Complaint submitted to the European Commission: Greece violates EU asylum right

SOURCE: http://www.proasyl.de/en/

Greece violates EU asylum right

Complaint submitted to the European Commission

On November 11, 2009, PRO ASYL, along with fellow refugee organizations Dutch Council for Refugees, Finnish Refugee Advice Center, and British Refugee and Migrant Justice, filed a complaint with the European Commission against Greece. Twenty other European refugee organizations support the complaint.

PRO ASYL demands that the European Commission immediately initiates an infringement procedure in the European Court of Justice based on Greece’s failure to abide by fundamental European asylum policy. Greece provides for asylum protection within its laws, however it falls short of its legal obligations in practice.

COMPLAINT & REPORT available at NGO complaint against Greece (PDF)

From Anti-Immigrant Summer to Zero Tolerance on Election Bait

Text in Greek available here.

On the occasion of the International Migrants Day

Just over a month and half ago Prime Minister Papandreou used the Global Forum on Immigration & Development proceedings in Athens to sketch government measures which would stand for a humanitarian turn compared to the policies and situation of the recent months .  He described as necessary

“[T]o stimulate the participation of immigrants in the political life of the country, through the possibility of Greek citizenship acquisition, particularly of course for the so-called ’second generation’, in which we are suggesting the acquisition of citizenship by birth for the new person born in our territory.”

For people in Greece, though, the announcement of the Secretary for Home Affairs Theodora Tzakri two weeks later, which made clear that Greek citizenship would be granted only to children born to legal immigrants, came as no surprise.

The doctrine of “Zero tolerance to illegal migration” goes hand in hand with this government’s humanitarian turn… As for what this turn is all about, it aims at incorporating immigrants mostly from Albania, after two decades of overexploitation, and in exchange for votes. A phony exchange indeed.

Along with this, the dividing of immigrants into ‘good’ and ‘bad’, ‘useful’ and ’superfluous’, ‘legal’ and ‘illegal’ becomes more intense, and the system of exploitation grows deeper roots .

As we wrote in our above linked text on the Global Forum on Immigration & Development:

“The aim of developmental policy is to control migration flows (through the FRONTEX patrols and detention centres) as well as to regulate them (through 5-year rotating work permits, the annulment of asylum rights), in order to keep a stable proportion of productive inhabitants within the increasingly ageing, unproductive populations of Europe. In other words, recycling the migrants will keep the indexes of development in check, development being the systematic and bloodthirsty pillage of lives and resources, time and space.

According to the “UN Population Division report on replacement migration”, if the Europeans want to keep their ratio of older people to active workers at the 1995 levels, the Union will need 135 million immigrants by 2025.

This demographic issue is only part of the story, and maybe not the most important. Neoliberalization inside Europe has meant a weakened, destabilized labor force. It’s not just that capital wants selected migrants because it needs more workers, it wants migrants because they are powerless, unorganized, low-paid workers for whom there will be no job security, no health care and no pensions.In other words, they are far cheaper and less troublesome workers”.

Illegal immigrants are necessary because through them the rights of the legal ones are suppressed (there is of course rotation of people in these roles). At the same time, illegal immigration helps governments maintain a useful xenophobic atmosphere to impose authoritarian policies. ”Migration management” includes both authoritarian hysteria and humanitarian logistics. The two seemingly opposite positions are the two sides of the same coin of subjugation.

So let’s outline against this backdrop the government’s humanitarian turn after the elections of October 2009…

The Doctrine “Insulated Greece”

The new doctrine was introduced by Minister of Citizen Protection (= Public Order) M. Chrisochoïdis on Tuesday, December 15, at his meeting with the FRONTEX Executive Director J.Laitinen.   The construction of the Southeast Mediterranean FRONTEX Headquarters at the U.S. base of Aktion or at Piraeus has been a permanent request of the Greek government, which proudly stated that 75% of illegal entry arrests at the sea borders of EU for this year took place in the Aegean sea.

A few days earlier in the frame of FRONTEX operations (on Saturday, December 12) officers in Samos island, on no notice whatsoever and violently, carried out with utmost secrecy the transfer of over 85 Afghan refugees from the local detention center to the island’s airport at Pythagorio.  There the refugees were boarded on an airplane which departed for an unknown destination.

The slaughter in the Aegean Sea continues

In less than two months, 16 migrants have died in the icy waters of the Aegean. Most of them were children.

• On Tuesday, October 27, 8 immigrants, three adults and five children, drowned in the east part of the Aegean Sea.
• On Saturday, November 7, the lifeless bodies of six children from Palestine, aged 2 to 12 years, washed up on shore near Bodrum (Alikarnasos), Turkey.  The boat in which 19 Palestinians – half of them children – squeezed themselves on an effort to pass from the Turkish town of Turgutreis to Kos island overturned 500 meters from the shore.
• On Friday, December 11, a boat carrying undocumented migrants sank near the island of Leros. Fishermen found 25 migrants perched on a rocky island and two more lifeless bodies in the sea.

Police violence

Incidents of abuse and humiliation by the police amount to dozens, and most of them never reach the public attention. We report the following characteristic cases:

• In the afternoon of October 22, immediately after the visit of Secretary of State Vougias the detention center in Pagani of Mytilene, police officers responsible for guarding the center abused and beat prisoners, including a 17-year boy, who was evacuated to the Vostanio Hospital, where lesions were diagnosed on his head, back, waist and arms. According to the interpreter, the police promised 350 euros to the victim to buy his silence.
• On the 19th of November in the afternoon a 35-year old immigrant was beaten by two officers serving at the infamous Aghios Panteleimonas Police Station in Athens. Her two year old child witnessed the beating and the arrest, and along with her mother remained under custody at the Kypseli Police Station for four hours! The incident became known only because the woman is married to a famous Greek musician.
• On Friday, November 20 , immigrant detainee Mohammed bin Taher collapsed in the courts of Evelpidon street in Athens. His condition was such that he was taken to hospital by ambulance. As reported by the his fellow detainees (and he later confirmed) Mohammed bin Taher had been savagely beaten by police at the Omonoia Police Station.
• On the 9th of October Mohammed Kamran dies after the treatment he received by the policemen who had raided the house where he and fellow Pakistani workers resided in Nikaia, Athens.

Para-state violence

The para-state mechanism was launched last summer against immigrants and since then it has been working relentlessly despite the supposed change of policy.

• The most recent incident was the attack of last Tuesday, December 15, against the Social Haunt – Immigrants Haunt in Chania, Crete (hometown of the former Minister of Public Order Markoyannakis).  In the same city on December 8 there has been a savage criminal attack against two immigrants by unknown perpetrators. The near-killers attacked the immigrant workers in the back with crowbars, and left them with serious head and body injuries.  One of the 2 victims was among the 15 hunger strikers of last year , who shook the island of Crete with their proud struggle. The intensity of the attacks in Chania definitely is related to the dynamic struggles of immigrants in the city.
• In Athens, brutal attacks against Arab shops took place at the Neos Kosmos district on Monday, November 22, when 40 people holding crowbars and molotov cocktails attacked and injured the employees in two mini-markets, destroyed the merchandise and stole the money of the cashier.

Para-state organized violence encourages and feeds the diffuse social one.

• Thus, on November 8, four immigrants who had been working at olive fields in Messolongi, Western Greece, were attacked with crowbars and clubs and beaten savagely by circa 15 people. The immigrants were transferred to the emergency dept. of the Messolongi hospital. The immigrants had been asking their wages from the owner of the fields in which they had been working.  They were ambushed and beaten in an old warehouse, where they had an appointment with their employer to get their money.

