Protesters hurled rocks and metal bars at police lines, set off fires and trashed the facility on the outskirts of Bari. Police responded with tear gas and live rounds fired into the air and 30 protesters were arrested.

The rioters blocked a main road and railway for several hours, disrupting regional train services and car traffic. A passing bus was also wrecked.

Local officials later intervened and persuaded the protesters to stand down after the authorities undertook to respond to their requests by next Wednesday.

The asylum-seekers returned to the facility, Italian news media reported.

“Those found to be responsible for these actions should be punished,” junior interior minister Alfredo Mantovano told reporters.

Fabio Rizzi, a senator for the anti-immigration Northern League party, a member of the ruling coalition, said: “The attack on law enforcement by North African immigrants in Bari cannot be written off simply as a protest.”

“We ask prosecutors to investigate fully and begin deportations,” he said.

But Rosa Calipari, a senator from the centre-left opposition Democratic Party, said: “The government should review its policies and adopt measures that are more reasonable and more respectful of human rights.”

“Holding innocent people in a prison is intolerable,” she said.

Clashes also broke out Monday in Isola Isola Cap Rizzuto in the southern region of Calabria where 30 asylum seekers had gathered outside an immigrant centre and blocked a main road. A policeman was slightly injured in the scuffle and two protestors were arrested.

Yesterday’s protests were the latest in a series of riots at refugee centres in Italy filled with African migrant workers fleeing Libya in recent weeks.

Eight police officers were injured overnight on Saturday in a riot by detainees at a centre outside Rome, who burned mattresses and threw bottles.

There were similar scenes last week at a refugee centre in Sicily in which 300 asylum-seekers blocked a road and set off fires in the facility.

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110802/world/migrants-clash-with-police-in-italy.378363

On their way back a group of 50 Afghans and a few Greeks was suddenly attacked by two dozens of police. Riot police wanted to give the Afghans a lesson, so they suddenly just started beating them, blindly attacking a group of demonstrators. The first Afghans attacked fell to the ground from the beatings and were arrested thereafter for unknown reasons. Most people ran away, but at least 10 people were injured – some of them badly. Among them were also minors. One of them had to be brought to hospital, while there were rumours that another Afghan had been attacked by fascists near St. Nicholaos with a metal pipe. His leg was broken in two places…

Read more (& more pictures) here

It’s the first time that an EU country has seen its treatment of refugees described as a humanitarian crisis by the UNHCR. This report gets to the heart of the escalating tensions in Greece.

“I’ve seen too many. They cross the river like bees”, sighs a local fisherman. With as many as 400 people crossing the Evros river each day, arrests of illegal immigrants in Greece have exploded from 3,500 to 20,000 in a year. Most choose to turn themselves in, but they have no idea what awaits them. Infested with rats, Greece’s detention centres are now critically overcrowded. Those who try to avoid this fate end up on the streets, such as in Attica Square, home to hundreds of Afghan refugees. With no government support, crime is rife here, and as frustration builds, racial attacks by local vigilantes are escalating beyond control. Ghulam’s family sleep on a bench in the square – his four-year-old son was recently attacked in the middle of the night. “If I’d stayed in Afghanistan I might have been beaten, but they would have at least spared my children. I cannot believe this is Europe.”

police force at the horrible camp

The horrible living conditions in the Venna detention centre, a refugee camp located 30 minutes outside the northern Greek city of Komotini, was the spark that fueled over 100 protestors to converge on the site on Sunday. Among the protest group were doctors, lawyers and members of the No Borders Assembly.

The group was met at the site in Venna by a police force that also had around 100 members, among them much riot police. The group of activists was there to protest while the doctors among the group checked the health and living conditions of those inside the detention centre.

A clash between the protest group and riot police began after the police attacked the group on no provocation at all. The police threw stones at the protestors and then moved in on them with their clubs, injuring two people after hitting them in the face and head. Some members of the riots squad were also injured in the clash.

Three people were arrested and transferred to the police station in Komotini but the rest of the protest group was stopped from entering the town after the police blocked the Egnatia highway.

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read also:

• Italy: revolt for life and dignity 2
• Italy: revolt for life and dignity

MONDAY, 11 JANUARY 2010

‘Mafia’ Provocation Behind ‘Race Riots’ In Southern Italy

More details have emerged since the ‘riots’ in Rosarno at the end of last week and it now appears that the attack by local youths on Friday was the final insult in a long line of provocations.

The migrants from sub-Saharan Africa have been a common site in Italy for decades. In southern Italy they move en masse from the grape harvest in Sicily, via the orange, tangerine and kiwi harvests in Calabria and the olive picking in Apulia. Local farmers have relied on them since the ‘native’ agricultural workforce evaporated. Instead, the 8000 or so ‘clandestini’ in Calabria pick fruit and vegetables for 12 to 14 hours a day for 20 to 25 euros and many are regularly forced to pay kickback of up to a quarter of their wages to local gangsters in the ‘Ndrangheta, the regional version of the mafia.

They also have to pay for the squalid abandoned building that they are forced to sleep in. In Rosarno, for example, about 1,000 were living in a disused food warehouse with 8 chemical toilets, 3 showers, no electricity and, until last year, no running water. Many are paperless, are therefore illegally employed and therefore easy targets for exploitation by farmers and gangster alike. In the words of the anti-mafia priest Luigi Ciotti, “The mafia cynically exploits the immigrants. The criminal masterminds know that clandestine immigrants will not even try to revolt because they have no ID and no state protection.” Robberies and beatings at gun-point are also common.

In December 2008, during the citrus harvest, an unidentified gunman walked into a factory where hundreds of the migrants were sleeping and shot 2 of them. One, a 21-year-old from the Ivory Coast, was seriously injured. As part of a peaceful protest in Rosarno, the ‘clandestini’ reported the attack to the police and complained about the routine robberies and shootings by ‘Ndrangheta gangs they have to endure. Interestingly, one of the building they visited in that protest was the house of an old boss in the Pesce-Bellocco clan, a powerful local ‘Ndrangheta, something the Calabrians would never do according to anti-mafia experts.

Now it appears that the local residents, who have for years lived peacefully alongside the seasonal migrants, turned to the ‘Ndrangheta to try and drive the ‘clandestini’ out because of the lack of local field work. The violent reaction by the migrants to the provocation on Thursday allowed the towns people, who included a number of local ‘Ndrangheta clan members according to the police, to exploit the situation and according to Luigi Manconi, a senator in the last Prodi government, turn Rosarno into “the only wholly white town in the world. Not even South African apartheid obtained such a result.“

On Friday, ostensibly in response to the sit down protest by the migrants in the town square and to the cars damaged and the smashed windows, Rosarno residents occupied the town hall demanding the migrants be removed. Others armed with metal bars, wooden clubs and shotguns set up barricades and clashed with the police. Many conducted ‘manhunts’, beating up stray migrants. Two Africans were shot in the legs and 3 others ended up in hospital with serious injuries, one undergoing emergency brain surgery. In other incidents police arrested people for trying to run over migrants with cars and, in one case, even a bulldozer. All told, 67 people were injured: 31 immigrants, 19 police and 17 residents.

On Saturday townspeople cheered as the migrants left in buses laid on by the police, voluntarily at first but later police forcibly removed the remainder “for their own protection”. Others left by train, many without collecting their pay. More than 800 were transferred to reception centres in Crotone and Bari. In Crotone, 170km away, more than half of those whose cases had been examined had temporary residence permits and will be released. The others however are destined for internment in CIEs and deportation. In scenes reminiscent of the ‘Jungle’ clearences in Northern France, the local Fire Brigade bulldozed the migrants’ shacks and tents in the derelict factory, destroying the meagre possessions they had been forced to leave behind.

The locals were clearly happy to see the back of the ‘clandestini’, “We don’t want them back,” claimed one local landowner. “We gave the negroes clothes and food, we even gave them meals for Christmas.” No one should “take us for racists” he added without recognising the irony of his comments. Also not recognising the irony of its comments, Il Giornale, the newspaper owned by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, asked on Saturday, “Rather than shooting negroes, shoot the mafia. Why won’t Calabrians shoot the mafia? Immigrants are poor and weak, ugly and dirty, perfect targets … Organised crime which keeps security forces in check is powerful, violent, revengeful and therefore must not be bothered.” Clearly the Italian sense of humour does not translatte well.

Finally, on Saturday in nearby Gioia Tauro, a few miles from Rosarno, a group of men in a car shot another African man with an air rifle, showing that the ‘problem’ will not be solved by merely busing out the ‘clandestini’. The locals may have wanted them gone but who will pick next year’s harvest? Roberto Calderoli, a leading member of the Northern League suggests that with unemployment at 18% in the south, jobs should go to Italian citizens. Agricultural sector wages should be increased so that Italians would accept this type of work. Yet currently there is fruit rotting on the trees, fruit that the local farmers claim that they cannot afford to pay anyone to pick, even at slave-wage levels.

Ku Klux Clan

The front page of the leftist Italian newspaper Il Manifesto sums up the background to the riots in Italy succinctly. In Italy ‘clan’ refers to a criminal gang, so they are basically saying that the ‘Ndrangheta are racists and they provoked the riots in order to induce the police to evacuate the migrants and sort out their problem of having too many foreign fruit pickers in the area for too little work. And they got to save money as well because the migrants left without picking up their wages.

And here is a video of some of the conditions that the fruit pickers were forced to live in. Very reminiscent of Calais.

