her adventure gives ground for our concern over abuse of power and violation of human rights and liberties practiced by the State. Therefore it is of utmost importance for citizens to have a sense of duty to defend the rights and liberties of all people visiting or living in our Country.

THE CASE IS THIS

In 2002, Milena was tried in court because her working visa had expired and she hadn’t been registered for a health card. She was sentenced to 30 days in prison with parole. She was tried again in 2006, in absentia, under the same indictment and thus her sentence rose to 10 months in prison, a 1500 euro fine. The court ordered for her deportation in 2009 when she returned to Greece where she was to be arrested by the police. She resorted to any remedies, but the court ignored her legally justified claims, this resulting in her arrest, detention and impending judicial deportation.

THIS

is a case of violation of the Rights of Man, as she was tried in court and sentenced twice for the same offense.

ALSO

The legal ground for the “crime” of illegal entry into Greece from Bulgaria is now null and void, since Bulgaria has become a member of the European Union!

The above incident of violation of the rights of a working student, a citizen of the European Union, raises high concerns for the State’s abuse of power, in a period of time that such incidents of state arbitrariness and violation of the rights of immigrants tend to multiply as a result of the declared government dogma of “Zero Tolerance”.

We the Undesigned, demand the immediate release of Milena Ivanova, currently under detention in the Police Department of Zakynthos and the annulment of her sentence of this “crime” whose legal ground is now null and void!

Zakynthos, Greece November 11, 2009

To provide your signature and support, you may also contact:

thankara@yahoo.gr

mariahaikali@yahoo.gr

C’est sans doute un effet de l’hiver qui approche, du soleil incliné, de la lumière diminuée…
Je n’ai jamais aimé novembre qu’il faut traverser dans la grisaille pour gagner décembre et voir les merles aller et venir sur les pelouses et faire des projets d’avenir. On sent alors un frémissement, le basculement vers des jours plus longs, plus lumineux. Et puis on est pris par les fêtes de fin d’année.
Mais quand arrivent novembre et les premiers froids sombres et mouillés, on sent, inquiet, qu’il va falloir subir. Subir et patienter.
Et puis, novembre officialise, fête le souvenir de nos morts et nous rappelle notre faiblesse d’êtres humains conscients de leur vulnérabilité.

La mort, inéluctable, qu’il nous faut savoir accepter, penser et « vivre » chaque jour pour donner du sens, de la densité, du prix à notre vie.
Mais justement, il est des moments, des périodes où on doute de pouvoir faire de sa vie quelque chose de plus fort que le néant, qui aille au-delà de nous-mêmes, qui nous transcende, nous porte et que l’on transmet, confie à d’autres, comme un projet précieux vers un idéal humain.

Ainsi, notre vie ne se limite pas aux dates de notre naissance et de notre mort.
Nous avons vécu plusieurs mois d’une vie intra utérine que l’on sait, que l’on sent avoir été dense et importante. Et bien avant notre conception, nous étions déjà vivants dans le désir d’enfant de nos parents, dans leur besoin vital de transmettre.

Les tout petits que nous engendrons et mettons au monde sont ce défi, ce projet permanent et conscient de l’homme, de se survivre malgré sa précarité.

Et bien sûr, c’est ici et maintenant, en ce lieu et en ce temps qui nous sont dévolus, et non dans un au-delà temporel, que chacun de nous doit forger de son mieux, son œuvre de vie.

« La mort », le hors-série N° 248 de Science & Vie, veut nous aider à comprendre, vivre pleinement, vaincre en la retardant, en la dominant, notre fin inéluctable.

Un ensemble de réflexions, de données scientifiques, de témoignages humains, tout à fait remarquable, qu’il faut lire afin d’être plus fort et plus digne pour mieux envisager chaque jour, et quand l’heure sera venue du « cercle rouge », mieux « affronter l’ultime défi ».

La mort révoltante des enfants, des tout petits.
Eux qui n’ont pas eu le temps d’envisager un idéal, un projet à transmettre, la vie leur est soudain confisquée par la camarde voleuse d’enfants. Et elle leur est bien trop souvent sadiquement et longuement arrachée dans la douleur scandaleuse.
Dans la douleur et dans la conscience.
Très tôt les enfants sentent la mort qui menace, et Dolto, Nasio, Bernard Martino, et bien d’autres à leur suite, nous ont montré leur grande dignité et leur immense courage face à la douleur qui taraude, à la mort pressentie. Et il arrive souvent que ce soit eux, si faibles et pourtant pleins de vaillance, qui consolent leurs parents du deuil à venir.
Des statistiques glaciales.
Voyez, p 52 du hors-série de Sciences & Vie, leur « Petit atlas de la mortalité »
Je cite (bas de p 53) :
« 1 mort sur 5 dans le monde a moins de 5 ans ».
Cela fait 9 millions de petits morts en 2007 !
Mais il y a dans ces chiffres une effroyable logique : on meurt enfant surtout dans les pays pauvres, dans les pays en guerre (civile ou non), dans les pays délaissés. Et l’Afrique, si longuement, si scandaleusement exploitée puis abandonnée face au Sida, paie de loin le plus lourd tribut à cette hécatombe : Près d’un mort sur deux (46%) y a moins de 15 ans (seulement 1% dans les pays les plus riches). Le graphique de ce bas de p 53 révèle que près d’1 enfant africain sur 10 meurt avant 1 an…
Voyez encore cette carte de 2008 de la mortalité infantile dans le monde.

Il y a un lien étroit entre le niveau de vie et l’espérance de vie.
Comparez à la carte de mortalité infantile (lien ci-dessus) avec celle-ci de l’espérance de vie à la naissance
Dans la misère et la lutte permanente pour survivre, on n’a guère le loisir d’apprendre à lire – surtout s’il n’y a guère d’écoles : Voyez ces taux d’alphabétisation dont l’envers est l’illettrisme.
L’illettrisme, une calamité sournoise qui agit comme une carence, une carence en savoir, en possibilité d’apprendre, donc d’accéder à un apprentissage, à des connaissances, à des savoir faire, et qui mène tout droit au non emploi et à la misère.
Tenez, lisez ceci, qui nous concerne directement, nous, Français :

«Une étude de l’Agence nationale de lutte contre l’illettrisme (ANLCI) estime que les lacunes d’écriture, de lecture et de calcul touchent aussi bien les salariés que les personnes défavorisées ou issues de l’immigration. Plus de 1,8 million de travailleurs sont concernés, soit plus de la moitié des 3 100 000 personnes en situation d’illettrisme en France. Les quelque 8 000 organismes qui proposent une remise à niveau aux salariés, sont assaillis de demandes. » (Source : ici)

Et nous savons bien que, bien qu’en paix, nous sommes tout de même dans une guerre économique et donc sociologique, et que ces grandes misères culturelles, ces futures détresses se préparent dans une petite enfance malchanceuse que nous avons laissé insensiblement glisser, puis filer vers une adolescence et un âge adulte à l’avenir très menacés.

Et le grand chic maintenant, c’est de déplacer les populations (on a appelé cela déportation). On déplace, déporte les habitants de zones entières quand on ne provoque pas leurs fuites éperdues, leurs exodes– qu’on dit être des migrations – devant la guerre et les massacres qui prennent vite des allures de génocides – mais on s’habitue n’est-ce pas ? On est submergé d’images déprimantes par leur répétition et par notre impuissance, à nous bien sûr, mais aussi même aux ONG : il leur en faut du courage et de l’opiniâtreté pour persévérer dans les périls, chacune sur son petit chantier de misère, sachant fort bien que par ailleurs, nous, puissants, bien nantis, bien nourris, leur fabriquons encore et encore de la souffrance, de la détresse, de la maladie et de la mort.