Institutional violence

• In late November the trial of 25 immigrants (mainly Arabs and one Afghan) took place; they had been arrested during the events of December 2008 and had been detained ever since.  All this period they were considered missing.  All of them were sentenced to imprisonment from 7 months to 3 years.  It is characteristic for the fairness of the trial that only one interpreter had been assigned , who translated simultaneously for 24 defendants who were divided in three groups in the court’s room.  The Afghan who did not understand Arabic was seated on the last bench of the room…
• On Friday, December 11, in Thessaloniki, a report was issued by the Hellenic League for Human Rights, about the detention centers in Evros and Rodopi.  The survey took place from the 25th to the 29th of November 2009 and states:

In many cases there is inadequate lighting, ventilation and heating (…)  At virtually none of the premises visited have the possibility to go outdoors on some yard. Even in detention centers where there is an adequate yard, the large number of detainees on the one hand and the lack of personnel on the other allows usually only for some prisoners to have outdoor breaks for a minimum period and not on a daily basis (…)  Food in many cases is inadequate, the quantity and quality in general varies (..). The care taken for sanitation and hygiene conditions varies from inexistent to inadequate (…) The availability of medical and nursing staff is poor and at all cases occasional (…) The detainees were in total confusion regarding their rights, the time of their detention and ill-informed as to asylum procedures; interpreters were not available.

December 18, 2009

Clandestina Network

Group of Immigrants and Refugees, Thessaloniki

Fascist attack against the Free Social Space of Western Districts, Thessaloniki

At 19:00 today 6-7 fascists attacked the Free Social Space of Western Districts in Thessaloniki.  They beat 2 people who were there.

source: athens indymedia

collective’s blog: http://dytikessynoikies.wordpress.com/

Boat carrying immigrants sank off the Greek island of Leros, killing 2

source: ZAMAN  website

A boat carrying illegal immigrants sank yesterday off the coast of the
Greek island of Leros, killing two.

Greek media announced yesterday that at approximately 8 a.m. a boat carrying over 25 illegal immigrants capsized due to bad weather, according to the Anatolia news agency. Fishing boats rescued 25 people on a rocky islet in the eastern Aegean Sea, while the bodies of two others, who appear to have drowned, have also been found.

The group was reportedly brought to hospitals on the island for
medical exams. Greece is a busy transit point for illegal immigrants seeking to enter the European Union. Each year, tens of thousands try to sneak across Greece’s borders. Many come from as far as Iraq or Afghanistan.

12 December 2009,  Saturday.

New assaults by para-state neo-nazis in Chania Crete against social spaces and comrade’s home – Rally and march tomorrow against rising fascist violence.

Immigrant's Haunt, Social Haunt's entrance after the fire.

Police’s pets, right extremists in Chania, Crete, continue with their aggression.  Yesterday evening, unknown perpetrators threw two molotov coctail bombs against the family house of a comrade who is involved in anarchist and antiracist initiatives, while his family (not he himself) was inside (includng his toddler nephew).  Some days ago, he and a friend had been ambushed late at night by a group of ten and severely beaten.  Info by Chaniotika Nea local newpaper.

The last social space hit by the fasco-group(s) in the town of Chania was the Immigrants Haunt – Social Haunt.    In the small hours yesterday night they broke into the building and put a fire on the entrance.   They signed on the walls with swastikas.   Last week they had painted racist graffiti on the outside walls.

AFTER THE RECENT NEO-NAZI-ACTIVITY, AN ANTI-FASCIST RALLY AND MARCH CALL HAS BEEN MADE BY VARIOUS ORGANISATIONS AND COLLECTIVES  FOR TOMORROW, THURSDAY, DEC 17, 19.00, AT AGORA SQ.

BELOW IS THE POSTER CALLING.

Murderous assaults by neo-nazis in Chania, Crete, and impunity for racist murder perpetrators.

TWO NEW PRESS – RELEASES BY THE FORUM OF IMMIGRANTS IN CRETE ON RECENT PROLIFERATION OF NEO-NAZI ACTIVITY IN CHANIA, CRETE; AND THE PROLONGATION OF A HIDEOUS RACIST CRIME BY THE SYSTEM OF “JUSTICE” IN RETHYMNO

Savage Assault against Immigrants in Chania

Τwo immigrants were savagely assaulted by last Tuesday, December 8, in downtown Chania, at10 at night. The unknown perpetrators nearly killed the immigrants who were sitting on a bench in a square of the city centre.  They attacked them with iron crowbars, all of a sudden and from the back, and behind the bench so that not to be noticed and resisted by their victims . They left them with serious head and body injuries.

One of the 2 immigrant workers happened to be one of the 15 hunger strikers who last year surprised the town with their proud struggle. At the hospital he was able to give us a first description of the thugs. Gym freaks with shaved heads. Figures that allow us to suspect with certainty the neo-Nazis, Hitler-nostalgics, para-state that recently have been trying to make their pittiful presence sensed in the town. The scumbags who in large groups ambush and beat individuals simply because they do not like their face of social and political areas because they classify them as enemies of the homeland and their Aryan race. The same people who appear and “provoke” rallies and marches, who flock and flirt in public with the police, who threaten or beat protesters, because they don’t like demonstrations.

They have long been active in our town as well, and elsewhere in the prefectire, as in Kastelli Kissamou. The names of their leaders have been whispered in schools, football stadiums and cafes.  They recruit and trade in the divisive violence among the the youth whose blood is hot with passion and anger. They complete the work begun by “loyal to democracy” right-wing circles and political spaces. They poison the social body with hatred and preposterous lies for ten years now, with the full support of economic and political power blocs. The neo-Nazis are merely the executive arm of the fascist turn in the society .

After the uprising of December, these processes accelerated. Like everywhere in Greece, so in the ‘democratic Chania’ we have been witnessing a proliferation of attacks against immigrants and struggling people. In fact, the perpetrators have been acting scandalously undisturbed. We have no doubt that the society of labor, work, dignity, the democratic society can deal with them. It must stand against to them, because it is itself the target of fascists. This is what fascists hate and want to discipline, just like their ideological ancestors 70 years ago did.

Chania, 10 December 2009

Innocent by-standers of an assassination!!!

At New Year’s Day 2006, a young Albanian was killed with incredible ferocity -17 stabs – in his house, in Old Town, Rethymno.

His fault was that he was Albanian. His name was Edison Jahai.

The System of Justice in 2009 decided to prolong the crime by judging not guilty 3 of the accused perpetrators considering them “mere bystanders in front of the assassination” (!!!)

The questions raised are obvious:

• Is society to be trained to tolerate injustice?
• Is society to be trained to fear the “other” in order to regard him/her as the absolute root of all evil;
• Is society to be trained not to claim its rights – social, economic, political, labor – and be satisfied with what is minimum and be in fear of losing even this?

We think this Court of Appeals’ decision took this direction.  It is unfair and humiliating for both dead Edison and his family.  It is dangerous at a time when atrocities against wage-workers by trained Nazi stabbers prolifarate. The response to all forms of injustice and all forms of rights violations, all racist murderous attack must be the strengthening of the fight for a society with equality and freedom, with essential respect to life and dignity.

For racism does not only affect its victrims, but also those who tolerate it.

CHANIA 10 Dec 2009

Fascist bomb in Salonica, racist pogrom in Athens

source of article and updates this libcom.org article

Last Monday the fascist parastate made a double attack in Greece with the bombing of an antiauthoritatian centre in Salonica, and the pogrom against the arab community of Neos Cosmos in southeast Athens.

The fascist para-state has waged a double attack in the two major Greek cities, Athens and Salonica, on the night of Monday 23 November with police providing impunity to the perpetrators and the bourgeois media systematically under and misreporting the events.