In a typical denialist fashion, Andrea Ronchi, Italy’s European affairs minister, was quick to jump to the defence of his country in the face of severe condemnation of the United Nations, the EU Commission and even the Pope. Here’s what he had to say:

“In Italy, there is no racism. It does not exist. It is an accusation made by people who do not know Italy.”

“We will give them (those making the accusation) a free tour, at our expense, to show them what there is in Italy: solidarity and welcome. But it is true there is a violent phenomenon – illegal immigration.”

“These accusations are the fruit of a left-wing culture no longer in step with citizens. Italy is the most welcoming country in Europe, and anyone accusing us of racism is stupid.”

“Italy has been alone on the economic and political front, facing the urgent problem of illegal immigration. I criticise Europe for wasting time in creating a refugees’ rights agency.”

“We Are Not Animals!” Italy’s Racial Riots and Their Aftermath

MARIA RITA LATTO (January 11, 2010)

Rage and fear. This is what comes out of the images from Rosarno, a small town near the western coast of Calabria, where violent clashes broke out after two African immigrants were wounded by a pellet gun attack by white youths in a car.

“Those guys were firing at us as if it was a fairground,” one of the men told La Repubblica newspaper. “They were laughing, I was screaming, other cars were passing by but nobody stopped them.”

The reaction to the events was furious. More than 2,000 African immigrants, most of whom employed illegally as farm laborers, blamed the episode on racism and gathered in the town centre to demonstrate against the shooting and their living and working conditions. Some chanted “We are not animals”, others carried placards saying “Italians here are racist.” Their protest continued leading to violence in the streets of Rosarno; the crowd set cars on fire, stoned the police, attacked residents and smashed shop windows. Police said that at least 60 people were wounded, including immigrants themselves, locals and policemen.

Photo: Rosarno firefighters demolish an illegal immigrants

This situation lasted three days. Some Italian residents, armed with iron bars and wooden staves, erected roadblocks next to buildings where immigrant farm workers live. Some local people occupied the City Council building demanding that the police cleared the immigrants out of the town. Domenico Ventre, the former head of civil protection department of Rosarno’s council, condemned the rioting. “In Rosarno the immigrants are well cared of, and their reaction to this isolated episode is disproportionate,” he said. “We cannot accept that they destroy our town and scare the citizens.” Other citizens, afraid to venture into the streets, holed up in their homes, the media reported. “You would step out and buy some bread only because you have to eat, but if I could choose I wouldn’t go out for an evening walk,” said Renato Cortese, a top police official interviewed for the evening news.

The Minister of Interior, Roberto Maroni, in charge of State Police, sent over 200 police officers because of the highly inflamed situation; schools and shops were closed. Those who were injuried more seriously were three immigrants: two were beaten up with metal bars, doctors at the emergency room in a hospital near Rosarno said. One had kidney surgery and the other was treated for an eye socket fracture. A third was taken to Reggio Calabria for brain surgery.

Several immigrants were arrested together with some Italians including two who tried to hit the demonstrators with their vehicles. Calm was generally restored on Saturday 9, with barricades erected by locals dismantled and shops open.

Authorities, applauded by the locals, transferred more than 1,000 people, mostly illegal temporary workers from sub-Saharan Africa, to immigrant centres around Italy in an operation that lasted throughout Sunday. Even workers with regular residence permits left the town to escape a situation that a political commentator compared to the Ku Klux Klan racial violence in the United States in the 1960s. Immigrants without regular papers risk expulsion to their country of origin as the authorities began demolishing their former makeshift homes in Rosarno. Minister Maroni said the government had “brilliantly restored public order” and thanked the police for organizing the exodus “in an exemplary way.”

A protest of such size was never seen in Italy before, despite frequent episodes of intolerance against immigrants—some reported by the media and many, too many, remaining untold for fear or humiliation.

This time, though, something new happened. Hunger exploded. Immigrants had camped out in tents and cardboard shelters within an abandoned cheese factory with no heating, running water or electricity on the outskirts of Rosarno. Human rights groups add that they are easily exploited by organized crime. Rosarno’s priest, Don Carmelo Ascone, described their living conditions as “something similar to Dante’s Inferno”.

According to the CGIL public sector union, about 26,400 immigrants were employed in Calabria’s agriculture sector in 2007; fewer than 7,000 of them held regular working permits, a situation which is common all over Italy. And immigrants in Calabria add they earn illegally low wages, as little as 20 euros ($30) for a 12-hour day picking citrus fruit and other crops. Despite chronically high unemployment rates in Italy’s underdeveloped South, many residents refuse to do the backbreaking seasonal farm work. This, coupled with frequent episodes of racism and intolerance, eventually sparked the riots in Rosarno.

This spiral of violence stirred many reactions in the country. Opposition politicians accused Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s coalition, which includes an openly xenophobic party, the Lega Nord, of failing to allow the immigrants to find proper housing and jobs, which are necessary to get regular residence permits. Minister Maroni, a member of the Lega Nord party, replied by suggesting that the violence resuted from a general failure to address the issue of illegal workers in the country. “The situation in Rosarno, like in other places, is difficult because illegal immigration—which feeds criminal activities—has been tolerated for years and nothing effective was never done about it,” he told La Repubblica newspaper. But the leader of the centre-left Democratic Party Pierluigi Bersani commented that it is Berlusconi and the right-wing that have been governing the country for most of the past decade: “Maroni is passing the buck … We have to go to the roots of the problem: mafia, exploitation, xenophobia, and racism.”

The right-wing daily Il Giornale, owned by the family of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, agreed that illegal immigrants should be kept out of the country. However, it added: “Once they are here, they cannot be shamefully exploited and shot at while they accept jobs that our unemployed sneer at.”

Father Luigi Ciotti, founder of the anti-mafia association Libera, pointed the finger at the ‘Ndrangheta, the local criminal organization that dominates Calabria. “The mafia, which controls the region, cynically and pitilessly exploits the immigrants,” he told the daily La Stampa. “The criminal bosses know that illegal immigrants cannot even try to rebel because they have no identity documents and therefore no protection from the state.” According to Italy’s main trade union CGIL, about 50,000 immigrant workers in Italy live in poor conditions similar to those in Rosarno. The union also accused the mafia of controlling the “industry” of illegal labor saying that immigrants are paid “miserable salaries and have terrible hours, similar to slavery”.

Agazio Loiero, the governor of the Calabria region and a member of the Democratic Party, told Sky TV that the violence was “unacceptable” but that the migrants had been “strongly provoked.”

Pope Benedict departed from the prepared text of his weekly Angelus blessing to appeal for tolerance. “An immigrant is a human being, different in origin, culture and tradition but he is a person with rights and duties who must be respected,” he told the crowd in Saint Peter’s Square.

These words peace seem so far from the nightmare of Rosarno where tolerance was a mere word, a mirage in a desert of resentment, in a war of poor against poor. It is impossible to forget the images of the riots on television, the rage of exasperated locals, or those mothers holding their children, protesting under the windows of the Town Hall, yelling “Bastards! Shame on you!” against those who fed the immigrants after hours of absurd, surreal and yet so real fight.

Is this the real face of Italy? Is this Calabria? Just two months ago, at the 10th Summit of the Nobel Peace Laureates in Berlin German director Wim Wenders told a different story about Calabria, where he recently shot his latest movie “The Flight”. Based on a true story, the movie is about two towns, Badolato and Riace, that opened some of the houses abandoned by Calabrian emigrants to foreign refugees, making a true miracle of social integration. Wenders described this experience as “the most beautiful thing of my life,” addying: “Utopia is not the fall of Berlin Wall, but what I witnessed there. People often talk of a global village and I believe that those two Calabrian towns are the perfect metaphor of this idea.”

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/12/italy-immigrants-violence-mafia/print

Southern Italy’s shame

Violence is blamed on immigrants, though they are used as slaves – a welcome distraction for mob-owned industry

Tana de Zulueta

guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 12 January 2010 09.57 GMT

The manhunt in the citrus groves of the plain of Gioa Tauro, in Italy’s deep south, should be over at last. On Saturday a young African man was shot and wounded as he fled through the trees with two friends, hopefully the last victim of local villagers’ fury. More than a thousand men, mostly Africans, have been rounded up and bussed out of the area for their own safety after a sometimes two-day standoff between immigrant workers and local residents in the village of Rosarno. Improvised roadblocks put up by furious residents have been dismantled and police reinforcements ordered in. Law and order re-established, in appearance at least. So are we all going to roll over and forget about the whole thing?

We shouldn’t. Gioia Tauro and its neighbouring villages are part of Italy’s mafia badlands. Local government is so heavily infiltrated by the mob that both Gioia Tauro and Rosarno have had their mayors and local councils suspended. Police officers always patrol this area in well-armed groups of three or four, and only rarely at night. Certainly not for fear of the African fruit-pickers, many of them irregular migrants, who stream in during the winter months, when oranges and tangerines are in season, camping in empty warehouses and lining the roads at dawn to be hired for €20 a day.

What makes this area dangerous is the ‘Ndrangheta, the mafia’s Calabrian cousins, now rated more powerful than their Sicilian counterparts because of their world-wide drug-trafficking activities. This week a powerful bomb went off outside the region’s chief prosecutor’s office. The ‘Ndrangheta’s way, so the prosecutor suggested, of opening a conversation.