Vous trouverez ici des données statistiques, en français, de l’OMS

Et, surtout, si vous avez le temps, plongez-vous dans cet immense tableau de données mondiales et pays par pays, de l’OMS, en français, – ce qui n’est pas toujours le cas.
Sigles régionaux de l’OMS:
AFRO Région africaine. AMRO Région des Amériques. EURO Région de l’Europe. EMRO Région de l’Asie du Sud-est
Vous trouverez les tableaux suivants dans le fichier pdf de 149 pages :

1. (p 13) Enfants de moins de 5 ans présentant un déficit pondéral (%)
2. (p14) Taux de mortalité des moins de 5 ans
(probabilité de décès avant l’âge de 5 ans pour 1000 naissances vivantes)
3. (p15) Couverture par la vaccination anti rougeoleuse chez les enfants d’un an (%)
4. Taux de mortalité maternelle (pour 100 000 naissances vivantes)
5. Naissances assistées par du personnel de santé qualifié (%)6. Prévalence de la contraception (%)
7. Taux de fécondité des adolescentes (pour 1000 jeunes filles de 15 à 19 ans)
8. Couverture par les soins anténatals (%) : au moins 1 visite
9. Besoins insatisfaits en matière de planification familiale (%)
10. Prévalence du VIH chez les adultes de 15 ans et plus pour 100 000 habitants
11. Proportion des hommes entre 15 et 24 ans ayant une connaissance générale et correcte du VIH/sida (%)
12. Proportion des femmes entre 15 et 24 ans ayant une connaissance générale et correcte du VIH/sida (%)
13. Couverture par le traitement antirétroviral chez les personnes à un stade avancé
de l’infection à VIH (%)
14. Taux de mortalité due au paludisme pour 100 000 habitants
15. Enfants de moins de 5 ans dormant sous une moustiquaire imprégnée d’insecticide (%)
16. Enfants de moins de 5 ans fiévreux et ayant reçu un traitement antipaludique quelconque (%)
17. Taux de succès thérapeutique dans le cadre du DOTS (%)
18. Accès à des sources d’eau potable améliorées (%).
19. Accès à un assainissement amélioré (%)
p37 Taux de mortalité des nourrissons / des enfants de moins de 5 ans / des adultes 15-60 ans
1. (p38) Mortalité et charge de morbidité

Voyez à partir de la page 60 :
3. Maladies infectieuses sélectionnées

Voyez à partir de la page 83: les Facteurs de risque, puis p 85 des statistiques sanitaires mondiales de 2009.
P 96 Personnel de santé, infrastructures sanitaires et médicaments essentiels
P 108…, les % de dépenses de santé
P 120-128 les iniquités en matière de santé
Et à partir de la p 131 d’intéressantes statistiques démographiques.

Mes raisons de pessimisme, vous le voyez, ne sont donc pas que saisonnières et météorologiques…
Je suis indigné, parfois au bord du découragement, en raison de cette scandaleuse inégalité des chances des tout petits selon qu’ils naissent ici ou là, (géographiquement et socialement), aux causes surtout géopolitiques donc, bien qu’ils aient tous, malgré des apparences plus que variées et propices aux a priori, un génome identique aux potentialités absolument égales.

Et j’ai aussi bien des raisons d’admiration, d’enthousiasme pour l’immense travail de traitement et de prévention sanitaires effectué par les personnels de santé et les membres – souvent bénévoles – des ONG, dont on ne dira jamais assez le dévouement et le courage.

Une autre raison de m’enthousiasmer :
Je viens de redécouvrir – et je vous en parle dès demain – Bernard Martino, dont les idées, les œuvres écrites et les images nous sont familières comme celles de Françoise Dolto, comme si lui aussi était pour ainsi dire passé dans le domaine public…

5 November 2009

EU plans ‘charter flights’ to deport illegal immigrants

Published: Wednesday 4 November 2009

EU leaders have for the first time asked for the creation of joint charter flights to deport illegal immigrants. These flights would be financed by Frontex, the European agency in charge of the EU’s external borders.

Background:

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been calling for a European ‘Immigration Pact’ since his 2007 election campaign. Migration subsequently became one of the top priorities of France’s EU presidency during the six-month period from July to December 2008 (see EurActiv LinksDossier).

After several recent incidents in both countries (EurActiv 01/09/09), France and Italy sent a letter to the Swedish EU Presidency requesting a debate on immigration issues at the European Council in Brussels (29-30 October).

Frontex is an EU agency tasked with coordinating operational cooperation between member states in the field of border security. Its headquarters are based in Warsaw, Poland. Frontex became operational in 2005.

Last week, the twenty-seven EU heads of state and government called for “the enhancement of the operational capacities of Frontex” and asked for “an examination of the possibility of regular chartering – financed by Frontex – of joint return flights,” according to the summit conclusions .

This decision, the first of its kind at EU level, was taken ten days after the sending back of three Afghans to their home country caused political controversy in France. Paris forged an agreement with London to share a charter flight, as the UK was also seeking to expel illegal immigrants to Kabul.

The French government tried to play down the event, pointing out that no debate had taken place in the media in Britain, where the public accepts such flights. The French authorities claimed that the three Afghans were from Kabul, but the Afghan government said they came from a more dangerous part of the country and so should not have been sent back.

The Council conclusions asked for a “determined European response based on firmness, solidarity and shared responsibility”. Although this request is somewhat vague, the Commission should nevertheless table proposals in early 2010 examining the possibility of financing joint regular return flights via Frontex.

The Council also asked for “clear rules of engagement for joint operations at sea”. This issue is of particular importance for Turkey and Libya, in whose waters migrants from Central Asia and sub-Saharan Africa respectively are often found.

Positions:

After the summit, French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared: “Nobody could have imagined a few years ago that governments of left, right, South and North would agree on the principle that someone who does not respect the rules must be brought back home by plane, train or other means in a worthy manner. It represents considerable progress.”

Sarkozy said he wants the EU to go “further” and expressed his desire for the 27-member Union to “one day have its own border guards”.

French Immigration Minister Eric Besson described the proposal as “a decisive step towards building a true European border police”.

“States should find a balance between security and humanity,” wrote Jacques Barrot, European commissioner for justice, freedom and security, in Catholic newspaper La Croix. “Frontex can coordinate the returns, but we should above all take care that people are reintegrated in their country of origin.”

“We should look at the guarantees given to the deported immigrants,” French Socialist (S&D) MEP Sylvie Guillaume told EurActiv. “First of all, we need to be sure that the lives of the returned migrants are not in danger once they are back in their home country. Secondly, we should check that the immigrant has not asked for international protection. Thirdly, we should check that all the procedures are respected and that Frontex also respects the procedures enclosed in the European Pact on Immigration.”

Jean-Luc Bennahmias, vice-president of MoDem, the French centrist political party, denounced the idea as “outrageous”, arguing that “the European Union, as well as France, has a duty to welcome these people in great danger”.

“I really regret that the EU is working so hard on security measures while it is unable to find solutions to protect these people who are often lost on European territory and who are coming from war-torn countries,” lamented Pierre Henry, director-general of NGO France Terre d’Asile, on French radio station Europe 1.

Migreurop, an NGO bringing together European and African associations, denounced the EU’s “hypocrisy” on immigration and accused it of making its borders more dangerous by increasing checks.

“Rather than drawing the obvious consequences of the countless tragedies that today are part of everyday experience in migration to Europe, the European states are taking advantage of the situation to strengthen checks and thus make it more dangerous to cross borders,” complained Claire Rodier, an official for Migreurop in Brussels.

source: earth times

 

UN chief hopes Greece’s will address its poor migrant asylum record

Athens – UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed hope on Wednesday that Greece will address its poor migrant asylum record in accordance with human rights laws. “I know that all states, including Greece have the right to determine the stay of migrants but I sincerely hope that this will be addressed with the settlement of human rights and laws,” Ban said during 3rd Global Forum on Migration and Development.

“As the host organizer, Greece may have the moral and political responsibility in seeking a settlement of the issues,” Ban told journalists.