In the case of Athens, a mob of fascist thugs attacked the arab community of Neos Cosmos, a southeastern neighbourghood of the metropolis, in the area of the proletarian blocks next to Syngrou avenue after 21:00. The fascists shouted racists slogans while beating the arabs on the street and smashing their shops, looting the tills and destroying their merchandise. The arab community was quick to mobilise a counterattack, chasing the fascists and forcing them to seek refuge in a block. At that moment strong riot police forces arrived which attacked the arabs, and let most of the fascists to escape. The cops then moved to detain 6 arabs and two fascists who claimed to be accidentally in the area playing basketball, and thus set free. Besides, the greek police in an attempt to cover the traces of its para-state accomplishes published a communique that claimed the clashes were between rival arab gangs. For many hours this story monopolised the news, and had to be revised in gross embarrassment after the intervention of left-wing parties and anti-racist organisations. The Radical Left Coalition has accused the police of being “provocatively inert” allowing the fascists to escape. Three arabs are reported to be in hospital wounded. The attack comes as a climax of racist bigotry on the side of the extreme-right, which seems to be losing its ability to control the area of Agios Panteleimonas where with the support of the police it had created a white-only zone through stabbing and beating people of color.

In the case of Salonica, the attack against the antiauthoritarian centre BuenoVentura came in the early hours of the morning, causing only material damage to the premises. Although initially the media reported the story as an anarchist attack against a cafe, once it became obvious it was a fascist bomb attack against an antiauthoritarian centre all reference to it stopped. The centre is located in a central spot of the city and is an active venue of social action and counter-information. What follows is the communique of the centre:

Regarding the ignition of an explosive device at the free social space “Buena Ventura” (Thessaloniki)

At the dawn of November 24, at 03:55 am, the free social space Buena Ventura (which hosts the assembly of the group Solidarity – Antiauthoritarian Movement) came under attack with a strong explosive device.

The way in which the device was placed reveals much about the morality of the perpetrators, a morality of murderers – since they did not just attack Buena Ventura, but the entire neighbourhood. In short, the windows of neighbouring blocks of flats were smashed by the explosion in a radius of 15 meters, while shattered pieces were whammed all around, posing an imminent danger to the lives of neighbours. Shattered pieces also hit three cars, which also highlights the murderous nature of the attack since any random passer-by could have been hit by them too.

The attack comprises the tip of the iceberg – part of the framework of repression and of the blooming of para-statist action over the decades. It begins with the activity of the para-statist group “Karfitsa” in the 1960s and comes all the way to the placing of the explosive device at Buena Ventura.

It becomes painstakingly obvious that free social spaces are being targeted – as approximately six months ago the haunt of the “Struggle Movement” (Sfentona) was also attacked. The method of the attack and the construction of the mechanism reveals that the perpetrators are the same, naturally raising the question of who will be next and – what scale of attack they will come under.

Such attacks comprise expressions of a fascist-type logic that aims at the terrorising of people in struggle; a logic that finds refuge and legitimacy on a practical level in the coordinated attack launched by authority against everything last year’s December has given birth to.

This witch haunt, the zero-tolerance schemes, the demonization of the anti-authoritarian movement both from mass media and from the state (from the mouth of the “Citizen Protector”, Minister Chrisochoidis), offers the strongest alibi for the activity of such circles, within and in parallel to the action of the state.

In our face, the entire movement was attacked, since we consider the choosing of our particular group for the attack entirely random. In our place it could have been anyone who has chosen the paths of struggle and resistance.

It could have been any free social space, haunt or squat. Through us, they attacked all those parts of society that revolted in December, since the symbolism of the date cannot be overlooked: the attack came only days after the mass mobilisations of November 17th and ten days before December 6th, marking a year from the assassination of Alexis Grigoropoulos.

Our response cannot be other than the one given by society itself during last year’s revolt: The state and its dogs won’t scare us.

Open Assembly: 24/11, 7pm at Buena Ventura

Solidarity – Antiauthoritarian Movement

UPDATES

Nov 25 2009

Update: Today after a press conference by the Buenaventura centre, the bourgeois media made a u-turn, portraying for the first time the attack as “ultra-right paramilitary”. Forensics demonstrated that the explosive device was a pipe-bomb filled with metal shrapnel which would have caused certain death to any passer-by. The media claim that the explosion was felt all around the centre of the city and that the police in making investigations amongst extreme-right groups.

2nd Update: As a response to the fascist violence against the arab community of Neos Cosmos in Athens, a protest march took the the streets around the scene of Monday’s pogrom. It must be noted that one victim of the racist violence remains in hospital due to a stab in his eye with a knife.

 

Thessaloniki “Buena Ventura” anti-authoritarian space attacked with explosives (Thessaloniki)

http://www.resistance2003.gr/

greek original here

photos at http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1108047

Regarding the ignition of an explosive device at the free social space “Buena Ventura” (Thessaloniki)

At the dawn of November 24, at 03:55 am, the free social space Buena Ventura (which hosts the assembly of the group Solidarity – Antiauthoritarian Movement) came under attack with a strong explosive device.

The way in which the device was placed reveals much about the morality of the perpetrators, a morality of murderers – since they did not just attack Buena Ventura, but the entire neighbourhood. In short, the windows of neighbouring blocks of flats were smashed by the explosion in a radius of 15 meters, while shattered pieces were whammed all around, posing an imminent danger to the lives of neighbours. Shattered pieces also hit three cars, which also highlights the murderous nature of the attack since any random passer-by could have been hit by them too.

The attack comprises the tip of the iceberg – part of the framework of repression and of the blooming of para-statist action over the decades. It begins with the activity of the para-statist group “Karfitsa” in the 1960s and comes all the way to the placing of the explosive device at Buena Ventura.

It becomes painstakingly obvious that free social spaces are being targeted – as approximately six months ago the haunt of the “Struggle Movement” (Sfentona) was also attacked. The method of the attack and the construction of the mechanism reveals that the perpetrators are the same, naturally raising the question of who will be next and – what scale of attack they will come under.

Such attacks comprise expressions of a fascist-type logic that aims at the terrorising of people in struggle; a logic that finds refuge and legitimacy on a practical level in the coordinated attack launched by authority against everything last year’s December has given birth to.

This witch haunt, the zero-tolerance schemes, the demonization of the anti-authoritarian movement both from mass media and from the state (from the mouth of the “Citizen Protector”, Minister Chrisochoidis), offers the strongest alibi for the activity of such circles, within and in parallel to the action of the state.

In our face, the entire movement was attacked, since we consider the choosing of our particular group for the attack entirely random. In our place it could have been anyone who has chosen the paths of struggle and resistance.

It could have been any free social space, haunt or squat. Through us, they attacked all those parts of society that revolted in December, since the symbolism of the date cannot be overlooked: the attack came only days after the mass mobilisations of November 17^thand ten days before December 6^th, marking a year from the assassination of Alexis Grigoropoulos.

Our response cannot be other than the one given by society itself during last year’s revolt: The state and its dogs won’t scare us.

Open Assembly: 24/11, 7pm at Buena Ventura

Solidarity – Antiauthoritarian Movement

www.resistance2003.gr

Νew allegations of abuse against detained immigrant at the Omonoia Police Station

source/adopted from: Athens Indymedia, a communique by the Network of Support to Immigrants and Refugees

Νew allegations of torture against detained immigrant at the Omonoia police station

[...] On Friday 20 November, immigrant detainee Bin Taher Mohammed collapsed at the Athens courts.  His condition was such that he was immidiately driven by ambulance to the hospital. As reported by his fellow detainees (and later confirmed by himself), Mohammed Bin Taher had been savagely beaten by police personnel at the  Omonoia Police Station. These complaints were forwrded to lawyer Gianna Kurtovik who visited the detainee on Saturday, November 21 at the  same Police Station, where he had been tranferred again.