The wonder is, in this climate, how the fruit-pickers dared riot at all. Their march on the town had been preceded by a drive-by shooting against the miserable camp outside town where they live, which was not the first incidence of violence in the area, as Vittorio Longhi wrote here. But the timing, so local anti-mafia experts suggest, was not accidental. Recent convictions and property seizures by the courts have been hurting mafia business. Having a police appointee running the local authority in a port town like Gioia Tauro may also be viewed as an unwelcome intrusion. The riot, in any case, has concentrated the police force’s mind on other matters. A welcome distraction, from the mobsters’ point of view.

Italy’s interior minister, Roberto Maroni, has repeatedly blamed the troubles in Rosarno on previous governments’ “lax” immigration policies. The remark was out of place, and not just because the current rightwing majority headed by Silvio Berlusconi has been in government for most of the past decade, which means that the flow of immigrants into the country has largely taken place under their watch. It is a flow that will continue unchecked if the country’s informal economy is left to prosper. Nowhere is this plainer than in the citrus groves round Gioia Tauro.

Twenty years ago the leaders of a local fruit-pickers’ union were intimidated and some of their members killed by members of the ‘Ndrangheta families who were shifting their new-found fortunes into local real estate. That battle is long over. There is no longer any such thing as unionised farm labour in the valley. Court documents show that much local agriculture is now in the hands of criminal syndicates. The local gang masters who ply their brutal trade in the area are all working under the ‘Ndrangheta’s fief. They are the ones who seek out the meekest and cheapest workers: irregular migrants who can be blackmailed into accepting low pay and who are desperate for any work they can get. The result is something similar to slavery, but it is a problem the government chooses to ignore.

Workplace and health inspectors steer well clear of the squalid camps in which foreign workers huddle during the fruit-picking season here and elsewhere in southern Italyy. The more lawless the area, the more brazen the exploitation. Doctors without Borders, the international medical NGO whose Italian branch has conducted two surveys on the health of irregular agricultural migrant workers in Italy, has described the living conditions in some of these camps as worse than those of refugee camps in Africa. A volunteer on one of these surveys, conducted in Rosarno, recalls the shock of finding men and women living in cardboard and plastic hovels, with no running water, many of them with severe health and nutrition problems. “It was worse than anything I’ve seen in Africa. Those people were desperate.”

So desperate that they rebelled. Personally, I would describe as far worse than lax a government which lets such rotten trade-offs prosper undisturbed.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

source: http://www.i-italy.org/12458/while-calabria-burns

“I came here to find heaven; I found hell”

ROME – While Calabria burns, Rome fiddles (or rather, composes songs) and speaks of love.

The burning is literal. In the town of Rosarno, Carabinieri and police summoned from elsewhere in Italy to quell Friday’s revolt by an estimated 2,000 immigrants (of a total in Rosarno of 5,000) found a stunning arsenal of weaponry in the hands of the local population. In one punishment squad car were large cans of gasoline at the ready for burning down the immigrants’ shacks, plus iron bars and clubs. Elsewhere police uncovered a cache of heavy weapons, from Kalashnikovs to a missile-launcher with its long-range missile ready for firing.

The situation was grave enough that the clashes at Rosarno ignited a sympathy demonstration in Rome, with immigrants’ clashing there with police. On Sunday Pope Benedict XIV appealed for greater respect for immigrants, referring specifically to Rosarn.

The battle that began in Rosarno, which lies more or less on the toenail of the boot of Italy, began with a couple of bored young hoods amusing themselves by firing an air gun at black immigrants returning “home” (so to speak) after work. This was not the first such incident, but this one spread from the streets to a highway on the outskirts, where local thugs set up improvised roadblocks. The hunt for the black devil then led into the picturesque countryside, where the immigrants live in shanties without running water (read: without toilets), not to mention electricity. “I came here to find Heaven. I found Hell,” said one despairing Ghanaian, who, as it happened, is a university graduate with a degree in engineering.

Two black immigrant workers were kneecapped, others beaten. No one was safe: one local woman, seeing a black being beaten, intervened. To punish her, her fellow citizens destroyed her car. The flip side was that another local woman, a pretty young mother, was set upon by rampaging immigrant workers and had to abandon her car, which was then torched.

But Rosarno is also the town whose elected mayor and and councilmen were legally declared ‘Ndrangheta-“infiltrated” thirteen months ago and replaced by a commissioner from the Prefecture, which is to say a police official.

There is a connection between clandestine migrant workers and the town’s certification as a center for organized crime. Although it has existed only forty years, today Calabria’s ‘Ndrangheta is Italy’s, and for that matter Europe’s, wealthiest and most powerful criminal network. Its fairly recent formation, as compared with the Sicilian Mafia or even the Camorra, is part of its success. The ‘Ndrangheta is still a family affair, whose comparatively recent migration into countries like Germany and the U.S. has made it difficult to penetrate. The Calabrian bosses live without the ostentation that the drug-rich Sicilian Mafiosi exhibited in the Palermo of the Eighties, but they wallow in money from cocaine, the arms traffic (police believe that the arms cache discovered Saturday came to Italy from Russia via Africa), extortion and agriculture. “How else can the consumer buy canned tomatoes in supermarkets for such a low price?” one investigator said.

From a fairly low number of immigrant workers today Italy has something like 1.4 million. In the South these clandestine workers are seasonal: in summer they pick tomatoes, in the autumn olives, in winter oranges and lemons. By their own accounts, they work 12-hour days, for which they receive E. 25 ($37). Of this E. 5 goes to the caporale, or boss, who recruits them by the day, and another E. 2 or 3 goes to the driver of the bus who takes them to the farm offering work. Italian press reports say that these caporali are ‘Ndrangheta underlings or at least mob trustees. Needless to say, the pay is under the table, with no questions asked concerning labor laws, worker safety, working hours, job conditions, taxation, or welfare contributions by the employer.

Sunday’s editorial by La Repubblica editor-in-chief Eugenio Scalfari listed the government ministries and agencies which ought to have taken notice of and dealt with this specifically Southern Italian problem : the Ministries of Agriculture, Labor, Productive Activities and the Interior, and the Prefecture, the Carabinieri and the Regional Governor. (To this list I would add the Ministry of Finance, since the plantation owners are not declaring taxes and not making welfare contributions.) So where has everyone been, he asks: how is it that no one in charge noticed the mob-related exploitation?

Ironically, in the North, where the anti-immigrant sentiment is strong, immigrants are dealt with in a more coherent way, with a certain amount of community counseling and organization. The Northern League’s rhetoric continues to demand Italy for the Italians, and to attack those in the Church who urge better treatment of the immigrants, yet they know full well that their network of small- and medium-sized factories would shut down without the workers from abroad.

Medecins sans frontieres (MSF) has a program to help immigants at Rosarno; to read its hair-raising report about conditions there, see:

http://www.msf.org/msfinternational

and one more report of one year ago, by MSF http://www.msf.org.uk/a_season_in_hell.show

A Season in Hell

MSF Report on the Conditions of Migrants employed in the Agricultural Sector in Southern Italy January 2008

PREMISE

Mιdecins Sans Frontiθres (MSF) chose the title “A Season in Hell” because it reflects the experience of thousands of migrants as they make their way between regions in the southern Italian countryside seeking employment as seasonal workers in the agricultural sector. To find gainful employment, migrants have no choice other than to accept miserable pay, poor living conditions and exclusion from the surrounding community. The plight of these migrants is a skeleton in the closet of mayors, state forces, labour departments, protection associations and ministries who are aware of the situation yet keep quiet on the subject. The use of low-cost labour, illegal recruitment, the denial of acceptable living conditions and the lack of access to medical care are all known and tolerated; national and local institutions turn a blind eye to the massive exploitation of foreigners in the agricultural sector in the south because their labour is required to sustain local economies. The aim of this report is two-fold: to express MSF’s dissatisfaction with the deplorable state of affairs that harms the dignity of migrants and to safeguard the fundamental right of access to healthcare.

METHOD

From July to November 2007, a mobile Mιdecins Sans Frontiθres (MSF) team conducted a survey on health and the living and working conditions of migrants employed as seasonal workers in southern Italy. The survey sought to evaluate the living and working conditions of the seasonal foreign workers in agriculture, as well as assess potential improvements to their conditions with respect to a previous survey conducted in 20041. MSF examined 643 immigrants and distributed 600 questionnaires for the survey. The reference population was estimated at several thousands of migrants employed in the fields and in the greenhouses of various localities in southern Italy. The chart below shows the locations the MSF team visited, highlighting the regions, localities and types of crops grown in the area. Period 9-20/07 22/0701/08 6-22/08 22-25/08 30/0822/09 23-30/9 1-4/10 5-20/11 Region Locality Campania Piana del Sele Lazio Province of Latina Puglia Province of Foggia Basilicata Metaponto (MT) Sicilia Puglia Basilicata Calabria Valle del Belice Province of Foggia Palazzo San Gervasio (PZ) Piana di Gioia Tauro Crop Intensive agriculture: tomatoes, peaches, strawberries, courgettes, etc. Intensive agriculture: tomatoes, kiwi, courgettes, melons, etc. Tomatoes Melons Grapes Tomatoes, grapes Tomatoes Citrus fruits.