Sitting at the crossroads of three continents – Europe, Africa and Asia – Greece has become the main transit point for immigrants seeking entry into the European Union. The number of illegal immigrants arriving in the country has surged over the past year.

The Hellenic Migration Policy Institute estimates that 120,000 will be picked up after having covertly entering Greece in 2008, a 500 per cent increase on 2003.

While thousands of new arrivals attempt to stow away aboard a ferry bound for Italy, believing they have better chances of asylum, the majority end up heading to Greece’s main cities in search of work.

The Dublin Convention requires migrants to claim asylum in the first EU country they enter, which for may is Greece.

Refugee advocates and human rights groups, such as New-York-based Human Rights Watch, have slammed Greece for its treatment of migrants, accusing the country of illegally deporting migrants and often misleading them about their right to apply for asylum.

Last year fewer than 1 per cent of the 25,000 people who applied for asylum from the Greek government were successful, far below rates of 18 per cent in Germany, 11 per cent in Italy and 4 per cent in Spain.

“If you care to look, delegates to the Global Forum might notice unaccompanied child migrants outside the conference hall,” Human Rights Watch director Bill Frelick in a statement.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said immediate measures would be taken to revise the residence permit system and give second generation migrants access to citizenship.

Addressing hundreds of delegates at the start of the two-day conference, the UN secretary general said the number of international migrants is greater than at anytime in history, with 214 million people living outside their country of birth.

Ban highlighted three global challenges that needed urgent action in managing migration – namely dealing with the economic crisis, climate change and human trafficking.

He said the recent global recession has highlighted the vulnerability of migrants, as many often lack safety nets and cannot afford to return home.

“The crisis has also soured public perceptions of migrants – they become easy scapegoats for job losses or lower wages,” said Ban.

On the issue of climate change, the secretary-general said expanding desertification in Africa and perennial flooding in Asia is affecting migratory patterns, thus forcing more people to leave rural areas.

Ban said special attention should be also paid to the most vulnerable migrants of all – victims of human trafficking, especially women and girls.

“Traffickers deny victims their fundamental rights, including freedom of movement and freedom from abuse as well as access to health, education and decent work.”

source and more photos here

A few days ago, news arrived about the vice Minister visiting Pagani, describing it with the words “Dantes Inferno”. Today, our faithful source in Mytilini reports about new revolts in the Detention Center of Pagani.

Today the revolts in Pagani started again. After the Vice Minister of internal affairs visited Pagani two days ago, the violent habits returned to Pagani. Prisoners reported about a huge police brutality after the visit. Some of the prisoners where calls out, one after the other, to the prison Jard. There they where badly beaten by the police. The prisoners felt save, telling the vice Minister about there situation, but in the end there where punished for there statements in front of the visitor. A complain against the police was made by the prisoners.

A group of estimated 70 people was freed today. It was upsetting for some who are imprisoned in the detention Center of Pagani for more then 25 days. Another revolt started. on one point one of the cells was set on fire. for a long time none, aside from the prisoners,reacted in direction of turning off the fire. Not the Gard not the police. Fireman arrived around one hour after the fire started.
The Atmosphere in the detention Center is very tense. The people inside are serious about there demand to be freed. They will continue with there protest for freedom until the Detention Center is finally closed.

Also, a little video.

Report by the Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC), the Norwegian Organisation for Asylum Seekers (NOAS) and Aitima.

The report is available here.

Out the Back Door:  Dublin II Regulation and illegal deportations from Greece

Based on evidence gathered during investigations in Greece, Turkey and Iraq between April and September 2009, and corroborated by reports and fi ndings of international human rights monitoring bodies and NGOs, we argue that the principle of non-refoulement is severely threatened by the Greek practice of illegal deportations, and consequently by transfers of asylum seekers to Greece under the Dublin II Regulation.

In this report we present specifi c instances of illegal deportations by the Greek authorities of persons with pending asylum cases, as well as of other groups. Such deportations take place in such an arbitrary manner that there is no basis for claiming that Dublin returnees enjoy a higher degree of protection than others.

The International Federation of Iraqi Refugees has learnt the mass deportation flight to Baghdad has left from Stanstead airport with 39 people on board.  People were told on the flight it was going to Baghdad. 

I received an email this week to attend a demo at Parliament Square from 2pm today to protest against the forcible removal of Iraqi refugees to Iraq. There were people from Stop Deportations, CSDIraq, No Borders and Iraq Occupation Focus. It was reported that there had been violence committed by security guards against the refugees on this flight. We heard from Abdullah via mobile phone who is awaiting deportation to Iraq stuck in a racist hell-hole of a detention centre at the moment. His distress and anger was palpable.

There is a meeting organised for the 7th November between 12-5pm @ SOAS to build mass resistance against deportations.

There is an EDM written by John McDonnell MP about the deportations to Iraq. Please lobby your MP and get them to sign it.

That this House is alarmed at reports that over the last week, detainees in various immigration detention centres have been given removal directions that state they will be removed to Iraq and that the first deportation charter flight to southern Iraq was expected to leave on 14 October 2009; is concerned about the violence and bloodshed that continues to blight Iraq along with the widespread food shortages and lack of access to clean drinking water; deplores the deportation of innocent people to face violence, hardship and even death in a war zone like Iraq; and therefore calls for the deportation of Iraqi refugees to Iraq to be halted and for the Iraqi detainees threatened with forcible removal to be released immediately.

People are being deported to a war zone. Around 1,891 people died in the first 6 months of this year in Iraq. Forcibly deportating people is brutal, barbaric, inhuman and obscene.

The government will carry on deporting people and we must campaign to resist these oppressive measures.

source: http://no-racism.net/article/3143

No Deportations to Baghdad

On Thursday, 15. Oct 2009, early morning, a specially chartered plane provided by Air Italy deported 39 people from London to Baghdad. Activists call for a demonstration on Saturday and a campaign against Air Italy.

Message from the campaigning group Stop Deportation

The first deportation to Baghdad deported around forty people early on Thursday the 15th October on a specially chartered plane provided by Air Italy. This marks a shift in government policy which since 2005 has sent people back to Iraqi Kurdistan but not to Iraq. Now they have begun, deportations to Iraq are sure to continue putting the lives of many in danger.

Demonstrate on Saturday to build
resistance to deportations to Iraq!
Saturday 17 October 2009, 2pm
Parliament Square, London

Deporting people to a war zone like Iraq puts the lives of many deportees at risk. As recently as the 11th October, three car bombs exploded in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi, killing at least 19 people. Violence and bloodshed continue throughout the country, which saw 1,891 civilian deaths in the first six months of this year alone. There are also widespread food shortages, lack of access to clean drinking water and other grave humanitarian crises in many areas.

The British government, through its participation in the war on and occupation of Iraq since 2003, is responsible for these crises and the consequent displacement of millions of Iraqis. Instead of helping accommodate refugees fleeing war and violence, it is now sending them back en masse to face their possible death. Charter flight deportations in particular limit detainees legal recourse and are especially violent – see :: stopdeportation.net for more information.

We call upon all groups, organisations and individuals opposed to this brutal action by the UK government to stand with us in calling for all deportations to Iraq to be stopped. Join us to demonstrate against mass deportations to Iraq this Saturday the 17th October, at 2pm, at Parliament Square.

If you would like to add your or your organisation’s name to a :: statement against deportations to Iraq, or for any further information, please emailstopdeportation (at) riseup.net.

Campaign Against Air Italy

Air Italy was involved in the forcible removal by a charter flight leased to UK Border Agency of 39 Iraqi’s who had sought asylum in the UK, to an unknown destination in Iraq on Wednesday 14th October from Stansted Airport in the United Kingdom.