This new complaint of torture against immigrants adds to a long series of abuse incidents at the Omonoia Police Station.  We all recall the famous video that showed police officers  tormenting detained immigrants.  But apart from physical violence, the very conditions of detention there constitute torture.  About 70 people are crammed for up to 4 months into detention cells which at best could accomodate 1 / 3 of them, with no yard to go outdoors. [...]

“Excuse me, Mr. Minister – she said – what difference is there between dying at sea and dying in Libya?”

source: fortresseurope.blogspot

The massacre continues: 459 deaths in the first 6 months of 2009

ROME, 2 July 2009 – The number of deaths at the border fell for the first time over the last three years. In the first semester of 2009, the victims reported by the international press along the routes of emigration in the Mediterranean have been 434, to which the 25 people who disappeared along land borders must be added, including the three boys who ended up under lorries in the Italian Adriatic harbours. Last year, over the same period, there had been 985 documented deaths. The figures –based on news from the international press- were divulged by the Fortress Europe observatory. The main reason for the decrease in shipwrecks is the objective decrease in the number of arrivals, particularly in Italy and Spain. Since the start of returns to Libya on 7 May, arrivals by boat in Sicily can be counted on one hand. And in the Canary islands in Spain, there has not been any arrival by boat in the months of April and May, and very few boats arrived in the archipelago in June. This is an effect of the returns in the high seas and joint patrol operations enacted by Frontex in Senegal and Mauritania. However, it is still too early to compare data. In fact, very little news arrives from the press in countries to the south of the Mediterranean on this issue. For this reason, it cannot stated with any certainty whether the deaths have decreased or whether the shipwrecks occur further away from the gaze of our cameras, off the Libyan coast or in the high seas.

In detail, according to the data collected from the international press by Fortress Europe, there were 339 victims along the route towards Malta and Lampedusa in the first semester of 2008 (compared with 650 in the same period of 2008), 87 off the Spanish coast (compared with 136 in 2008) and 8 in the Aegean Sea (compared with 199 in 2008), between Turkey and Greece. There is only news of one victim on the way between Algeria and Sardinia. A corpse that was fished out of the water near to the Cavoli island in the Cagliari region, whose origin may lie in a shipwreck about which there are no available details. Other three emigrants, most probably Afghan refugees, lost their lives under lorries that disembarked in the Italian Adriatic harbours after the crossing from Greece. In Egypt, three refugees were killed after being shot by the Egyptian police at the border with Israel. Two people died in Ceuta, the Spanish enclave in Morocco, as they tried to climb over the six-metre barrier that seals that border. There were also two victims in Calais, in France, where the harbour and Channel Tunnel represent an obligatory passage to enter England illegally. Finally, there were supposedly at least 14 victims of the crossing of the Sahara during the first half of the year, according to the very few pieces of information arriving from Saharan countries.

June has also been a month in which deaths were counted: 29 in the Gibraltar Strait, off the Spanish coasts; 3 in Egypt, shot by the police at the Israeli border; and one in Italy, who was called Amir Rohol, was 19 years old and an Afghan asylum seeker. He died after falling off an articulated lorry that had disembarked in Ancona, along the junction between Clearway 76 and the A14 motorway.

Many are likely to use this data to justify the returns to Libya. Joseph St. John, an official from the Maltese interior ministry also stated this during a seminar in which I took part on 17 June in Malta. Refuse entry to save human lives. From the audience, an Ethiopian woman refugee raised her hand to intervene. “Excuse me, Mr. Minister – she said – what difference is there between dying at sea and dying in Libya?”. I don’t feel that there is much more to add about this.

Change in khaki: a very Socialist repression looms in Greece

Submitted by taxikipali on Oct 9 2009 at libcom.org

Continuing waves of mass police operations in down town Athens set the pace for new era of repression in Greece

Everyone thought it was just a show of power – but it proved to be the Socialist government’s plan for “change” after 5 years of brutal right wing rule.

The police invasion of Exarcheia, the Athens alternative-radical hub, on the early hours of Friday 9 October was evaluated by most journalists, activists and veteran politicians as a power-show of the new government, in response to a limited solidarity attack against banks in the area just out of Exarcheia earlier the same day. Minister of Public Order Mr Chrisochoidis, the notorious anti-terrorist mastermind of the last Pasok administration, appeared to many as just typically determined to show who is the new boss. But the continuing waves of police invasion (3 by Friday 19:00 pm) into an area which is commonly acknowledged as the most vibrant intellectual, student and political hub of the country, with hundreds of people stopped and checked, many manifold times in the same day, shops stormed, and locals humiliated by being made to kneel on the pavement and body-searched, has come to prove the new government’s self-professed “antiauthoritarianism” a bitter joke.

Pasok, the Panhellenic Socialist Movement, now in power has a long record of police brutality.

Immigrant victim of police torture passes away in Athens

source: tvxs

An immigrant fell victim of police brutality

A brutal incident of police violence occurred on the evening of September 26 in Nikaia, Athens.   The victim a 25 year old immigrant, who died yesterday of his wounds. Petros Constantinou of the movement “Together against racism and the fascist threat”, talked to tvxs about the events that caused Pakistanis’ Mohammed Kamran Atif death.

On 26 September,  at01.30 at night, 15 police officers raided the house of the young immigrant at 82 Ilioupoleos str., Nikaia, shouting and beating both himself and his family. The neighboors who witnessed the incident say that the deceased was just semi-conscious,  and that while he was being carried out of his house his head kept banging on the stairs while he and his family were getting off the house crawling.   Against him there was a complaint for child beating.

He was then taken to the Nicaia police station, which turned into a torture chamber.   Kamran remained in detention for two days.  The charge against him remained ungrounded, and the complainant withdrew his charge .  Kamran was then released and he himself described to his family the horrific moments he had gone through.   “He was tied hand and foot and banged with clubs and then subjected to electroshock  with wires on his hands and knees” is the testimony of  Kamran’s amily.

Both the family and the neighbors knew about the abuse Kamran had suffered . Fear kept him away from the hospital since Kamran had no documents.

The police tried to cover up the incident.   Kamran’s brother was pressured and misled to testify that his brother brought no bruises when he left the police station.

Tomorrow on (Sunday 11 Oct) at 16:00 in the house of Mohammed Atif Kamran  an interview and a protest wil take place organised by the Pakistani community in Greece,  “United Against Racism and the Fascist Threat” and ” ANTARSYA.

Greece: 5 immigrants murdered in one year, 50 in the last decade

• source: clandestina article at athens indymedia
• translated by mich at de.indymedia.org

Five immigrants were killed by cops and coast guards during last year in Greece. More than fifty humans have been killed the last ten years because of “luckily gun-fires”, “unclear situations”, “health problems”, “unreasonable self-suicides”, the “reasonable rage of citizens”. In this list there are no cases of deaths that were caused because of inexistent safety measures in workplaces (13 dead immigrants ONLY during the olympic games’ constructions. On this list the deaths because of land-mines at Evros river, or shipwrecks in the Aegean sea are not included, as well as the cases of  gun-fire exchange, which were filed as’ “legal self-defense” cases although its certain they were plain murders.  In this list there are only cases of straight murders.

The blood list:
9/10/2009:Death of Mohamed Kamran Atif, who was beated up after 15 cops entered a pakistan workers’ poor house on 26th of September at Nikaia district in Athens.

27/7/2009: Death of Kurd immigrant Arivan Osman Abdulah, who was hospitalized in comma, after being beated up by coast guards at Igoumenitsa’s harbour on 3rd April 2009.

23/3/2009: Death of 24 year old Mazir, who was found in comma, on 6th December, in the stream of Votanikos, 600 meters away from the cops’ Immigrants’ Authority Offices at Petrou Ralli St. and was hospitalized in comma.

3/1/2009: Husein Zahidul, immigrand from Bagladesh loses his life in the same stream of Petrou Ralli St.