In 2004 MSF conducted an initial survey of seasonal migrants, the results of which were published in the report: The fruit of hypocrisy. Sinnos Ed., Rome 2005.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Gender and age Almost all the interviewees were young men (97%), aged between 20 and 40 (84%). Women accounted for only 3% of the sample and were mainly citizens of new EU member states such as Bulgaria and Romania. Countries of origin The migrants examined and interviewed were from: · Sub-Saharan African countries including Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia; · North African countries including Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt; · South-east Asian countries, particularly from India; · New European Union member countries, particularly Bulgarian and Romanian citizens2 of the Romany ethnic group; Juridical status · 72% of those interviewed did not have a regular residential visa 3; · 28% had a residential visa for working or humanitarian reasons, had obtained refugee status or had filed for asylum. Asylum seekers and refugees 4 Once their application has been examined, asylum seekers leave the identification centres with either a refusal, a permit of stay for humanitarian reasons or refugee status. The lack of a proper reception system for refugees contributes to the exploitation of migrant workers in the southern Italian countryside and of those fleeing war and persecution. In Italy, the reception network for refugees, asylum seekers and holders of humanitarian protection, which is overseen by the Protection Service for Asylum Seekers and Refugees (SPRAR), are, as of 2006, allotted approximately 2,500 spaces5, to accommodate the approximately 10,000 requests for asylum presented each year. This is in addition to the thousands of refugees and humanitarian protection holders already recognised in the territory. These people, who lack housing and a stable income, are often forced to move from one part of the country to another, thus becoming easy prey on the circuit of illegal labour.

Period of stay on site

66.5% of those interviewed declared that they had been in the location where MSF visited them for less than 4 months; this data highlights the seasonal aspect of migrants who travel following the periods of harvest. In the Eboli and Battipaglia localities in Campania and in Latina in the Lazio region, a more permanent population, which claims to have been living and working in the area for more than 12 months, has been recorded. This data is explained by the year-round harvesting possibilities in the area.

WORKING CONDITIONS

“The typical day of a migrant employed as a seasonal worker starts at about 4.30 in the morning when they go to the recruitment spots. Squares, junctions and roads are the places in which the supply and demand of underground labour meet. Tens, sometimes hundreds of migrants wait in the hope of being recruited by a charge hand or by the landowner himself. Those who are not chosen go back “home”, to wait for another “opportunity”.

Citizens of new EU member states have been present in the area since January 2007, as a result of no longer being subject to expulsion measures, except for reasons of safety or public order, and can remain freely in Italy for short periods of time (less than 3 months) without formalities. 3 Legal migrants also include asylum seekers and refugees but those who were denied refugee status are counted amongst the illegal migrants. For a brief outline on Italian immigration laws, see the Enclosure Notes on national legislation on immigration pg. 28

The data in the “Annual Report on the Protection System for Asylum Seekers and Refugees ­ year 2006″, by Census ­ Anci Servizi edition, shows that SPRAR has witnessed the involvement of 95 Local Bodies with more than 100 projects, that have made available 2,428 reception spaces, making it possible to give protection to 5,347 people, 440 of whom in projects destined to vulnerable categories.

People fleeing from war and personal persecution who file an application for protection with the State of Italy.

Riccardo, MSF project coordinator · 90% of the sample interviewed declared that they did not have a work contract, nor did they enjoy any legal protection in terms of pay, accidents in the workplace or social security. This is a massive phenomenon of exploitation that also affects seasonal workers with a permit of stay; On average, seasonal workers are employed less than 4 days a week, as 67% of those interviewed declared. The length of the working day tends to be between 8 to 10 hours; Half of the workers earn a sum between 26 and 40 euros a day, whereas slightly more than a third earn 25 euros or less per day. The pay is agreed upon at the place of recruitment and may be calculated per day or per job, i.e. by the number of cases of fruit or vegetables collected. In the Foggia area, for example, MSF operators found that a foreign labourer earns between 4 and 6 euros for collecting a crate of tomatoes weighing 350 kilos; 37% of the migrants interviewed declared that between 3 and 5 euros were taken from their daily pay to be handed over to the charge hands.

“A., a young man of 22, fled from the dramatic Darfur situation three years ago. He was recently treated by the MSF team for a contused wound on his lip; the result of an assault by the charge hand. A few days earlier, he had complained to other members of the community about the poor pay for his work. The charge hand, for demonstrative purposes, beat him up in front of the entire community to set an example against speaking out”. The labour of seasonal workers contributes to the sustenance of the agricultural sector that is crucial to southern Italy’s economy. However, the working conditions discovered in the study areas relegate these people to conditions of extreme poverty. Although the common goal of migration is to financially support one’s family at home, 38% of the seasonal workers interviewed by MSF do not manage to transfer money to their country of origin because they are barely able to survive.

LIVING CONDITIONS

“Here, as you can see, we are in an awful state: we have no water or light, we go the bathroom in dirt, we often lack food to eat and during the winter months we risk dying of cold. We really need help. Living in these conditions, I cannot begin to imagine having a future.” A., 20 years old from Mali, lives in the Foggia countryside From the data collected by MSF, the shocking picture found in 2004 emerges once again: most of the migrants who are employed as seasonal workers live in deplorable sanitary conditions, in a state of extreme poverty and social exclusion. These conditions expose the seasonal workers to acts of violence and intolerance and, once again, confirm the almost total lack of measures aimed at ensuring minimum standards of reception. · · · · 65% of the immigrants interviewed live in abandoned structures; 20% live in rented spaces; 10% live in tents or in a reception camp set up by the local authorities; 5% of the sample has no other option than to sleep on the roadside or in town squares.

The data concerning conditions of over-crowding and the poor quality of housing structures is just as alarming. 21% have to share their mattress with one or more people and 53% sleep on the ground, on top of a mat or piece of cardboard. The following data reveals the lack of services for guaranteeing minimum conditions of health and hygiene:

62% of those interviewed do not have facilities for human waste where they live. In these cases, they are forced to use the fields; 64% do not have access to running water and must travel substantial distances to reach the closest water point. To get water for themselves, 44% use makeshift sources such as irrigation pipes and outdoor taps; 69% do not have electricity and use candles for light; In 92% of cases, the housing does not have heating. Due to the poor thermal insulation of the rooms, the immigrants suffer from cold and dampness during the autumn and winter months.

“And then at night I cannot go out because of the Italian guys who beat us up with glass bottles, who insult us. There are guys here who have been beaten up and we are scared to go to the hospital and to the police. I have also been beaten up twice, once with a stick and the second time they threw bottles at me from a car.” H, who comes from Morocco, was interviewed in Campania According to the testimony collected, in some cases migrants are subject to acts of intolerance and violence; 16% report having been victims of episodes of violence, falling prey to launches of stones and other foreign objects as well as verbal attacks.

ACCESS TO CARE AND CONDITIONS OF HEALTH

H. comes from Morocco, is 26 years of age, and lives in the ex-fruit and vegetable market in San Nicola Varco which is occupied by hundreds of migrants; MSF met him at 11 o’clock in the morning. He complained of having severe abdominal pain for the past three days. He had called 118 (Emergency Aid) and was waiting for an ambulance. He asked for a lift in the car up to the state road because the ambulance refused to drive into the area. At 5 p.m., MSF returned and found the patient was still in a state of severe pain- he reported having been treated with a blend of painkillers and discharged. The diagnosis of the Emergency Department was “painful abdominal syndrome”. The MSF doctor examined him and suspected acute appendicitis; the patient was accompanied to another Emergency Department where tests confirmed this diagnosis. H. was operated on urgently. Since 19986, Italian law guarantees access to care for all migrants present in the territory, whether legal or illegal. Legal migrants in possession of a regular permit of stay7 are obliged to register with the NHS, 8 which will then issue a health card . Illegal migrants are granted the right “to urgent and essential clinical and hospital care, even if continuative, for sickness or injury”9 and to preventative medicine. Irregular migrants may request an assigned TPM (Temporary Present Migrant) code, which is renewable and valid throughout the country for six months. In relation to this legislative framework, the data collected by MSF brings to light a number of problems that are related to access to care by foreign nationals employed in the agricultural sector: · · 71% of the migrants interviewed do not have a health card; 2 years after their arrival in Italy, 59% of irregular migrants still do not have a TPM card, while 47% of regular immigrants are not registered with the NHS.

According to data gathered by MSF, the migrant population employed in agriculture is young, with 75% of people examined under the age of 30. 76% of the patients claimed to have reached Italy in good health.10 Nevertheless, at the time of the MSF evaluation, at least one suspected diagnosis was formulated for 72% of the patients, 73% of those were found to be a chronic disease. For the remaining 24%, ailments were mostly minor.