The :: National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns call for protests against the deportation airline. :: Details and model letter here.

print version

http://www.hrw.org,

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/10/09/greece-unsafe-and-unwelcoming-shores,

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

Greece: Unsafe and Unwelcoming Shores

October 12, 2009

Between August and September 2009, Human Rights Watch interviewed 16 migrants who had been arrested on Samos, Symi, and Chios Islands, and the port towns of Patras and Igoumenitsa. The Greek authorities transferred them to detention centers close to the land border with Turkey and held them in the border police stations of Soufli, Tichero, and Feres, as well as in the Venna and Fylakio-Kyprinou (Fylakio) detention facilities. Two detained migrants described to us how Greek police forcibly pushed them across the river into Turkey from where Turkish authorities sent them back to Afghanistan.

One of them is a 17-year-old unaccompanied Afghan boy who told us over the phone that he was arrested on Symi Island, transferred to Fylakio detention center, and expelled with 11 other persons to Turkey:

We were one group of 12 persons they took out [from the detention center]. They drove us in a car…. for maybe one and a half hours. We arrived in the forest around 9 p.m.; they kept us there until midnight…. They told us not to move, otherwise the Turkish police would find us. It was [next to] a small river…. This side was Greece, the other side was Turkey.

The boat was a metal boat, a long metal boat. Inside the boat there was one policeman; he started the engine and after we arrived to the other side he told us to get out quickly and the boat went straight back. When the [Turkish] police arrived two of us explained what happened. The Turkish police came back to that place with us and said we should sit and that more persons might be coming. But the Greek police didn’t send more people.

We were for 12 days in [Turkish] detention. They beat me too much….  When the Turkish police beat me they said I should call my family to send me money to return to Afghanistan. I asked them not to send me back to Afghanistan, because I had problems. I asked them to keep me. But they didn’t care.

Near our house are Taliban; they are close…. I’m scared all the time. I’m a tenth grade student but I can’t go to school.[1]

The other person pushed back told us he was arrested on Samos Island, transferred to Fylakio detention center, expelled in a group of 45 or 50 persons, arrested by Turkish police, and taken to a detention center in Edirne: “I stayed for one week in Edirne. There were a lot of persons who had been deported from Greece. There were Afghans, Pakistanis, and Sri Lankans.”[2] Human Rights Watch visited that detention center in 2008 and found conditions there to be inhuman and degrading.[3]

Another eight people said they witnessed Greek police taking migrants out of detention centers at nightfall in trucks or vans. Four of them told us that those taken from the detention centers later got in touch with detainees who stayed behind and told them that the Greek police had expelled them. One Afghan boy who was arrested on Symi Island described the scene he witnessed from his cell at Fylakio detention center:

Forty three persons were taken away from my group [of 91 persons]. One Iraqi had a friend among those [taken away]. He called Iraq from the detention center, and that friend said he had been deported. That Iraqi was part of our group. We were all in the same cell.

First [Greek police] asked them to sign something. … it was around the evening time, around 6 p.m. maybe. Then they searched them… the police took away everything they had: toothpaste, papers written in Greek, they took it from their pockets… After that they were taken into a truck without windows. It was completely closed, an army-colored truck. People entered from the back. I saw the truck with my own eyes and I saw how people entered.

Each time a new group [of detainees] arrived the truck came…. 67 persons arrived in one group and they took away 57 persons from that group….  Six or seven times new groups arrived…. For a small group the white van came, for a big group the truck came.[4]

Another person told us he had been arrested in Patras ahead of the authorities’ destruction of a large makeshift camp and then transferred with a group of 120 persons to Fylakio detention center. He told us that four of his friends had been deported from there: “They asked us, ‘Do you have relatives or friends?’ I said I had an uncle. Four friends of mine said they didn’t have family and they were deported. One of them called my friend and told him he was in Afghanistan…. They deported them after about two weeks. They were taken away in a small white car.”[5]

Greece’s Dysfunctional Asylum System

Greece effectively has no asylum system. It recognizes as few as 0.05 percent of asylum seekers as refugees at their first interview. A law adopted in July abolished ameaningful appeals procedure. The effect of the new law is that a person who is in need of international protection as a refugee in Greece is almost certain to be refused asylum at the first instance, and having been refused has little chance of obtaining it on appeal. The new law leaves asylum seekers with no remedy against risk of removal to inhuman or degrading treatment, as required by article 39 of the EU’s procedures directive and articles 13 and 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. As a result of this legislative change, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) withdrew from any formal role in Greece’s asylum procedure.

Many of those we interviewed said they did not want to apply for asylum in Greece because they had heard that Greece rejects everyone. Some believed mistakenly that they could apply for asylum in other European countries. Access to legal counsel or interpreters is virtually impossible in detention centers in the north and those in need of protection may be unable to access asylum procedures. An Afghan detainee held in Soufli border police station, for example, was informed about her rights in English, a language she does not understand.

Apart from sporadic visits by a lawyer from the Greek Council for Refugees operating under a government agreement, no lawyers or organizations offer pro-bono legal aid in Greece’s northern region. Athens-based lawyers who offer pro-bono legal aid told us they are not able to access and speak to detainees in the north unless they present to authorities the names of persons detained. Even when they have the names of detainees, police in the Evros border region might ask them to obtain an additional permit from central police authorities to see persons detained; or police may not respond to their query whether a certain detainee is still held there. Conversations between lawyers and detainees furthermore are rarely confidential and lawyers said that police interrupted their talks and asked them to finish their conversations with detainees.[6]

Even those with access to legal aid and wanting to apply for asylum are not necessarily able to access the minimal procedures that do exist. According to the Greek Council for Refugees, on July 30, Greek police handed over 40 Turkish citizens, among them 18 asylum seekers, including four unaccompanied children, to their Turkish counterparts under a bilateral readmission agreement. Police on Crete, where the group initially arrived, refused to receive their asylum applications despite interventions by local lawyers. The asylum seekers were deported even though the Greek Council for Refugees intervened with the responsible Ministry.[7] In addition, on July 17, Human Rights Watch saw more than 1,000 asylum seekers lined up all night at Athens’ main police station trying to file asylum claims, largely in vain.

Greece is bound by the international legal principle of non-refoulement not to expel or return a person to a place where he or she would face persecution, torture, or inhuman or degrading treatment. This obligation applies not only to direct returns into the hands of persecutors or torturers, but also to indirect returns to countries from which persons are subsequently sent to a state where they face such threats. The circumstances of what constitutes inhuman or degrading treatment for an unaccompanied child may differ significantly from that of adults and Greece is obliged to take “measures and precautions” against such treatment when returning a child.[8]

Inhuman and Degrading Detention Conditions

Greece is also bound under European and international law to protect migrants from inhuman and degrading treatment while in Greece.  Persons held in detention centers in the north described to us conditions that would violate these obligations. Furthermore, unaccompanied children were detained jointly with adults across detention centers in the north, itself a violation of binding international standards.

People detained at the Soufli border police station, for example, told us that two detainees have to share one dirty mattress and that they are never allowed to go outside. One detainee, a 16-year-old girl in the company of her husband, told us that she felt constantly intimidated in a cell with more than 20 adult men.[9] People detained at Tichero border police station told us they slept on dirty mattresses or on the floor without blankets, and that the bathroom was filthy, with an unbearable smell.[10] Those held in the Venna detention facility said the place was infested with cockroaches and mice, and they complained about a lack of enough warm clothing. Those detained included a disabled man who had lost one arm and could not fully use his other arm but was subjected to the same regime. With the exception of Fylakio detention center, the conditions were compounded by a lack of access to medical care. Except for those held at Venna, those interviewed said they received only two meals per day, which they said was insufficient.

Detainees held at Fylakio detention facility spoke of comparatively better, albeit overcrowded, detention conditions. All persons who had been held there, however, said they experienced or witnessed violence and ill-treatment by guards. Two described an incident in which guards allegedly beat up an Arabic-speaking detainee after he tried to escape.