24/10/2008: In Petrou Ralli stream was found dead Mohamed Ashraf from Pakistan, after a barbarian cop chase close to Immigrants’ Authority Offices

22/2/2008: Abdukarim Yahya Idris from Sudan gets beated up and murdered by three cops.

8/11/2007: Ilmi Lates, 45 years old and father of five children, was found by border guards close to Levaia village, the guards fire on his back from close distance and falls dead on the ground.

8/11/2007: Imprissoned Pakistan in farm jail of Kassandra was found hung in his cell. The courts have decided to send him back to his country.

11/10/2007: Afgan prisoner, 27 years old, was found hunged in his cell in Korydallos jailhouse.

18/8/2007: Tony Onuoha, 25 years old from Nigeria gets killed in Kalamaria district, Thessaloniki.

15/4/2007: Leonidas Kaltsas, 20 years old from Albania, hunged in cells of Youngsters Authority in Liosia district.

28/3/2007: Mathiea Domin, 16 years old from Poland, prejailed in Avlona, commits suicide in Korydallos’ psychological hospital.

21/11/2006: A dead immigrand from Makreb in the Omonoia cop office.

October 2006: Greek Authorities are blamed for throwing in the sea almost 40 immigrants without papers. Turkish coast guards in Karaburun openseas close to Smyrnee collected 6 corpses and 31 alive of them.

13/2/2006: Patras. A 15 year old Afgan immigrant heavily injured by coast guards and a 29 year old who also presented at the event, fall dead under unclear circumstances.

5/2/2006: Dead, under unclear circumstances, immigrant from Iran at Omonoia cop station.

1/1/2006: Rethymno, Crete. Edisson Yahai killed, 18 years old, killed in his home by a team of greek youngsters (they have earlier a conflict with a group of alban youngsters), with 17 stabs by knife on his head, cheast, back, arms and legs. The victim has not participated in the conflict.

11/4/2005: Lamia city. Dead immigrant from Nigeria in the city’s cop station. The murdered immigrant was buried without a doctor to check the corpe to investigate the reason of death.

4/9/2004: After the match of national teams of Greece and Albania starts a pogrom against the alban immigrants in Athens, Thessaloniki, Larisa, Kilkis, Ileia, Kavala, Zante, Ioannina, Patra, Corfu, Paros, Rethymno, Kalamata, Volos, Rodos… almost all around the greek areas that alban immigrants live there. On Zante island, Gramos Palushi, a 20 years old immigrant, fell dead because of the knife of Panagiotis Kladis. Also two more immigrants in the hospital because of this killer.

11/8/2004: Luan Berdelima, 36 years old, economical immigrand from Albania lost his life because he was unluck to face some macho locals

13/3/2004: Jandeus Kocheva, 36 years old, dead in the cop station of Vyronas district in Athens.

13/1/2004: Mohamed Hamut, 42 years old from Syria, dead because of “health problems” in cops station of Rethymno, Crete. The doctor who checked the corpe stated that he was beated up all around his body.

23/9/2003: Vulnet Bititsi, 18 years old from Albania shoted and killed by border guards at Krystalopigi.

2/11/2002: Alban immigrant, 32 years old, shoted and killed by border guards at Kastoria.

1/12/2001: Border guards shot against two young albans in a village close to the borders at Thesproteia area, one falls dead.

21/11/2001: Cop Giannis Rizopoulos murders at America Square, Athens an immigrant from Albania, Gentjan Celniku 20 years old.

29/4/2001: Burdaki Taveus, 38 years old from Poland, commited suicide in the cop station of Kos island. He was found hung in his cell, after he was arrested and waiting for months to be sent back to Poland.

1/8/2001: O. Pazil from Turkey gets killed by coast guards around the sea space of Kos island.

4/6/2001: Afrim Salla, 15 years old from Albania, gets shot and loses the ability to move his legs, after -as Greek Police stated- the gun of the border guard fired by luck.

13/2/2001: Konstantin Katur, 47 years old from Romania, dies in a cop station. Despite his heavy injure no cop took him to a hospital.

23/11/2000: Chavahir Katsani, 22 years old from Albania and Ryon, 15 years old from Albania are shoted and killed by a greek at Galatista village at Halkidiki.

1/11/2000: Bledar Qoshku, 20 years old from Albania, was killed -as Greek Police stated- after he and a cop started shoting against each other. The gun that Bledar Qoshku should carry was never found.

10/8/2000: A 20 years old immigrand from Albania gets killed by border guards at Ieropigi, Kastoria.

14/6/2000: Border guards shoot and kill an immigrand at Evros river.

25/7/2000: A 22 years old immigrand gets shot and killed by greek army general at the greek-bulgarian borders.

15/6/2000: Yoval Badjar, 25 years old gets killed by G. Pistolas, a border guard, at Megalo Dereio village at Evros river.

27/4/2000: An under-18 immigrant from Albania gets murdered by cop, with a bullet on his neck, during a revolt at Avlona jailhouse.

25/3/2000: Nikos Leonidis, 17 years old from Georgeen, gets killed by mr. Atmatzidis, an undercover cop, in Thessaliniki.

21 & 23 of October, 1999: P.Kazakos, 23 years old, guard at ERT (governmental TV-channel) starts shooting generaly against immigrants. Victims of him: Kofi Tony from Ghana dead. Saad Abdelhadi, 30 years old from Egypt has serious moving problems. Hindir Serif, a 25 years old kurd, loses the ability to move his legs. Kurd Rasul Posef, Ahmed Nasar from Pakistan, Timoty Abdul from Nigeria and Mohamed Datnon from Bagladesh were not so heavily injured.

7/4/1999: An alban woman gets killed by Greek Police at the greek-macedonian borders.

18/3/1999: Lanti Peppa, 20 years old from Albania gets killed in Kastoria by Greek Police.

13/3/1999: Arben Vezi from Albania gets killed at Kozani by cop named Athanasios Kanavas.

November 1998: A. Hoxoli, 20 years old from Albania gets killed by A. Gougousis, because the victim tried to steal his horse. After this, the killer tried with some relevants of him to hide the dead body.

23/10/1998: Marco Boulatovic, a 17 year old student gets shoted at his heart in Thessaloniki by cop named Vantoulis because he was a “suspect for stealing”.

October 1998: Shbobek Miesic, from Poland, dies in the cop station of Meligalas because cops refused to transfer him to a hospital despite the doctor’s orders.

15/6/1998: At Megara city gets killed a youngster from Albania.

5/6/1998: Bokari Baho, 28 years old, falls dead because of “fear shots” of a border team.

April 1998: Ose Ogbuefi, from Nigeria gets murdered “for cheap reason”. The killer E.Kyriakopoulos and his friends refuse to state that felt sorry for the assasination.

Also:
4/8/2009: A 29 years old woman from Albania comited suicide at the cop station of Hersonisos, Crete because she did not want to be sent back to Albania.

12/7/2008: A 48 year old man from Gorgeen commited suicide in his cell in Kassandreia jailhouse, Thessaloniki because he didn’t want to be sent back to his country.

9/10/2009:Death of Mohamed Kamran Atif, who was beated up after 15 cops entered a pakistan workers’ poor house on 26th of September at Nikaia district in Athens.

27/7/2009: Death of Kurd immigrant Arivan Osman Abdulah, who was hospitalized in comma, after being beated up by coast guards at Igoumenitsa’s harbour on 3rd April 2009.

23/3/2009: Death of 24 year old Mazir, who was found in comma, on 6th December, in the stream of Votanikos, 600 meters away from the cops’ Immigrants’ Authority Offices at Petrou Ralli St. and was hospitalized in comma.

3/1/2009: Husein Zahidul, immigrand from Bagladesh loses his life in the same stream of Petrou Ralli St.