Main diagnoses:

· In 22% of cases, osteo-muscular conditions were diagnosed. Lumbago and/or lumbago-sciatica were the most frequent. Lumbago may be caused by a number of factors but there is a strong link between lumbago and strain from agricultural work such as heavy lifting, keeping a fixed position for long periods of time and repetitive movements11; In 15% of cases a dermatological ailment was diagnosed. The most frequent were mycosis (32% of the diagnostic suspects) and dermatitis. 79% of these diagnoses were chronic. Poor hygiene, 12 overcrowding and work out of doors are risk factors . Agricultural work involves contact with infectious, irritant or allergy-causing agents found on the ground or on the crops. The employers rarely purchase protective instruments (barely 7%) and, in most cases, these must be purchased by the migrants themselves. Moreover, working in a greenhouse environment exposes the skin to high temperatures and humid environments, encouraging the onset of mycosis; Respiratory disease was diagnosed in 13% of the patients examined. The most frequent pathologies are those classified in the ICD9-CM13 as infections of the upper respiratory tract, which include bronchitis (20%), colds (16%), pharyngitis (13%), tonsillitis (6%), sinusitis (2%) and tracheobronchitis (2%). Most infections were acute; Gastrointestinal illness was diagnosed in 12% of cases. The most frequent offenders were gastritis (35% of diagnostic suspects), 89% of which were chronic. The most frequent cause of chronic gastritis is infection by the bacteria Helicobacter pylori.14 The infection is aggravated by overcrowding, drinking contaminated water, eating badly preserved and poorly cooked food, a low intake of fruit and vegetables and by precarious living conditions (stress, poor hygiene, 15 low socio-economic level) . The living conditions of the patients examined not only favour infection by Helicobacter pilori, but also its progression to gastritis and respective complications; Oral cavity ailments were found in 11% of cases, mainly dental cavities (68%). The problem was chronic in 89% of the cases and the cavities were multiple and serious. Although these diagnoses are frequent even in the absence of precarious living conditions, it is clear that a lack of calcium and micro-nutrients, poor oral hygiene, the consumption of contaminated water and poverty increase the risk of developing and aggravating these conditions;

Infectious disease was discovered in 10% of cases. Of these, the most common was gastroenteritis (57%), which can be caused by bacteria, viruses and parasites. with infected faeces (oral-faecal route) and is therefore aided by poor personal hygiene in living spaces, by the lack of adequate sanitary services or by eating and drinking contaminated food and/or water. Of the migrants MSF encountered who were affected by gastroenteritis, 76% did not have running water, 79% did not have a bathroom, 66% kept water in jerry cans and 79% did not have a street cleaning and rubbish disposal service in the place where they live.

A. is 30 years of age, of Sudanese origin and has been legally living in Italy for 2 and a half years. He does not have a health card because he had no knowledge of them. MSF met him in Metaponto and then in Palazzo San Gervasio. During the first examination he had a cough and a temperature. He had had these symptoms for a number of months. He weighed 48 kilos: he had lost 17 kilos in 4 months. A week earlier he had gone to the Emergency Department where an X-ray had revealed a thickening in his lung. They had prescribed an antibiotic therapy and a pneumological examination the following month. The therapy had not resolved the symptoms and the patient had not dared to return to the Emergency Department. Suspecting TB, the patient was accompanied to hospital where he was admitted to the Infectious Disease ward where the diagnosis was confirmed.

CONCLUSIONS

The conclusions that follow are deemed useful in dealing with situations of an immediate nature which have elements related to humanitarian crises. They are not meant to provide solutions to the complex issue of seasonal workers. MSF has witnessed a dramatic situation that should weigh on everyone’s conscience, particularly politicians, local health centres, trade unions and civil society. Despite political changes and repeated promises by national and regional institutions since the last study, MSF was unable to find any substantial changes in the unacceptable conditions of seasonal migrants. Therefore, it appears that the mechanisms in force for regulating migratory flows, based on the long-distance management of the supply and demand of employment, contribute towards generating irregularities. In actual fact, the migrants entering Italy through this procedure only partially cover the requirements for seasonal labour. In the regions of southern Italy where the survey was conducted, employers mainly recruit migrants who are illegally present in the territory or migrants who have filed for asylum and have not found fitting reception in the territory. Each year, in some areas of southern Italy, a massive flow of seasonal migrants used in agriculture takes place. Either this phenomenon is not dealt with at all by the local authorities or, in some cases, is handled by measures catering exclusively to legal migrants. This approach results in situations that are unacceptable. · To overcome this situation, MSF requests that, within the areas affected by the presence of seasonal workers, local institutions, i.e. community, provincial and regional administrations, prefectures and territorial health centres, guarantee minimum conditions of reception to all migrants employed in agricultural farming.

Moreover, because of the conditions of marginality and social exclusion in which the seasonal workers live, and despite policies guaranteed by law, these people do not succeed in gaining access to health services. This is determined both by the lack of information services catering to the migrants, and to the lack of firstlevel clinics dedicated to irregular migrants. · Taking the above into consideration, it is MSF’s wish that the National Health Service comply with the law in force, thereby guaranteeing adequate information to foreigners regarding their right to health care and by providing suitable medical response in the areas affected by the presence of seasonal workers by setting up dedicated clinics and cultural mediation services.

SOS Palestinian minors and other refugees tortured in Greece – 5 women 3 children drowned in Aegean

Greece, October 27, 2009 (Pal Telegraph) -

The photo is from the 17 year old Palestinian victim (from "Eleytherotypia" newspaper)

A 17 year old Palestinian has accused his guards of brutally beating him, in the Pagani “detention center” for immigrants without papers, in the island of Lesvos, close to Turkey. The incident happened just a few hours after the vice minister of the newly named “Ministry of Protection of the citizens” has visited the place and expressed his indignation over the living conditions of hundreds of immigrants stuffed in an old depot transformed to a nasty prison. The vice-minister left, the newspapers wrote articles about how much the new “socialist” government cares about human rights, and the policemen punished the immigrants and refugees that dared to denounce their ill treatment to the vice-minister by torturing them even more!

The incident came only weeks after the alleged assassination of Pakistani immigrant Mohammed Kamran Atif, after having been tortured in a police station, according to a statement of his brother, supported by the Pakistani community and antiracist and leftist organizations. Although officialy the young immigrant had died of a lung disease, a second examination revealed traces of torture… Till now nobody has been arrested, apart from 8 anarchist protesters that participated in a violent demonstration outside the police station.

The issue of ill treatment of immigrants without papers in Greece and especially in the Pagani detention center is not new. In the past European NGO’s such as Pro-asyl has accused the Greek authorities and especially the Greek coast guard of severe torture of immigrants and refugees, of violently preventing them to reach the Greek coasts and of illegally deporting them back to Turkey by force. It’s true that Greece as the southeastern border of European Union is receiving huge numbers of immigrants and refugees every year. But is this an excuse for the torture, the alleged murders, the drowning in the Aegean sea, the killings and mutilations by the landmines (meant to be destroyed according to the 1996 Ottawa agreement) at the Turkish-Greek borders, the detention under inhuman conditions, the total negation to grant political asylum to refugees that deserve it according to the International Law? Do we forget that throughout the 20th century Greece was a country exporting immigrants to the United States, Australia, Germany, Belgium and other European countries? Do we forget that during the 7 years of dictatorship (1967-1974) we had political refugees (including prominent political leaders) in other countries? Or do we ignore that Greece as a member-state of NATO and other international organizations is participating in wars that are producing more and more disaster and thus, more and more refugees? We sent troops in Somalia in the 90′s and policemen to help enforce the law and order in Albania, after the rebellion of 1996 caused by a major economic fraud that left thousands of people without their money. We participated with “peacekeepers”, naval forces, aircraft pilots, radars etc. at the western intervention at the Yugoslavia civil war. We participated at the worst and most forgotten crime in the Middle East, the 12 year inhuman embargo towards Iraq that cost at least 500,000 lives, mainly of minors. We participated with naval forces at the Gulf wars. And we still have occupation forces in Afghanistan. Who gives the right to Greece to steal oil and other natural resources, export products, financial capital and armed occupation forces to third world countries and in the same time torture those who try to escape from the inferno that we made there? Why an armed Greek man, a soldier, has the right to be in Afghanistan, and an unarmed Afghan mother with her baby doesn’t have the right to be in Greece?
Why Israeli soldiers have the right to be in Greece in order to have military exercises along with their Greek colleagues and Palestinian refugees have to be imprisoned and tortured?

It doesn’t really matter if the young victim of torture is a Palestinian or not. In fact many of the refugees are claiming to be Palestinians in order to have more chances to be granted asylum. Greece, in violation of the International Law, has minimized the number of recognized refugees to almost zero, and Palestinians are usually the few lucky ones. It doesn’t really matter if the victim is a minor or not. In fact many young people are coming without papers at all and are claiming to be minors in order to have better treatment from the authorities. The thing is that torture is unacceptable whether someone is Palestinian or not, whether he is a minor or not. The worst is that the policemen now, after the case was denounced by doctors that examined the victim and by dozens of fellow prisoners, are trying to hide the traces of their crime. After the accusations of torture and some of the usual riots that almost weekly erupt in the infamous Pagani detention center, in the island of Lesvos, the authorities have freed dozens of the detainees among them those who were witnesses of the torture. As usual they give them a paper of deportation that gives them 30 days to leave the country. In fact the paper has usually a date of issue, prior to the day of liberation, that means that the liberated immigrants and refugees have less days to search for a trafficker who might take them (for thousands of euros) to an other European country where they will have more chances to be granted asylum. The illegal practice of giving papers of deportation with an earlier date might have another purpose in this case. If someone has been tortured or has witnessed torture on the 23rd of October and freed on the 25th, he might have an official document stating that he was already out of the detention center since the 15th!
On the other hand 3 of the main witnesses of the torture that suffered the young Palestinian, who are also Palestinians are still detained. They have also been beaten and now they are threatened to remain detained for months in the same infamous detention center meant to host 200 people, but usually stuffed with 800 or even 1000. They also denounced that the guards gave 350 euros to the victim, to withdraw his accusations.
As we already said the issue of the Pagani detention center is not something new. A couple of months ago, in August, the international movement of NO BORDER activists has focused on this issue by having the 2009 No Border Camp in Lesvos island. For several days we participated in events, demonstrations and non-violent activism in solidarity with the imprisoned people, such as the blockade of the harbour of Lesvos. (see photos). Some of the protesters were arrested when they managed to enter the Pagani detention center and raised a banner. Others were beaten when they gathered outside the center in support of the immigrants and refugees rioting inside. A small zodiac of one of the protesters was illegally destroyed most probably by secret coast guards, during the symbolic non-violent blockade of Lesvos harbour. But despite all that we achieved some small victories those days. First of all several hundreds of people were “freed”. Among them women that were very sick, or mothers that had just gave birth and then were returned to the detention center! We also managed to force the authorities to open a camp (an old summer camp for children with disabilities) to host the freed people. The Army brought more tents to host them. The authorities were responsible to provide food, but the main thing was that the immigrants and refugees were free to go out the camp, have a walk, have a swim. Despite a certain chaos because of the lack of the necessary employees, for a few days an open camp to host immigrants and refugees, something that is what the social movements and the human rights organizations are asking for, was a reality in Lesvos. Furthermore in an action that was more than risky, we initially hosted and then brought directly to the open camp a group of about 20 Afghan immigrants (of 3 families) that had just come to the island without having been arrested yet. We demanded and we achieved for these people not to be arrested, not to be transferred to the police stations or the Pagani detention center and to be hosted directly at the open camp, be registered there and given directly the papers that grant them 30 days of “freedom”. It was a symbolic but very important victory because the Greek state has somehow admitted that it’s not necessary to arrest all these people and hold them under inhuman conditions. It’s true that when the No Border Camp was over and the international activists left Lesvos, the open camp was closed and the authorities continued the same practice of arresting men, women and children that haven’t done any crime apart from trying to escape from war and poverty provoked from the policies of the developed countries. But that doesn’t mean that we didn’t achieve anything. The acceptance and registration of the 20 Afghans without having been arrested, the functioning of an open camp even for a few days, the immediate release of hundreds of immigrants and refugees provided also with tickets to travel from Lesvos island to Athens, the capital, are examples showing that it’s possible for the Greek State to treat these people in an other way, more respectful of their human rights. On the other hand, all this publicity created by the No Border Camp (along with the struggle of the detainees of course), has forced the United Nations to ask for the infamous Pagani detencion center (which is not the worst in Greece by the way) to be shut down. Subsequently all this political pressure has forced the new government to pay more attention on the issue, even if it’s just for public relations.