I saw an Arab who tried to escape. Police caught him and beat him up badly. They took him to the telephone room and covered the window with black plastic. Afterward I went to make a phone call and saw that guy with blood on his head and in handcuffs.[11]

Police also allegedly used violence when intervening in fights among detainees or to punish those who did not stay quiet at night:

I saw once with my own eyes that three policemen beat one person. They beat him in the corridor because he quarreled [with others]. They beat him for a short time with batons, with their hands, and they also kicked him.[12]

We received additional allegations of police violence from persons detained at Tichero and Feres border police stations, and from a person held at an unknown location near Komotini.[13]

Several persons interviewed said it was forbidden to make phone calls from Soufli and Tichero border police stations. One detainee at Soufli told us: “One detainee said if you have a lawyer you might get released but we don’t have a telephone so how can we contact our family to get us a lawyer?”[14] Another person said that although detainees held at Fylakio detention centers were permitted to make phone calls on Mondays and Thursdays, no calls were allowed during the first ten days.[15]

Asked whether they tried to file a complaint, one detainee told us: “I never complained to anybody. We didn’t complain. It wouldn’t have helped if we’d said anything. The captain would have told us to stay quiet.”[16] Although the police chief in charge of the Fylakio detention facility assured us he would investigate any allegation of ill-treatment brought forward by detainees, he added that he has never received any complaints.[17]

The EU’s Failure to Hold Greece Accountable

Human Rights Watch has repeatedly called on the European Union to hold Greece accountable for its violation of European asylum standards, including while recent arrests and transfers were still ongoing. Yet, despite having a mandate and a duty to enforce member states’ implementation of EU legislation, the European Commission  has not spoken out against Greece’s effective abolition of the right to seek asylum or to appeal rejected asylum claims, or its abusive detention and expulsions of migrants, including children. In fact, Jacques Barrot, vice-president of the European Commission responsible for justice, freedom, and security, was on an official visit to Greece when the new presidential decree was published that effectively eliminated the appeals procedure in violation of binding EU standards.

The European Commission’s failure to call publicly for Greece to remedy these serious violations of EU standards and European and international human rights and refugee law sends a worrying signal that abuses may go unchecked. It is vitally important for the Commission to take the opportunity of a new administration in Athens to press in the strongest terms for immediate and fundamental reform of Greece’s asylum system, meaningful access to protection, and an end to abuse.

The Commission should without delay issue a reasoned opinion on Greece’s current breaches of EU standards on asylum and migration, identifying the steps needed to bring Greece back into conformity with EU and human rights law. It should also make clear to Athens that unless the new government takes those steps, the Commission will refer its failure to uphold EU standards to the European Court of Justice.

In two reports published in 2008, Human Rights Watch further called on European governments to stop sending migrants and asylum seekers, including unaccompanied children, back to Greece under the Dublin II regulations. We concluded that Greece violated both EU standards and international human rights law by holding migrants in unacceptable detention conditions, by preventing persons in need of protection from seeking asylum, and by failing to protect unaccompanied migrant children.

Under the European Union’s Dublin II regulations, the country where a person first entered the EU is generally held responsible for examining that person’s asylum claim, whether or not the person applied there. While the Dublin II regulations are premised on the notion that all EU member states have comparable asylum and migration practices, there are wide disparities, with some countries like Greece effectively offering no protection at all. This disparity underscores the importance of reforming the Dublin system while at the same time ensuring that EU member states are held to account for their failure to respect their obligations under EU law.  Only then can the EU take meaningful steps toward creating a common European asylum system.

New Greek Government Should Take Urgent Action to Stop Abuses

Human Rights Watch calls on the new government in Greece to take urgent steps to end abuses against refugees and migrants, including children. We reiterate the recommendations we made to the-then Minister of Interior in August:

Issue a public statement committing the government to treating migrants apprehended in Greek territory in a humane and dignified manner. Guarantee all migrants unhindered access to the asylum procedure and protection from refoulement.

Immediately ensure that the practice of illegal expulsion across the Evros River be stopped; carry out an investigation leading to identification and levying of appropriate sanctions of officials involved in such illegal acts.

Rescind Presidential Decree 81/2009, create a functioning asylum system in which trained staff assess asylum claims on the basis of confidential and private interviews, and allow for a fair and independent review of appeals.

Refrain from detaining unaccompanied migrant children and from summarily deporting them without prior assessment of the risks they face upon return. Create sufficient number of care places for all unaccompanied migrant children in Greece. Consider the granting of temporary residence for unaccompanied children on humanitarian grounds, as provided for in article 44(c) of Law 3386/2005, to protect them from repeated arrest and detention until a durable solution in their best interests is found.

Close substandard detention centers and open new facilities ensuring adequate space, cleanliness, recreation, access to health care, and legal and family visitation necessary for humane conditions of detention. Migrants should only be detained as a last resort, when actual proceedings for their deportation are ongoing, and when it is the only method necessary to secure persons’ lawful deportation, and when the necessity of detaining them is subject to regular review, including by the judiciary. Asylum seekers should not be detained.

Ensure full access for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Human Rights Watch, and other reputable organizations to all migration detention facilities, Coast Guard vessels and facilities, and to entry and border points and the border region.

[1] Human Rights Watch telephone interview (S-15-09), September 28, 2009. (name withheld)

[2] Human Rights Watch telephone interview (S-16-09), September 29, 2009. (name withheld)

[3] Human Rights Watch, Greece/Turkey: Stuck in a Revolving Door: Iraqis and Other Asylum Seekers and Migrants at the Greece/Turkey Entrance to the European Union, November 2008, ISBN 1-56432-411-7, http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2008/11/26/stuck-revolving-door-0, p.6.

[4] Human Rights Watch interview (S-3-09), September 8, 2009. (name and place withheld)

[5] Human Rights Watch interview (S-5-09), September 8, 2009. (name and place withheld)

[6] Human Rights Watch interview with Marianna Tzeferakou and Danai Angeli, Athens, September 6, 2009.

[7] Email correspondence from Greek Council of Refugees to Human Rights Watch, August 21, 2008.

[8] Mubilanzila Mayeka and Kaniki Mitunga v. Belgium, (Application no. 13178/03), October 12, 2006, available at http://www.echr.coe.int/, para. 69.

[9] Human Rights Watch interview (S-11-09 and S-12-09), September 10, 2009 (names and place withheld). Human Rights Watch interview with (S-13-09), September 11, 2009 (name and place withheld). The European Court of Human Rights held in a recent judgment that detention conditions at Soufli border police station amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment. S.D. v. Greece, (Application no. 53541/07), June 11, 2009, available at http://www.echr.coe.int/, paras. 53-54.

[10] Human Rights Watch interview (S-2-09), September 7, 2009 (name and place withheld). Human Rights Watch interview (S-6-09), September 9, 2009. Human Rights Watch telephone interview (S-14-09), September 28, 2009 (name and place withheld).

[11] Human Rights Watch telephone interview (S-1-2009), August 20, 2009. Another detainee referred to the same incident (S-4-09).

[12] Human Rights Watch interview (S-3-09), September 8, 2009 (name and place withheld).

[13] Human Rights Watch interviews (S-2-09) September 7, 2009 (name and place withheld). Human Rights Watch interviews (S-6-09, S-7-09, S-8-09), September 9, 2009 (names and place withheld). Human Rights Watch interviews (S-11-09, S-12-09), September 10, 2009 (names and place withheld).

[14] Human Rights Watch interview (S-13-09), September 11, 2009 (name and place withheld).

[15] Human Rights Watch interview (S-3-09), September 8, 2009 (name and place withheld).

[16] Human Rights Watch interview (S-5-09), September 8, 2009 (name and place withheld).

[17] Human Rights Watch interview with Giorgos Salamagas, chief of police Orestiada, Fylakio detention center, September 10, 2009.