24/10/2008: In Petrou Ralli stream was found dead Mohamed Ashraf from Pakistan, after a barbarian cop chase close to Immigrants’ Authority Offices

22/2/2008: Abdukarim Yahya Idris from Sudan gets beated up and murdered by three cops.

8/11/2007: Ilmi Lates, 45 years old and father of five children, was found by border guards close to Levaia village, the guards fire on his back from close distance and falls dead on the ground.

8/11/2007: Imprissoned Pakistan in farm jail of Kassandra was found hung in his cell. The courts have decided to send him back to his country.

11/10/2007: Afgan prisoner, 27 years old, was found hunged in his cell in Korydallos jailhouse.

18/8/2007: Tony Onuoha, 25 years old from Nigeria gets killed in Kalamaria district, Thessaloniki.

15/4/2007: Leonidas Kaltsas, 20 years old from Albania, hunged in cells of Youngsters Authority in Liosia district.

28/3/2007: Mathiea Domin, 16 years old from Poland, prejailed in Avlona, commits suicide in Korydallos’ psychological hospital.

21/11/2006: A dead immigrand from Makreb in the Omonoia cop office.

October 2006: Greek Authorities are blamed for throwing in the sea almost 40 immigrants without papers. Turkish coast guards in Karaburun openseas close to Smyrnee collected 6 corpses and 31 alive of them.

13/2/2006: Patras. A 15 year old Afgan immigrant heavily injured by coast guards and a 29 year old who also presented at the event, fall dead under unclear circumstances.

5/2/2006: Dead, under unclear circumstances, immigrant from Iran at Omonoia cop station.

1/1/2006: Rethymno, Crete. Edisson Yahai killed, 18 years old, killed in his home by a team of greek youngsters (they have earlier a conflict with a group of alban youngsters), with 17 stabs by knife on his head, cheast, back, arms and legs. The victim has not participated in the conflict.

11/4/2005: Lamia city. Dead immigrant from Nigeria in the city’s cop station. The murdered immigrant was buried without a doctor to check the corpe to investigate the reason of death.

4/9/2004: After the match of national teams of Greece and Albania starts a pogrom against the alban immigrants in Athens, Thessaloniki, Larisa, Kilkis, Ileia, Kavala, Zante, Ioannina, Patra, Corfu, Paros, Rethymno, Kalamata, Volos, Rodos… almost all around the greek areas that alban immigrants live there. On Zante island, Gramos Palushi, a 20 years old immigrant, fell dead because of the knife of Panagiotis Kladis. Also two more immigrants in the hospital because of this killer.

11/8/2004: Luan Berdelima, 36 years old, economical immigrand from Albania lost his life because he was unluck to face some macho locals

13/3/2004: Jandeus Kocheva, 36 years old, dead in the cop station of Vyronas district in Athens.

13/1/2004: Mohamed Hamut, 42 years old from Syria, dead because of “health problems” in cops station of Rethymno, Crete. The doctor who checked the corpe stated that he was beated up all around his body.

23/9/2003: Vulnet Bititsi, 18 years old from Albania shoted and killed by border guards at Krystalopigi.

2/11/2002: Alban immigrant, 32 years old, shoted and killed by border guards at Kastoria.

1/12/2001: Border guards shot against two young albans in a village close to the borders at Thesproteia area, one falls dead.

21/11/2001: Cop Giannis Rizopoulos murders at America Square, Athens an immigrant from Albania, Gentjan Celniku 20 years old.

29/4/2001: Burdaki Taveus, 38 years old from Poland, commited suicide in the cop station of Kos island. He was found hung in his cell, after he was arrested and waiting for months to be sent back to Poland.

1/8/2001: O. Pazil from Turkey gets killed by coast guards around the sea space of Kos island.

4/6/2001: Afrim Salla, 15 years old from Albania, gets shot and loses the ability to move his legs, after -as Greek Police stated- the gun of the border guard fired by luck.

13/2/2001: Konstantin Katur, 47 years old from Romania, dies in a cop station. Despite his heavy injure no cop took him to a hospital.

23/11/2000: Chavahir Katsani, 22 years old from Albania and Ryon, 15 years old from Albania are shoted and killed by a greek at Galatista village at Halkidiki.

1/11/2000: Bledar Qoshku, 20 years old from Albania, was killed -as Greek Police stated- after he and a cop started shoting against each other. The gun that Bledar Qoshku should carry was never found.

10/8/2000: A 20 years old immigrand from Albania gets killed by border guards at Ieropigi, Kastoria.

14/6/2000: Border guards shoot and kill an immigrand at Evros river.

25/7/2000: A 22 years old immigrand gets shot and killed by greek army general at the greek-bulgarian borders.

15/6/2000: Yoval Badjar, 25 years old gets killed by G. Pistolas, a border guard, at Megalo Dereio village at Evros river.

27/4/2000: An under-18 immigrant from Albania gets murdered by cop, with a bullet on his neck, during a revolt at Avlona jailhouse.

25/3/2000: Nikos Leonidis, 17 years old from Georgeen, gets killed by mr. Atmatzidis, an undercover cop, in Thessaliniki.

21 & 23 of October, 1999: P.Kazakos, 23 years old, guard at ERT (governmental TV-channel) starts shooting generaly against immigrants. Victims of him: Kofi Tony from Ghana dead. Saad Abdelhadi, 30 years old from Egypt has serious moving problems. Hindir Serif, a 25 years old kurd, loses the ability to move his legs. Kurd Rasul Posef, Ahmed Nasar from Pakistan, Timoty Abdul from Nigeria and Mohamed Datnon from Bagladesh were not so heavily injured.

7/4/1999: An alban woman gets killed by Greek Police at the greek-macedonian borders.

18/3/1999: Lanti Peppa, 20 years old from Albania gets killed in Kastoria by Greek Police.

13/3/1999: Arben Vezi from Albania gets killed at Kozani by cop named Athanasios Kanavas.

November 1998: A. Hoxoli, 20 years old from Albania gets killed by A. Gougousis, because the victim tried to steal his horse. After this, the killer tried with some relevants of him to hide the dead body.

23/10/1998: Marco Boulatovic, a 17 year old student gets shoted at his heart in Thessaloniki by cop named Vantoulis because he was a “suspect for stealing”.

October 1998: Shbobek Miesic, from Poland, dies in the cop station of Meligalas because cops refused to transfer him to a hospital despite the doctor’s orders.

15/6/1998: At Megara city gets killed a youngster from Albania.

5/6/1998: Bokari Baho, 28 years old, falls dead because of “fear shots” of a border team.

April 1998: Ose Ogbuefi, from Nigeria gets murdered “for cheap reason”. The killer E.Kyriakopoulos and his friends refuse to state that felt sorry for the assasination.

Also:
4/8/2009: A 29 years old woman from Albania comited suicide at the cop station of Hersonisos, Crete because she did not want to be sent back to Albania.

12/7/2008: A 48 year old man from Gorgeen commited suicide in his cell in Kassandreia jailhouse, Thessaloniki because he didn’t want to be sent back to his country.

Human Rights Watch on Greece: Unsafe and Unwelcoming Shores

http://www.hrw.org,

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

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

Greece: Unsafe and Unwelcoming Shores

October 12, 2009

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Greece’s Dysfunctional Asylum System

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

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

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

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

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

Inhuman and Degrading Detention Conditions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The EU’s Failure to Hold Greece Accountable

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

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

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

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

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

New Greek Government Should Take Urgent Action to Stop Abuses

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

© Copyright 2008, Human Rights Watch

Nigerians protest against the police in Thessaloniki

adopted from http://www.enet.gr/?i=news.el.article&id=91539

Nigerians are infuriated because of the indifference of the Police

the Nigerian community in Thessaloniki is in ferment after the death of a 38 year old fellow Nigerian immigrant  who was hit by a car and died helpless on the pavement.