Because the truth is that the first signs of the new “socialist” government elected on the 4th of October are contradicting the declarations about respect of human rights. Apart from the incident in Pagani detention center, it worth mentioning the following: The neighborhood of Exarcheia, a place where a lot of anarchists, leftists, students, rockers are gathered, the same place where last year a 15 year old child, Alexis Grigoropoulos was assassinated in cold blood by a policeman provoking huge riots, is now almost under military occupation reminding more the West Bank than a neighbourhood in the center of the Greek capital (After all, Greek Police is buying teargas from the Israelis…). Apart from the illegal detentions, body searches in the middle of the street and beatings, the policemen have tried to invade without warrant in a social center called “The place of the immigrants” where apart from immigrant and antiracist organizations, is also hosted the Greek “Association for Solidarity with the Palestinian People INTIFADA”. It’s the same social center that was attacked some months ago by an unknown fascist who threw a hand grenade trying to kill the people inside. In that case the grenade bounced on the window and fell outside causing only damages but not casualties. But the terrorist was never arrested, and instead of that the police (not for the first time) has tried to storm illegally the “Place of the immigrants”. And it’s not the only incident. A few blocks away, in Omonoia square, policemen are arresting and beating immigrants almost daily. In one case a Greek sociologist who happens to be a researcher working for the Antigoni Center of Information and Documentation on Racism, has witnessed the policemen brutally beating an immigrant. When he complained, he was arrested too, staying for the whole weekend in a police station cell! In another incident in Thessaloniki, the second biggest Greek city, the police instead of arresting the driver that killed and abandoned an immigrant pedestrian, preferred to beat and arrest some of his Nigerian friends that gathered at the place of the incident!
By the time I am writing this article I hear the tragic news: 5 women and 3 children refugees, most probably Afghans, were found drowned at the coast of Lesvos island while they were trying to avoid the Frontex naval units. (Frontex is a new European armed force “protecting” the European frontiers from the refugees). This is the result of the European Fortress policy, this is the result of the policy of “Zero tolerance towards illegal immigration” that the new “socialist” Greek government has declared: poor children and women drowned in the Aegean.
In a few days Greece will host an international summit about immigration. Social and antiracist movements are preparing their own counter-summit and protests. But as long as the NATO and other forces are in Iraq and Afghanistan, as long as the Israeli Occupation Forces are killing children in Palestine, as long as the poor people of this planet become more poor and the rich become more rich, there will be no solution in this problem. No matter how much governments are talking about “human rights”…

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.

court of appeals building - evacuated

Images from the Court of Appeals building evacuation

The last phase of the evacuation of the former Court of Appeals building in Socratous took place yesterday. The evacuation process had begun long ago, with strong police forces present there on a 24/7  basis to prevent more people enter to the building and deter those who had left it enter it anew.
For some time now the Court of Appeals building had been a point of friction.  Just a few months ago, on the 9th of May Golden Dawn fascists and cops assaulted immigrants with stones, pieces of woods and tear-gases, in one more case of harmonious cooperation between the forces of repression  and the fascists.  The media dedicated quite a few hours to accommodate the racist cries of some “angry people” in the district (who later became residents of Aghios Panteleimonas).   On a daily basis cops and fascists kept sieging the building,  in joint exercises of hate, beating and arresting immigrants.
Of the hundreds of immigrants living in the Court of Appeals building, many have been arrested and will be imprisoned in concentration camps… (see for instance the Aspropyrgos one).
.
The aggressiveness of power  against immigrants continues….
What is on our side to be done is the organisation of resistances…
Solidarity will pass over racism and repression.

Aigaleo Anarchists Initiative.

These are last summer photos, reproduced at: http://garizo.blogspot.com/2009/06/blog-post_25.html

4th BALKAN ANARCHIST BOOKFAIR

(27-31 May 2009)

a report from thessaloniki

As decided at the general assembly of the participants at the 3rd Balkan Anarchist Bookfair in Sofia, the 4th Balkan Anarchist Bookfair was held in Greece. Below is a short report of the first two days in Thessaloniki, where the bookfair was a self-standing event at a public square. (In Athens the bookfair was hosted by the B-Fest, a huge international festival organized by Babylonia newspaper – a report on the bookfair there would be very welcome!)

Wednesday 27th June

18:30, Kamara
More than 30 comrades from Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Poland (some of which had participated at the Occupied Rector’s Office in Thessaloniki meeting two months ago –report), as well as visitors from the States, Australia, and Holland joined Greeks, Turks, Afghanis and Albanians in a propaganda action held in front of the arch of Galerius in Thessaloniki (“Kamara”), protesting the violent arrest of 46 refugees in Athens a few days earlier. The arrests included injured protesters and had followed a huge demo by mainly refugees and immigrants in the centre of Athens, sparked off after a Greek policeman had torn two pages of the Q’uran he’d found in the pockets of one of them during a questioning. The State, as well as the central Muslim organization, tried hard to emphasize the apparently “religious” background of the protest demo in order to downplay the severe injustices, violence and death suffered by immigrants and refugees here. The propaganda action in Thessaloniki, just a few hundred meters from the square where the bookfair was being held, was co-organized by the Antiracist Initiative and the Group of Immigrants and Refugees (whose leaflet on the event can be read here: http://clandestinenglish.wordpress.com)

20:00, Rotunda square

The seasoned London East End anti-fascist anarchist Martin Lux, author of Anti-fascist , stressed the class-based character of British society and its century-long deep divides, talked of the open civil war within the working class that broke out in 1970s London, where white, black and Asian youths fought the fascist groups of the NF and the BNP, preparing the grounds for the 1981 and 1984 uprisings in Brixton and Toxteth. He believes Britain today is facing an unprecedented social crisis and can see new riots underway. Martin concluded: “If the crisis is going to lead to a new civil war, we are ready to fight it!”

A veteran of the Bulgarian revolutionary movement and author of File No 1218 Alexander (Sasho) Metodiev Nakov referred to the long history of the Bulgarian Anarchist Movement since the 1920s: the formation of the anarchist guerilla against the coup in 1923 and the antifascist struggle after 1938, his own incarceration, his escape, his 1948 arrest by the communists and his five years at the Belene “work camps” of the repressive Stalinist regime which had outlawed anarchism, and finally the revival of the Anarchist Federation after 1990. In a moving turn of phrase, he said: “I am 90 years old, and not for a single moment in my life have I ever considered leaving the movement”.
After a short discussion with comrade Sasho, the evening continued with traditional Ottoman music by the 5-member ‘Borderline’ band, who later gave an interview to Bulgarian comrades, followed by an acoustic anthology of protest classics ranging from A Las Barricadas to Nicolas Asimos’ No Matter How Hard They Hit Us by the ‘Vagabonds’.

Thursday, 28th June

19:00, Kamara
After joining a demo with another 300+ people called by the Initiative Against the New Repressive Measures, an initiative formed recently by anarchist and leftist students and activists targetting the wave of repression after the December riots, (from the arrests and excessive charges against protesters to the specific measures that outlaw e.g. wearing face-cover publicly), participants arrived at the already lively venue of the bookfair for a discussion entitled “From the Balkans of exploitation and nationalism to the Balkans of solidarity and struggle”.