© Copyright 2008, Human Rights Watch

dear readerly folks,
i’m branching out.
the detail format is expanding
morphing
shape shifting….

it’s still about the details
just perhaps less about the list.

tell me what you think.

you don’t need to know this
but i’m telling you anyway:
i cried three times
today

first:
front yard
blue chair
flaking
gathering sun into hungry skin
pen to paper
writing across a great expanse
tightening some heart stitches
unraveling others

second:
in short sleeve tshirt
after collecting all that front porch sun
two coconut haystacks in my stomach
bed splayed
natalie’s hand in mine
the stories
that insist
on repeating themselves
about recklessness
about amnesia
about the butchering

third:
velvet theater seat
popcorn hands
acts of paperless bravery
(you must see this documentary)
narrated on screen
and connections
that make my brain hurt
in a good way
the legacy of racism
the insdustry of deportations
families fragmented
if you cut each of us/any of us
there is blood

and then there’s this:

i have been obsessed
with these photos
of china’s 60th anniversery of communism
celebration
but the best one is on the actual cover
of the friday oct 2nd new york times
and i can’t find it anywhere on the internerd…

source: http://lesvos09.antira.info/2009/10/of-lies-more-lies-and-some-successes/

Of lies, more lies and some successes

Last week, we reported about the revolt going on in Pagani. In the immediate days after the revolt, there seemed to be some development favourable to the situation of refugees. Some friendly observers from Lesvos reported that on the very Tuesday of the revolt, there were

700 prisoners in Pagani, around 150 women and children and 150 unaccompanied minors. The minors living on the first floor set fire to matrasses in their cell, which produced a lot of smoke. To escape from the smoke they broke the bars of the window and went on the very small balcony in front of their cell window. They screamed for their freedom, some were very upset and the situation was very dangerous. The policemen of the prison managed to extinguish the fire. More policemen, fire brigades, journalists and observer in solidarity arrived. The tension spread to the other cells.

The prisoners broke the door with the iron bars and went out into the yard. They were absolutely peaceful and the police didn’t react. Around 400 prisoners were in the yard. The negotiations between the prisoners and the police and the prefect lasted until late in the night.

The outcome were promises such as:

• All minors would be released until the Friday (25.9.09)
• Some men imprisoned for longer than 2 months would be released, too
• Pikpa open camp at the airport would be reopened, and families arriving on Lesvos would be sent there straightaway, without detention.

That was the last word we heard over last weekend. On Monday, nothing had happened yet, but it was somehow blamed on a strike going on in the port of Piraeus, stopping all ferry traffic and thus impeding the transfer of migrants from Lesvos to Athens. But it already sounded like a bad excuse. So finally yesterday, we learnt that all three promises were nothing but blatant lies. Pikpa open camp has not been reopened, no minors or families were released and the only change is that by now, about 20 riot police of the notorious MAT are stationed at Pagani prison in order to suppress any new ensueing revolt.

Y’all know that that means: we have to continue our campaign on Pagani prison and detention in general, and we hear that first actions all over Europe are already in preparation. So for one stay tuned, and for the other: Can you think about organising a local action where you live? We will be providing a set of material to support such actions, like we already started providing our videos.

On the other hand, there are good news, too. Other friendly observers from Lesvos report that the attitude of the population towards refugees and migrants is turning, and that numerous acts of practical solidarity with refugees can be observed. Even the site of the noborder info-point in Mytilini still seems to function as a meeting point for refugees, migrants and people interested to get in touch with them. Noborder left behind a new social space.

Meanwhile in Germany, concrete effects of the scandalisation of the detention conditions of refugees in Greece can be observed. The german constitutional court, i.e. the highest court in Germany, made an express decision stopping an Iraqi refugee from being deported to Greece under Dublin-II. At first the newspapers reported that it was a rather formal decision, they said he needed to remain in Germany since in Greece, he would be homeless and thus, the court would not be able to serve correspondence to his postal address. However, in a press release some days later, the court was tentatively questioning the legality of the whole Dublin-II regime, announcing that it would evaluate it and audit whether it was compatible with the german constitution. This is the first time since 1996 that the constitutional court is thorougly auditing a main pillar of the german asylum system. As a first reaction, refugees imprisoned at one airport after having been arrested coming from Greece have been freed, and the local authorities stopped the imprisonment of all further refugees coming from Greece. It is expected that the lower courts will follow the ruling of the constitutional court. So: deportations to Greece under Dublin-II seem difficult (the authorities still try to do it, and they manage if there is no legal fighting back), but there are first ideas about a serious campaign against Dublin-II. Again: stay tuned, and join the resistance.

Another serious development is that the German interior minister made a complete u-turn in his talking about the Greece asylum system. Before, it was always stated that Greece had a propoer asylum system, and that refugees sent back to Greece would live under proper conditions. Clearly, after all the media attention the issue attracted over the summer, such a lie could not be upheld. So at the EU interior ministers’ meeting in Brussels on the 21.9.09, a statement was issued by the german interior minister denouncing the living conditions of refugees in Greece, stating that human rights standards had to be adhered to all over Europe and implying that Greece was in fact threatening the whole Dublin-II regime. We concurr insofar as that we also believe that Dublin-II is ripe to fall, but we believe that putting the blame on Greece alone is wrong: Germany is profiting very much from Dublin-II, in fact the whole german asylum system rests on Dublin-II, and it is a European issue, not just a Greek one.

By the way, after the destruction of the refugee camps in Calais, some refugees were deported Greece, also under Dublin-II (although apparently not as many as first announced). There is still a strong solidarity campaign in Calais, so if you have some time and are willing to help:

Calais is turning into a hell with all the jungles being destroyed – the Hazara and Iranian jungles were destroyed, this moring the Eritrean squat was evicted and a fence put around it; security with dogs are preventing people to retrurn and collect their few belongings!

As a result some migrants have initiated a hunger strike and they need support.

There are some people coming to Calais on Friday [last week] from London and from the Netherlands: if you need a lift from London there is possibility of a minibus, call the communication phone 0033 6348 10710, or to take stuff from London to Calais.

You can always follow the development at their blog calais migrant solidarity, and there is a call for a direct solidarity action on the 28th and 29th of November.

source in Greek: http://www.tvxs.gr/v21898

About 150 immigrants detained at the airport “Eleftherios Venizelos” began a mass hunger strike on Sunday.  The immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and India had been living and working  for years in Greece.  When they went for a visit at their country, they received the necessary documents from the pertinent municipalities, which would allow them to return.  Upon return, though, the authorities did not allow them to leave the area of the airport, claiming that their documents had been forged.

At the beginning of the hungerstrike, some already had been held for one month, awaiting the decision to deport them.   In addition to their claims for release, the migrants ask for improved detention conditions;  one of the prisoners reported to tvxs, «we are offered food once a day, we have no access to shower facility, but most importantly we can not drink the water because it comes from the single  toilet used by all prisoners’

source: http://allileggyi-stous-prosfyges.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, 29th of September 2009.

The situation at the Samos refugee detention center

After one more summer of great influx of immigrants and refugees
to the Samos island, the situation has not improved at all.  In short, we want to share three incidents, which we believe adequately describe the theater of the absurd that is stagede at the expense of these people.

Right now in the center at Samos there are at least 500 people. Many of them sleep outside the facility with not even a bed sheet … Many families, many children!The staff is absolutely inadequate and the living conditions deplorable.
For these reasons, and other reasons, it is not difficult for anyone
to undestand why the single social worker of the Center
resigned a few days ago.   How can anyone resist the inhuman
and blatant indifference of all pertinent authorities?

At the same time in the detention center there are 15-20 (maybe more)
unaccompanied minors, who have benn illegally detained for more than 15 days in there.  In addition, 9 of them have been already there for 55 days virtually forgotten by the authorities after many of their peers had been transported to the Hospitality Center for Children in Mytilene more than 3
weeks ago.  It is well known that minors in accordance with the law should not be considered detainees, so situations such as these defy all legality.

Let us finally understand that we are dealing with people and not inanimate ‘packages’.