The 38 year old Victor Entokpai lost his life while going to work in the industrial area of Sindos at dawn last Friday and his compatriots, friends and relatives, denounce police’s inaction and racist behavior.

“If we hadn’t been Nigerian immigrants, the police would have reacted more quickly.  Now I think that they are indifferent ” said his widow Sandra,  Sandra, who arrived at the Thessaloniki courthouse holding in her hands her three minor children. “All I want is to find and punish the driver who dragged and left my husband,” she said.

Along with 40 other community members went to court not only to protest for Viktor’s death, but also to show their  solidarity to another community member who allegedly beat a police officer during an stop-and-search.  Brought against the prosecution for “mere bodily injury”, “contempt and resistance. Referred to the flagrant Three-Member Criminal Court where requested and obtained a postponement.

Tied and beaten: “humanitarian treatment” of refugees by police in Pharmakonisi

Photos taken this summer at Pharmakonisi, Aegean, published at Athens Indymedia by Syspeirosi Anarchikon.

Release for 1,200 illegal migrants from police holding cells, no deportation for immigrant’s children announced the Government

source: Kathimerini

Release for 1,200 illegal migrants

Citizens’ Protection Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis yesterday announced the impending release of 1,200 illegal immigrants from police holding cells around the country while also heralding a overhaul of the coast guard and police force to deter traffickers from bringing would-be migrants to Greece.

The freed immigrants would be given a month to leave the country and offered financial incentives for their repatriation, the minister said, noting that migrants facing trial on criminal charges would not be subject to release.

Chrysochoidis said that more measures were in the pipeline, including the reform of legislation to ensure greater rights for the children of migrants. “Child migrants who have grown up in Greece and merit protection status will not be subject to deportation,” he said.

“First and foremost we want to discourage illegal entry but we must also drastically improve our country’s human rights record,” Chrysochoidis told reporters following talks with top police and navy officials. The minister added that Greece would “no longer be a free-for-all but neither a hell pit for human souls.” To this end, and in an apparent reaction to complaints lodged against Greece by international rights groups earlier this week, Chrysochoidis also heralded the creation of a police department that would probe alleged rights violations by officers. The plan is for the unit to operate in cooperation with the Ombudsman, Giorgos Kaminis, who last week highlighted the problem of illegal immigration when he appeared at the new government’s first ministerial meeting.

Chrysochoidis said another priority would be reorganizing the coast guard with the aim of intensifying sea patrols and curbing a relentless influx of migrants to islands in the eastern Aegean.

Earlier this week, the European Union’s border-monitoring agency Frontex reported a 47 percent increase in the number of illegal immigrants entering Greece through its sea border with Turkey. This sharp increase came even as Italy and Spain, also external EU border states, reported a 60 percent drop in illegal arrivals partly due to repatriation agreements signed with Libya and Senegal respectively.

and a short announcement commenting on this at Athens Indymedia

“Amnesty” a ploy by “antiauthoritarian” PASOK

“Amnesty” for 1200 administratively detained immigrants  promised the minister “protector of citizens” M. Chrisochoïdis; they will be given one month to leave the country as well as financial incentives!

The “sensitive” and “humanitarian” measures can not hide the real intentions of the dominants.   This is in principle the implementation of plans of their predecessors, Pavlopoulos-Markogiannakis, which is done with the knowledge that, among other things, for many immigrant detainees deportation was impossible or their detention would have to cease with legal acrtion and in that case as well they would have to leave the country within one month all the same.

At the same time “virtue operations” [police raids] are still conducted on a large scale in many areas of Attica, which leaves no doubt that  this will be transferred in the so-called historic center of Athens with intensity.  The detention centers, then, are drained only to be quickly refilled, when the center of Athens will be evacuated this time for good from the immigrant  ”taint”.

The idea is to directly demonstrate the “effectiveness” of a government which strugges from the early start to look “different”.  This is  ”amnesty” to “criminal” undocumented migrants, which ensures social approval for broader repressive approaches that appear to be in the pipeline.

The same trick of  ”social amnesty” was applied by PASOK and A. Papandreou in 1981 who released many prisoners of minor penalties.

(Published by Syspeirosi Anarchikon)

www.anarchypress.gr

Revolt in Pagani last Saturday

from no border lesvos 09

Revolts, revolts

After the last revolt, we didn’t receive much news from Pagani. But now, there is this bit which we would like to share with you:

Last Saturday there was a revolt in Pagani. The prisonners set fire in their cell and the police was forced to open the door and put out the fire, so that the prisoners would not suffocate. 3 prisoners had to be brought to hospital. The prisoners’ demands are to be registered and to be set free and not to be kept imprisonned some more and some less long.

went tolast night 14/10 there was once more a revolt in pagani. Women and men started it. The prisononers said that the police hit two prisoners and took them away, probably to the police jail. The policemen told the prisnoners that everytime a revolt starts they will take two
people out of them to prison. Even if they did not take part in the revolt.

Last week a woman was brought to Pagani after giving birth, and was set free after three days only because of the pressure from outside.

Today the jungest prisoner is a mere30 days old.

The police together with the local authorities is responsible for the punishing attitude towards the prisoners, responsible for the imprisonment of minors and women and children.

No Deportations to Baghdad campaigns

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

No Deportations to Baghdad

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

Message from the campaigning group Stop Deportation

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

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

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

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

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

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

Campaign Against Air Italy

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

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

print version

Events is Nikaia, Athens, following the demonstration in memory ofMohamed Karman Atif and against state murders

All texts copied below from libcom.org, submitted by taxiki pali.

More updates and photos at http://www.occupiedlondon.org/blog/

Athens anti-torture demo leads to clashes and occupation of city hall

The city hall of Nikea, an industrial and prominently communist suburb of Athens, is under occupation since Saturday 17/10 afternoon by anarchists demanding the release of people arrested during clashes with riot police outside the police department where a Pakistani immigrant, Mohamed Karman Atif, was tortured by beating and electric shocks ileading to his death last week

The demo, organised by several anarchist collectives, marched to the police station, where it was confronted by strong riot police forces. The protesters tried to break through the blockade by throwing stones to the police. In the clashes that ensued several people were detained, out of which some are being reported as arrested and charged.

The protesters then regathered and occupied the city hall in a surprise move. The mayor of the suburb, a Communist Party (KKE) cadre, has visited the occupied city hall and has declared that the police should by no means attempt to evacuate the 300 protesters who remain in it, nor arrest anyone leaving the premises.

What follows is the first communique of the occupied city hall:

Communique of the Occupied City Hall of Nikea
400 protesters gathered today October 17 in the streets of Nikea in a march of rage against the recent assassination of the 25 year old pakistani immigrant Mohamed Karman Atif by torture in the police station of Nikea, a march called by anarchist collectives and a local assembly of the area. We crossed the main streets of the area, from the house of the murdered man and moved towards the police station. Strong riot police forces (MAT) and motorised police forces (Z-team) that “accompanied the demo have proved the official stance of the now Socialist Ministry of Public Order (Ministry of Citizens Protection): whitewashing and protecting torturers murderers, the police occupation of the area. All that was happening will continue as normal: beatings, torture, humiliations in all the police stations of the country. During the protest march there was strong rain. But what rained near the police station of Nikea was not just water drops. The riot police brigade blocking the way to the police station received a rain of stones. The organised continuation of the march and the retreat from the hot-spot was hampered by a combined force of riot policemen at the back and on the sides of the march. Our defenses held, while locals from the sidewalks swore and verbally attacked the police army of occupation. Yet, in a cloud of tear gas and glob attacks some got cut off from the march and as a result they were detained. The march was completed in the location perivolaki, as planned and given the detentions a great number of the protesters moved to occupy the city hall demanding the immediate release of the hostage comrades. Some people who decided to leave were stopped by motorised police forces and were also detained. The exact number of detentions is yet not known, but is certainly double-digit. The process of arrest has already started for some. This is the apex of the new state dogma of “democracy and strength” as announced by the new minster of Public Order Michalis Chrisochoidis against the world of the insurgency and anyone potentially resisting. It is like two days ago during the demo of the Perama shipyard workers and unemployed at the Ministry of Labour. It is like the now police-occupied Exarcheia. It is like the recent persecutions of high-school occupations. It will be the same with the dockworkers of Peiraeus who are against the sell-out to COSCO, or the 1,400 workers of the Skaramangas shipyards threatened to be sacked.Police barbarity is only the repressive side of state-capitalist barbarity: oppression, exploitation, subjugation, death. The new political management’s main role is to manage the social dimension of the crisis of our times: the all-expanding disobedience to and clash with the demands of political and economic power. There is no place for illusions. No change will come from no new government. This has always been the case.State terrorism continues and with it continues the struggle for social and individual liberation, for a free world without power.