20:30, Rotunda square
Loukis Hassiotis offered an overview of the dialectics of the national and the social question in Balkan federalist ideas from the 19th to the 20th century, as well as the positions of socialists and anarchists (read full text here). Spyros Marchetos after him proposed a political analysis of the current situation and a perspective for radical movements. He suggested, using Wallerstein’s concept of “bifurcation”, we see today’s profound crisis of the capitalist system (beginning in the last two years or even in 1989) as leading to either the intensification of authoritarianism, repression and fascism worldwide, or towards a more socially equal and ecologically sensitive understanding of society. This, he insisted, is the time to take sides. One can neither cling to the sectarianisms of the past, nor remain cynically neutral and passive. It is the radical movements’ duty, the duty of the left and the anarchists, to reinvent broad alliances and collective strategies.
Andrej Grubačić continued on the same note, stating that today’s depression (rather than mere recession) calls for a radical rethinking of the concept of solidarity. Solidarity should be created through common struggle, not constructed on the basis of common ideology. To highlight the point, he elaborated on the example of one of the longest prison rebellions in US history, the 11-day rebellion at Lucasville, South Ohio in 1993. When the police invaded the prison to crash the revolt, they saw a huge banner saying “No Whites, No Blacks, Just Blue [the colour of the prisoners’ uniform]”, despite the fact that in that high-security and death-row prison all inmates were organized either in Sunni muslim groups, or in the “black gangstas” or in the “Aryan brotherhood”. The common struggle against the common enemy, the prison system, had brought the prisoners together. Grubasic then referred to a group of anarchists providing effective help and solidarity to workers at the occupied factories in Voivodina in the early 2000s. The workers might have been culturally conservative and ideologically very distant to anatiauthoritarian ideals, yet they were a considerable force against neoliberal privatization. (In the discussion later, he was given the opportunity to confirm that the idea of broad collective movements does not include collaborating with States and multinationals…)

Nostalgic and wild Balkan tunes by ‘Yarim Baildsa Kokorec’ and a long, more-than satisfying oriental jazz set by the ‘Ensemble Minoria Grande’, a 7-piece band formed especially for the occasion of the Bookfair, again provided a perfect and neighborhood-friendly accompaniment to the post-panel chats and discussions.

The bookfair brought together publishers of books, mags and brochures from Greece, from Bulgaria (the largest foreign section), Slovenia, Croatia (and the Kate Sharpley Library in London!) and, though the exhibition / vending space was quite limited in size, it went extremely well, since it sold political literature beyond all expectations and aroused great interest in focused visitors and hundreds of passers-by alike. Most expenses for the bookfair (including the soundsystem, the posters and the banners) were covered by income from the books sold rather than the bar and grill – to our pleasant surprise.

A note on the place
Thessaloniki is a student town with too many bars and cafes, a tragically severe traffic problem, and pollution way beyond most European city standards. Entertainment and use of the public environment are extremely commercialized, but on the other hand, in the last decade there have been considerable moves to reclaim public spaces. Now some local initiatives (a legacy of the December riots) are expanding this principle beyond the broader centre of the town. In any case our guests told us they had plenty of time to visit the squats and social centres.
The Rotunda square was chosen for the bookfair as a lively, friendly, yet hitherto not much used place, relatively protected from the din of the cars. It is frequented by neighborhood children and -at certain times during the year- filled with the often annoying noise of football finals coming out of large TV screens in nearby cafeterias. The cafeteria owner realized we would not tolerate the sound for the two days we were occupying the square. On both evenings, our interaction with the children was quite straightforward: On Thursday, we couldn’t have them scream and pass the ball while old comrade Nakov was speaking. They understood. On the second day (when one of them said: “this is our park, you can’t drive us out!…) it somehow happened that the discussion and the ball-playing rolled quite naturally side by side, with mutual respect, despite a light shower that for a moment seemed to threaten both parties…

Text: Lia
Photos: Lubo, Dimitra, Lia
With comments + feedback from: Andrej G, Lubo, Nikos

clandestinenglish

Boxes of concrete, half-buried in the soil, covered with dirt and weeds. The only opening is the door’s hole on the wall – the door itself is missing. There are no windows. The light does not enter the room. It is dark. Even prison cells have windows. Unless what they are intended to imprison inside is something that should stay invisible … War material depositories. This is where some are now considering to deposit people.

The plans for an immigrant camp rouse the local community of Aspropyrgos, which already faces many more problems.

The minds behind the choice of the former NATO base in Aspropyrgos to “host” illegal immigrants in Greece knew very well what they were doing. Away from indiscreet eyes, on a hill at the border between the municipality’s jurisdiction and the adjacent forest, the abandoned camp is ideal to concentrate and hide what disturbs the government. What the government failed and now just wants not to know about.

Only the concrete and bricks are left from the premises. Doors, windows, electrical devices and tiles have all been plundered, as has been furniture and any other objects that could be moved. Old truck tires and debris are the only things the casual tenants of the base space, seeking refuge, to cling upon. Asses, plastic bottles, garbage and leftovers everywhere bear witness to their presence.

In this land of 100 acres of concrete prisons the Police plans to stack all those it has gathered through “sweep» operations. They named it a «camp» to be reminiscent of a gathering space or a children’s camp, but it what it looks like is worse than a prison. The facilities’ walls amidst the hills have been built in such a way to survive bombings and it is impossible to open windows on them.

It looks like a deserted space of exile on some dry island. However, it is the former NATO base in Aspropyrgos, which the government intends to transform into refugee camp.

The information that the authorities intend to concentrate clandestine immigrants or economic migrants leaked about a year ago. Now this is a fact, since the mayor of Aspropyrgos’ questions addressed to the Minister and the Secretary General of the Ministry of Public Order received, as he himself says to «Eleftherotypia», a positive answer.

The nearest building in which human activity can be sensed is a tobacco factory located a few kilometers away from the “camp”, while on the south stretches an illegal settlement, overlooking the coastal industrial zone.

The estate of the former base is a property of the Greek State Mortgage Company [Ktimatiki Etaireia tou Dimosiou]; the government had conceded it to the NATO. When the military base left the area, the facilities were left with no use. Before the 2004 Athens Olympic games the government had attempted to use them as human storehouses: the organizing ministries planned to relocate from the center of Athens homeless and drug users therein. In that case as well the government just wanted to hide them. To turn them invisible.

[...]

The area of Aspropyrgos and Thriassio Pedio around it (about 27.000 residents according to the 2001 census) is the most environmentally polluted area in Europe. According to the municipality, in Thriasio Pedio there are:

- The only waste landfill in Attica.

- Two oil refineries.

- Two steel factories.

- Two cement factories.

- An ammunition industry

- Two ship-yards.

- Two Knacker ship-yards.

- A port for ferry and freight ships.

- Facilities for the storage and handling of petroleum products.

- Three units of fossil fuels regeneration.

- One paper factory.

- Dozens of plastic tires chemical units.

- Quarries.

- More than 3,000 small and big industrial units.

Plus a huge (freight train terminal, which is about to open.

While crossing the city, the resident or visitor must have much patience. Countless loaded trucks pass through, blocking all roads, while the noise from all types of crafts and industries is constant. The major and the town council of Aspropyrgos say that the immigrant camp would further burden the area. According to the mayor “[T]he ministry plans to transfer there 2,500 people. They have friends and relatives and lawyers. We estimate, therefore that as many people would be flowing daily through the region. The town cannot take it!».

The mayor says this is not about racism.  The municipality’s population 25% is of immigrant origin, and his authority and the locals have been receiving without problems both the refugees of Greek origin from the former USSR, the Roma settlers and the rest immigrants – them all have problems, though, with the Roma new – comers who are stealing electricit, water and stuff from the nearby warehouses, which are all barbwire-fenced.

The major wants to turn the military base estate into a park and sporting facilities, since this is a forest area, and proposes to the government officials to choose some more “humane” are in Attika to show the country’s “humanitarian face”.

clandestinenglish

Battles in Athens during march against police racism, many protesters injured

Extended clashes broke our in Athens on Friday 22/5, during the second protest march in two days against police racism, after a cop tore the Koran and brutalised Muslims during anti-immigrant sweeping operations. During the clashes many protesters were injured arrested and hospitalised.

A second protest march against police racism took to the streets of Athens on Friday 22/5/08 in response to the incident of anti-muslim brutality two nights before during a police sweeping-operation against immigrants in the center of Athens. During what appears to be a typically offensive search of muslim immigrants at a local cafe, a policeman tore a Koran in pieces and stepped onthreatening the immigrants in compromising racist language. The incident led to a protest march on Thursdaywith limited clashes between police and demonstrators.

During the Friday protest march immigrants and solidarity protesters of the left gathered in Omonoia square and clashed with the police outside the Greek parliament. The protesters piled the riot police with marbles, shoes and other projectiles, receiving tear gas and blast flash grenades in response.The march then proceeded towards the coveted Athens area of Agios Panteleimonas where the anti-muslim incident had occurred.

On the way, protesters smashed banks, expensive shops and government vehicles, before being massively attacked by strong riot police forces. During the battle that ensued scores of protesters were seriously injured, many being hospitalised, while 40 were arrested and remain in custody. One Syrian protester is said to be arrested during the protest march for allegedly throwing a molotov cocktail against the local police department.

The riots that have once again reduced much of the capital’s center into a battle zone come at a time of increasing tension across the country, accentuated by both the political impasse after the surprise dissolution of the Parliament earlier this month, and the continuing pressure of urban guerrilla groups which once again demonstrated their resolve this week by bombing the offices of the Siemens affiliated corporation that has provided the greek police  with its new phone tapping and electronic surveillance system meant to frame the social antagonistic movement after the December uprising. The attack which injured none due to a previous warning call was claimed by the left-wing urban guerrilla group “Popular Will”, who also claimed responsibility for the bombing of the State Land Management headquarters last March. The greek branch of Siemens is involved in one of the biggest economic scandals of the collapsing  government, with its head on the run, and its deputy-head held in custody.