Right now at the port of Vathi you can see several refugees, with the paper of administrative deportation issued by the police in hand, but no tickets for Athens. This is because, for some unknown reason, the police didgave them the paper in order to go the Center, but the Prefecture, arguing that there is no money, did not give them  tickets.   One can reasonably ask:
What is the rationale behind this? What can these people, whose only asset is their despair, do?
Who would like to have “‘indignant’ citizens on top of  the  desperate refugees?

Let us be side to side with refugees and immigrants and not let anyone turn us against them!

There are no illegal lives!

Movement for Human Rights – Solidarity with Refiugees – Samos

Athens Indymedia users have been reporting lately the increased police presence – cops in uniforms and undercover ones – in one more area of the center of Athens, Vathi Square. One police mini-bus, full of immigrants, presumably to de deported, was spotted. The square already seems “evacuated” and it is possible that the young-aged undercover cops operating there are paving the way for pogroms in the nearby area.

Other Athens Indymedia users report that more and more police operations (document checks) now take place in workplaces, like construction sites, as well as at streets and squares around Greece where immigrants stand everyday early in the morning waiting for someone to hire them for one day’s work (in farms, construction sites, etc.). There has been reports of such incidents in Athens and Heraclion, Greece. This period is ideal for cops to start entering workplaces since Union representatives are preoccupied with election campaigns of their affiliate parties.

sources in Greek:

http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1085079

http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1085124

THE SITUATION IN GENERAL

According to an “Eleftherotypia” newspaper article, 3.000 refugees are detained in police detentions spaces (in the prison cells of police departments) and 3.000 more in dtetention centers. The detention center conditions, which are even more unbearable due to seasonal heat, could only be described as hellish during August due to the the inhumane overcrowding, which is now the situation at Greece’s mainland detention spaces as well. This has been described as unprecedented, with the facilities with no exception now being 50% over their capacity. Detainees are constantly being transferred from one detention space to the next, but constant “sweep operations” have gradually filled all premises. According to leaks, there are also some “informal” detentions spaces running. The only strategy of the pertinent ministry of interior is actually summary expulsions of refugees to Turkey.

The minister and deputy minister of interior are said to be in political rivalry, and their urge to meet with the “message of the euroelections”, the cleansing of Athens and urban centers of immigrants, has clashed with coordination problems and the lack of any realistic plan for “reception centers”, at the expense of refugees’ treatment of course, as described above. The minister is said to follow a plan of constucting four camps until the end of the year, the deputy minister two camps as early as mid September.

The situation is believed to worsen by the end of August when the new law which denies refugees to lodge an appeal for rejected asylum applications will be put in effect, opening thus the way for the deportation thus thousands of refugees whose applications are now pending.

“Now you will die!”: Coast Guard attempt to drown asylum-seekers in Lesbos

Source: http://libcom.org/news/now-you-will-die-coast-guard-attempt-drown-asylum-seekers-lesbos-03082009

Coast guard of Lesbos tied 12 Somali immigrants in an inflatable boat and then pierced its sides with knives in order to drown the helpless asylum seekers who were saved by passing cruise boat

The Coast Guard of Lesbos Island has been accused of attempting to mass murder 12 Somali asylum seekers, amongst which one woman. According to the case, on the 5th of July an Austrian European border Frontex Helicopter spotted an inflatable boat containing the 12 immigrants off Korakas Cape in Lesbos.

Upon the arrival of the Greek Coast Guard, the helicopter left, leaving the Greek cops to arrest the 12. The Coast Guard took the 12 out of their boat, tied their hands to their necks, beat them, and put them back in the inflatable boat before piercing its sides with knives. Then they let the boat go to the open sea telling the asylum seekers in English: “Now you will die!”.

Immediately the boat started getting water in, and sinking. The asylum seekers were saved from certain drowning when a British cruise boat passed by, saw them and saved them. The asylum seekers were then taken to Pagani detention camp on Lesbos from where they contacted the UN through a sympathetic lawyer. The Coast Guard adding insult to harm has called the UN law suit against them an act of provocation.

4 Iraqis on hunger strike in Arta

source: http://www.ele.gr/(A(YogGIgNBygEkAAAAYjRjNWU1YTAtZWRmMC00ZTU5LWIzNDYtMDE0NWY4ZjU0NDZjN4pB9lQR8gfgptGCq2k4zvtIU-Q1))/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=1945

In Arta, a town in north-western Greece of 25.000, four Iraqis went on hunger strike on the 9th of July, while another four Albanians are expecting for their asylum requests to be examined. The immigrants are not being accused of any crime, yet they have been locked up in a dirty and crowded cell at the police station for over two weeks, depending only on the good will of the police officers to leave the cell. The Iraqis, considerably weakened by the hunger strike and the conditions of detention, have even abstained from requesting political asylum and are hoping their hunger strike will help accelerate the process leading to their release and administrative deportation.

THE IMMEDIATE LEGACY OF THE PATRAS EVICTION: 23 immigrants on hunger strike in Agrinion

source: athens indymedia

On the 11 July 2009, the Patras TV channel “superb” broadcasted a live interview of the president of the police officers’ Union of Agrinion, a town of 100.000 inhabitants in Western Greece. The officer stated that 23 of 26 immigrants who had been arrested after the complete demolition of the 15-year-old refugee settlement in Patras by the authorities, and had then been transferred to the police headquarters in Agrinion, have now started a hunger strike. (The remaining three immigrants had been released.)

All 23 of the detainees (Somalis and Afghanis) were reported to be suffering contageous diseases, (mainly tuberculosis and scabs) yet were still being kept in jail instead of being taken to a hospital for proper care. The guards refused to go near them for fear of becoming infected and had therefore arranged for the immigrants to have direct access to the toilets. The police officers’ union president added that the immigrants had been offered to be returned to their countries on the expense of the Greek State but they had all declined.

A month later, on the 12th of August, four of the immigrants were transferred to the hospital, where they joined another four immigrants-hunger strikers who had been transferred there the previous day. All eight of them are in a critical condition. The original 23 immigrants were still refusing food until the 20th of August, when six of them were transferred to an unknown destination. 17 immigrants are now being detained in Agrinio, accepting water and food and awaiting the State’s decision about their fate.

Hunger Strike in Pagani, Lesvos

source and much material and updates at http://lesvos09.antira.info/

Published on 20. August 2009,

On 18th of August 2009, 160 unaccompanied minors detained in Pagani detention centre went on hunger strike to demand their immediate freedom. All of them are detained in just one room, where they share one toilet, many need to sleep on the floor due to lack of beds. Some of the minors are only eight or nine years old. 50 of them have been detained for over 2 months, the others have been in Pagani for several weeks already. The detention of minors is illegal under greek law.

Today, 150 people from a local solidarity movement and antiracist groups here to prepare the noborder camp took to the detention centre to show solidarity and support for their demand for immediate freedom. On arrival, the detained persons started shouting “freedom, freedom”, which was answered by the demonstaration. Messages in English and Farsi were read out as the migrants inside passed letters with their demands and concerning their situation to the outside.

All participants of the demonstration were severly shocked in the light of the unbearable conditions in Pagani. We learnt of a 13-year-old boy inside Pagani who was extremely sick and in urgent need of medical attention for two days already. However, none of the authorities responsible acted. It was only when we called an ambulance it was possible to transport the sick boy to the hospital. We also learnt of a heavily pregnant woman in a very bad health state. She however refused to be brought to the hospital since she didn’t want to leave her other two little children alone in Pagani.

We left with the promise to come back soon and to spread the information about these obvious human rights abuses worldwide and went to the city to confront the attorney responsible with his neglect in taking care of the minors he is in charge of.

One letter we received reads:

We are having hardship times in this worst jail, more than three months in a bad situation, without any supporters except you. The police refuses or rejects to explain our bad situation in this bad jail. We are more than 1.000 prisoners, ladies, guys as well as lots of children. So as a conclusion, please do whatever you can. We are waiting a lot from you, we need our freedom as well as our rights.

Best regards, prisoners

Samos Hunger Strike: almost 600 Samos immigrants go on hunger strike over transfers, expulsions

source: http://ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100002_06/08/2009_109598

The recent government policy of moving illegal immigrants to reception centers in northern Greece before expelling them from the country ran into more trouble yesterday, as 580 migrants being held on Samos went on hunger strike to protest the measure.

The migrants’ complaints were prompted by an attempt by authorities to remove 26 illegal immigrants from the island on Tuesday so that they could be transferred to another center in northern Greece.

Authorities have recently attempted to crack down on illegal immigration by stepping up the number of expulsions, while also taking into custody migrants squatting or renting accommodation in run-down buildings in Athens.

The practice of transferring migrants to northern Greece has, in recent weeks, met with the opposition of human rights campaigners who have attempted to prevent the operations from taking place.

Yesterday’s protest came as sources revealed to Kathimerini that one in three applications made this year to remain here by the families of migrants living legally in Greece will be rejected.

Sources said that some 9,000 applications had been made but that in some 3,000 cases, the requests would be turned down because the migrant who is the main breadwinner in the family was not earning enough money.

According to Greek law, for a migrant’s family to be allowed to remain in Greece, the head of the family must declare an income that is 20 percent more than that of an unskilled laborer, which amounts to 10,200 euros per year before taxes.

Campaigners for migrants’ rights have expressed concern that since, given the current economic conditions, many immigrants’ incomes do not reach this level, their wives and children will be deemed to be living here illegally.

The Interior Ministry said that migrants can appeal any decision to deport their families and instead of a residence permit will be issued with a document confirming their legal status (“veveosi”) that will then be renewed every six months until their case is heard.

Deaths in Kos and Igoumenitsa

from fortresseurope.blogspot

Children in prison in Thessaloniki

August 12, 2009

source: tvxs.gr

Two little girls from Afghanistan were among the immigrants detained in the Border Guard Station of Kordelio outside Thessaloniki. 8 year old Narges and 2 year old Farzona were arrested with their parents trying to board on forged documents on a plane to Stuttgart. Although the public prosecutor decided that the family should be trialed in October 2010, the police arrested them and detained the father and the rest of the family in different police prison spaces. In the mean time the police decision for their deportation was issued. Fortunately the next day a court decision ordered their release and their transfer to an NGO managed reception center.

Aljazeera English, August 3, 2009

Israel evicts Palestinian families

Israeli security forces have forcibly evicted two Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem after a court rejected an appeal against their eviction.

The al-Ghawi and al-Hanoun families who were evicted on Sunday have been living in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood since 1956.

Israel has reportedly set aside the land their houses were built on for a planned hotel project.

The eviction comes amid international calls for Israel to halt settlement activity on occupied Palestinian land.

A large police force was involved in the operation in Sheikh Jarrah, one of the most sensitive and upmarket Arab neighbourhoods closest to the so-called Green Line which separates east and west Jerusalem.

Violent ’scuffles’

Sherine Tadros, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in East Jerusalem, said: “According to the Hanoun family, the members that I have spoken to, at about 6am as they were sleeping inside the house, Israeli police officers broke in and we can see the shattered glass all over the floor outside.

“They say that the police were armed and they forcibly evicted both the international activists that were staying at the house and members of the family themselves.

“Members of the family say the police officers beat them with batons and children as young as six were man-handled … scuffles were seen and heard between the police and the two families trying to get back into their houses,” she said.

Tadros said the international activists were arrested and personal items belonging to the families such as cameras, laptops and computers have all been confiscated.

‘Blatant violation of law’

Residents of the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in East Jerusalem, composed of 28 Palestinian families, held a press conference on May 6 in order to raise awareness regarding the Israeli District Court decision to issue an ultimatum to the al-Ghawi and al-Hanoun families giving them 10 days to evacuate their homes or face punitive measures, including forcible expulsion.

Maher Hanoun, one of 53 family members of the two families affected by the court decision said in a statement: “The al-Ghawi and al-Hanoun cases are part of an ongoing attempt by the two Jewish settler organisations to take over 28 housing units built in 1956 to house refugees and to turn it into a Jewish colony.

“Israel’s measures against the two families constitute blatant violations of international law including the 4th Geneva Convention that obligates the occupying authorities, Israel, to maintain the geographic and demographic characteristics of occupied East Jerusalem,” he said.

Hanoun appealed to the “international community, human rights organisations, and the EU to exert pressure on Israel to stop it from pursuing its plan to ethnically cleanse Jerusalem of its Palestinian population”.

In 1982, Israeli settler organisations began demanding rent from the Palestinian families of Sheikh Jarrah, who at that point had been living in the neighbourhood for almost 30 years – and when many of the families refused to pay this rent, the first eviction orders were issued.

The legal proceedings continued over the years, and in 2006 it was ruled by court that the settler organisations did not have rights to the land, and the Israeli land registration department agreed to revoke the settler associations’ ownership.

Settlement expansion

Despite pending appeals and the lack of legal ownership of land in the neighbourhood, the settler organisations sold their property claim in 2008 to an investment company that plans to demolish the 28 Palestinian homes and build 200 settlement units for new Jewish immigrants.

Further reports state that two additional construction plans being currently reviewed by the Jerusalem municipality would create an additional 150 housing units, for a total of 350 new housing units for Israelis, as well as a synagogue in Sheikh Jarrah.

Settlements have emerged as a major sticking point in relations between Israel and the administration of Barack Obama, the US president.

Although Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, recently yielded to US pressure to conditionally endorse the establishment of a Palestinian state, he has consistently resisted US demands for a total freeze on settlement expansion.

Israel annexed East Jerusalem and declared the whole city its capital after the 1967 Six Day War, a move not recognised by the international community

Deportations spark outcry

Earlier on Saturday, thousands of Israeli and migrant workers, including children, formed a human chain in Tel Aviv in protest at Israel’s decision to deport families of illegal aliens, most of them from Africa.

Israel had set an August 1 deadline to expel illegal migrants and their children, even those who grew up in the country, triggering an outcry among human rights groups.

According to the interior ministry, some 300,000 illegal aliens – including 100,000 migrants, tourists who overstayed their visit and Palestinians – live in Israel which is home to seven million inhabitants.

But human rights groups have said that these figures are inflated.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

Joel

Joel Beinin, of Jewish Peace News,  adds:

Stand Up for Jerusalem has posted videos <http://bit.ly/xu92J> of Israeli police evicting two Palestinian families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem at 5:00 am on August 2.  One of the families, the Hijazi family, claims to have deeds to the property dating to the 19th century.  The Sephardic Community Committee also claims to have owned the properties before the 1948 War.  Twenty-eight Palestinian refugee families were resettled in Sheikh Jarrah by the UN and the Jordanian government, which occupied East Jerusalem during the war.  After Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967 they were granted the status of “protected” tenants (meaning ordinarily they could not be evicted).  The putative Jewish owners claimed the two families were delinquent in their rent and therefore subject to eviction.  With the consent of the Sephardic Community Committee, settlers have already occupied the homes.

This appears to be a further step in the process of “judaizing” Sheikh Jarrah, a project which has been under way for some time.  Nahalat Shimon International, a settler-related real estate group which also claims to have an Ottoman-era deed, has been seeking to build a 200-unit settlement named Shimon Ha-Tzadik in the area. Settlers already occupy several other houses in the neighborhood.

A full report on the legal background to the case is available at the website of ‘Ir ‘Amim, an NGO that seeks an equitable and shared Jerusalem in the framework of an agreed political future. <http://bit.ly/1bu3Fd>

The Sheikh Jarrah evictions have aroused a storm of international protest from the USA, UK, the EU, Sweden, Egypt, and others. Secretary of State Clinton called the eviction “a very regrettable action,” and the Israeli Ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, was called in for a scolding.  Verbal protests seem unlikely to be enough to halt the Netanyahu government’s determination to build more Jewish colonies in East Jerusalem.