Here is a tvxs.gr video.

]]> http://clandestinenglish.wordpress.com/2009/05/12/i-the-afghan-minor-who-was-repulsed-three-times-from-italy-to-greece/ Tue, 12 May 2009 10:18:17 +0000 clandestina http://clandestinenglish.wordpress.com/2009/05/12/i-the-afghan-minor-who-was-repulsed-three-times-from-italy-to-greece/

This is a Fortress Europe article.  Italian version here, Greek version here.  For a relevant development see here.

clandestinenglish

ROME, April 19 2009.

Minoan Lines ferry dock, Venice. Eight o clock in the morning, some day in August 2008.  Juma K. does not recall the exact date. It was the first time he reached the port after months of failed attempts. He had embarked in the truck trailer three days ago, at night.  The truck was parked at the port of Patras.  There is enough time to climb on it from the moment the port gates open until the police comes.  When they counted themselves, they were 15; 10 out of them were minors. The stocks of water and biscuits lasted for 24 hours. The summer sun made everything more difficult.  On the third day, at last, somebody turned on the engine and the truck embarked. Upon arrival in Italy, the trailer disembarked and no one took notice of their presence. It was only in the evening, around 19:00, at the port’s square, when some agents of the security forces opened the doors for inspection. 
Juma K. tried to escape.  But he was stopped by an agent who hit him in the back. Nobody asked him what was his name, what country he had come from, how old was he. No one asked him where were his parents and why he had left Afghanistan, crossed the mountains of Iran, risked his life in the Aegean Sea, and why now he had confined himself in 

that truck. The police got everyone again on board, and locked them in a bathroom, with a little water and a plate of spaghetti al pomodoro.  A few hours later, at midnight, the Minoan Ferry sailed back to Patras again.   At the time Juma was 16 years old.   Today he lives in Rome. We meet him at the Italian school that is attending, Asinitas.  He lives in the Italian capital since the 26^th  of November, 2008. Thanks to the support of a Greek organization, he could legally join there his older brother, Adel, who lives in Rome for three years, with a residence permit as a political refugee and has an assistant cook job in a restaurant of  the city center. 

He is just one of the thousands Afghan and Iraqi refugees who are repulsed each year from Italian ports back to Greece, on the basis of a readmission agreement signed by both countries in 2001. But in his case there is an even more aggravating circumstance.  He is a minor. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, with a note dated 15 April 2008, has asked that readmissions to Greece of all potential refugees are suspended, because Athens is not able to ensure adequate protection for them, especially in the case of minors unaccompanied by family members. By law, them should enjoy an exception status.   And not only that. According to the Article 19 of the Legislative Decree 25/2008 on the procedures for recognition of refugee status – which was endorsed by the European Union – it  is clear: “The unaccompanied minor who has expressed his/her willingness to seek international protection must be provided with the necessary assistance to aplly for that” .   But all this is mere theory.  The practice is that of repulsion, of everyone, including minors.  Gian Antonio Stella complained about that on the 31^st of March with a Corriere della Sera article.  But the Interior Minister Roberto Maroni denied the situation, calling the journalist to present”the necessary evidence”. We did this for him. And we discovered that the repuslion of the Afghan children from Italian ports is a [standard] practice. Juma K. himself was rejected three times; the fourth time he almost suffocated to death. 

The second time Juma K. embarked alone on a Superfast ferry to Bari.  He succeeded to hide himself under the chassis of an English truck, while the other Afghan boys were scattered by the police. The ship reached Puglia at 18:00. The driver  noticed him and pulled him out with force, then handed him to the  Port Police agents asking him to calm down.  Juma K. showed me a scar on hiselbow, inflicted by the clash with iron frame of the truck when the driver snatched him out of his hideout. The only thing that the police asked was if he had paid the driver and how much. They did not pay attention to anything he was saying. He kept repeating the only words in Italian that he had memorised: “My brother Roma.” He also tried his English, which is definitely good, but no agent spoke any. They gave him a small bottle of water.  He was soaking in sweat. This time they locked him in a room near the engine. Upon his return to Patras, like the last time, he was locked up in a container placed next to the headquarters of the Greek police in the port and used as a detention facility for refugees found on the ferry to Italy. I had already seen a video on Youtube, filmed inside the container, from an Afghan boy with a his mobile phone cam. Juma, however, adds frightening details.  During his detention, seven days, with four other people, he had his wrists handcuffed.  He was released only to go to the bathroom, but still handcuffed to another person. 

From the first of September 2008 to November 30, according to the Ministry of the Interior, 1816 people have been repulsed on the ports of Venice, Ancona, Bari and Brindisi.  Most of them towards Greece, most of them Afghans.  We do not know how many out of them were children, since many repulsions take place without any notification of the associations working at the ports in agreement with the Prefecture for the protection of the right of asylum. This is confirmed by the Italian Council for Refugees (Cir) itself.  In 2008 about 850 people were found on ships in the port of Venice, Cir was informed only about 110. What about the other 740? 

After his third refoulement – again from the port of Bari, along with five other children hidden in a truck – at the end of August Juma tried for the last time.  Together with a same-age Tajik they hid inside a tight compartment below the chassis of the trailer of a truck. When the ship departed, at 18:00, the heat was still intense.  A few hours later, the oxygen was running low. The door could not be opened from the inside.  They began beating with their fists on the walls. When one of the men on board pulled them out, the two fainted and fell to the ground.  One hour more in the truck would be fatal.  They would be found dead, as 13 year old  Zaher Rezai was last December, under the truck where he was hidden in order to reach Italy.  Or  the Iraqi boy crushed by the axles of a vehicle, on March 29th, again in the port of Venice, three days after another lifeless body was found on a ship in Ancona.  It is not difficult to die trying to demand political asylum in Italy.  Not even for a minor. Perhaps this is what the government should provide “the necessary evidence” for.

athens indymedia photos

… once more, against immigrants, refugees and anti-racists.  

Neo-nazis and junta-nostalgic ultra-nationalist scum were to do a demo in Athens down-town yesterday, bargaining on the cultivated by mass media sentiment of economic insecurity, to promote their anti-immigration absurdities. The gathering spot for this demo was at Omonoia square and about 100 braindeads were there. The gist of the days’ events is that the Police has an excellent cooperation with the para-statal neo-Nazis (of Golden Dawn) and uses them to help keep up the anti-migrant terror. 

At the same time, in surrounding streets and squares, antiracist organizations of all shades called for counter-demos. Most of the anarchists gathered at Kaniggos square but they were attacked by riot police and repulsed towards Exarcheia and the Polytechnic. There were conflicts and barricades for some time there. From Kotzia square migrant, student and leftist associations moved towards Stadiou avenue to prevent the neo-nazis from taking it to this central avenue. At the same time, other antiracist organizations of the left gathered in front of the Court of Appeals building .

The neo-nazis when obstructed from doing the demo started beating randomly immigrants with iron bars in Menandrou street. The police all the time looked but not intervened. Their collaboration got even tighter when the neo-nazis moved towards their headquarters, which is located near the Court of Appeals building at Socratous Street. Under the protection of the riot police, from their hq’s roof and then from the street, the neo-nazis attacked the building where immigrants find refuge with stones and flash and sound grenades. The neo-nazis were all wearing helmets, this at a time when in Greece the state attempts to illegalise hoods in protests.  They tried to invade the building but the immigrants defended it with stones. Four protestors and many immigrants were injured.  A girl was  arrested.  

All these, in the background of tragicomic but intense efforts by the Ministry of Public order to promote and further solidify Security State regulations across various spheres of the Greek society – for instance, it wants to plant 1.100 new surveillance cameras in Athens.

See photos and videos of the collaboration between police and neo-nazis here.  One more video is available here - if you dont understand Greek skip the first half.

info from

• Athens Indymedia article
• tvxs article  
• and indy.gr article

clandestinenglish

More than 500 new immigrants from the Maghreb countries have occupied the 8 floor building at Socratous str., near Omonoia square.   A first person testimony: «It is the most miserable place of residence of immigrants that I have seen and I have seen several: people sleep next to decomposing litter and excrements». 

After the intervention by the police some months ago, now a strange warrant was posted on the door of the building a new that the public prosecutor is about to intervene. 

In particular, on Monday 27 of April morning, unknown men opened with a key the lock of the main entrance and posted on various parts of the building a notice requiring that immigrants leave the place within 24 hours as there is a command by the prosecutors and repair works are to take place there police protection.   The notice was a simple A4 printing, it was unsigned and did not bear the marks of any distinguishable formal authority. 

For the first time a television camera entered the building and shot the pictures of the terrible conditions of residence of these people. We talked with them and they told us that if kicked out they have nowhere to go and they are bound to end up homeless in the streets of Athens. They are resolved to seek a better life in Greece and we were told they only look for an opportunity to work to ensure food and a place to sleep for themselves. 

Below is research material in English about the Patras Refugee Camp (relevant clandestinenglish posts about recent developments there are here, here and here) from the Melting Pot Europe Project. We noticed the project through http://filoxenoi.wordpress.com.

clandestinenglish

The whole set can be found here.

Patras

Samos

Fyllakio

Venna