Immediate release of detained protesters!
Removal of all accusations against them!
Immediate retreat of all police forces from the neighborhoods of Nikea and from around the city hall!
The assembly of the occupied city hall of Nikea.

An update:

5 out of the 8 arrested protesters who were led to the courts today are being charged under the “anti-hood” law of the previous government which transforms any breach of the law into a criminal offence if the court accepts that the protesters were wearing hoods or covering their faces. This means that any breach of the law “under a hood” can be punished by maximum 10 years imprisonment. Given that many anarchists in greece wear hoods as a symbol of their ideology this is considered to be a re-activation of the 1930s “idionimo” which imprisoned and exiled people of communist convictions. The parody of justice is even more apparent by the fact that in the day of the march it was raining, so penalising wearing a hood is more or less a conviction to illness or a prohibition of protest in winter conditions.

It is the first time that the onerous anti-hood law is being applied.

As a result, the occupation of the Nikea city hall holds strong.
It must be noted that bourgeois media have imposed a total black-out on the events, pointing out that the Minister of Public Order, who was decorated by the CIA in 2003 for his anti-guerrilla operations, has activated his old methods of “media guidelines”, i.e. censorship on issues of human rights and civil order that might be harmful to the government.

Workers support city hall occupation in Nikea

The municipal workers association of Nikea stand in solidarity with anarchists occupying the city hall since Saturday.

As the occupation of the city hall of Nikea enters its third day, the support of locals so visual during the protest march regarding the police torture and death of Mohamed Karman Atif, which led to serious clashes with the police and 8 arrests last Saturday 17/10, has been expressed in a communique by the municipal worker’s association of Nikea.

Communique of Workers Association of the municipality of Nikea about murder–detentions-occupation

Nikea City Hall is occupied by anarchist groups from the afternoon of Saturday after a protest, for the death of the unfortunate Pakistani immigrant that took place in the Police Station of Nikea.

The Workers Association demands that the forces of repression leave from within the boundaries of the historic City of Nikea. The occupation of the City Hall by the protesters is a political act, and the attempt to criminalise it is unacceptable and undemocratic.

The workers of Kokkinia [red neighborhood] disapprove strongly the attack of the forces of repression against the demonstrators and the mindless use of chemical gasses in a densely populated area. The police rule imposed cannot intimidate protesters and workers.

We demand the immediate clarification of the case of the death of our fellow human being, the immigrant. We call the Minister of Protection of Citizens [Minister of Public Order] to deal himself with this dark case and not attempt to conceal or whitewash this tragic case.

The Association of Workers protests strongly against xenophobia and racism that extreme-right centers and para-centers are trying to impose on Greek society.

WE DEMAND

-THE REPRESSION FORCES NOT TO RAID THE NIKEA CITY HALL.

-THE IMMEDIATE WITHDRAWAL OF THE POLICE FORCES FROM WITHIN THE BOUNDARIES OF THE CITY OF NIKEA.

-THE CLARIFICATION OF THE CASE OF THE DEATH OF THE PAKISTANI IMMIGRANT.

-THE DEMOCRATIZATION OF GREEK POLICE AND THE FIRING OF EXTREME-RIGHT ELEMENTS IN ITS RANKS.

Political refugees from Iran hunger strike in Athens

HUNGER STRIKE UNTIL WE ARE FREE!

We are political refugees from Iran, protected by the special status from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. We cannot return to Iran because we face the danger of imprisonment nor can we go legally to another country.

Although we are re recognised as political refugees, the Greek state refuses to give us our legal rights and at the same time gets funds from the European Union without using this money to support the refugees.

We demand the international regulations to be implemented and the Greek state give us all the required papers (white card, travel documents).

We request the help and the support of individuals and organisations in Greece and all other european countries.

We go on a hunger strike on Monday 19 October, in Propylaia, Athens protesting peacefully until the satisfaction of our demands.

source:athens indymedia

Arrested for protesting against flagrant brutality. A petition against police violence.

source/SIGN THE PETITION AT:

http://www.petitiononline.com/nomadic1/petition.html

To:  The Greek Minister of Citizen Protection

Following the December revolts in Greece, police violence against migrants and activists in Greece is becoming more and more intense. The xenophobic turn of the mainstream media combined with the electoral rise of the extreme right wing party LAOS have played a vital role in legitimizing police violence against both foreigners and citizens who dare to protest. Ironically these tactics are part of an overall plan to “protect the citizen” by openly demonstrating the ability of the state to control those who participated in the December revolts. While “scoop” operations and deportations take place daily all over the country subjecting migrants to different forms of physical and psychological violence, activists who react against it are also becoming subject to the arbitrary violent and terrorizing tactics of the police. Recently Mohamed Kamran Atif, a migrant from Pakistan, has died after being tortured in detention at the police station of Nikaia. During the protest march organized in response, several activists were arrested and imprisoned.

Few days later Dimitris Parsanoglou, a sociologist and anti-racist activist, has been arrested and detained without a legal representative for three days because he protested against the arbitrary arrest and beating by the police of a migrant in a central spot of Athens.

We ask from the Greek government to

- stop police violence against migrants and activists

- stop “scoop” operations and arbitrary deportations of migrants

- stop arbitrary arrests and imprisonment of activists of all nationalities

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

View Current Signatures

The Stop police violence against migrants and activists in Greece Petition to The Greek Minister of Citizen Protection was created by and written by Nomadic Universality(phatzopoulos@gmail.com).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service.

“OUT THE BACK DOOR”: REPORT ON ILLEGAL DEPORTATIONS FROM GREECE

Based on evidence gathered during investigations in Greece, Turkey and Iraq between April and

September 2009, and corroborated by reports and fi ndings of international human rights

monitoring bodies and NGOs, we argue that the principle of non-refoulement is severely

threatened by the Greek practice of illegal deportations, and consequently by transfers of asylum

seekers to Greece under the Dublin II Regulation.

In this report we present specifi c instances of illegal deportations by the Greek authorities of

persons with pending asylum cases, as well as of other groups. Such deportations take place in

such an arbitrary manner that there is no basis for claiming that Dublin returnees enjoy a higher

degree of protection than others.Out the Back Door:

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

The report is available here.

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

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

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

UNHCR delegation visits Pagani, Lesvos, urges closure

source: http://www.unhcr.org/print/4ae1af146.html

PAGANI DETENTION CENTRE, Greece, October 23 (UNHCR) – A UNHCR delegation has called for a crowded migrant detention centre on the Greek island of Lesvos to be closed after visiting the facility with a senior government official.

More than 700 men, women and children are packed into the Pagani centre, which lacks space and adequate hygiene and sanitation facilities to cope with such a large number of people, many of whom might be asylum-seekers and thus of concern to the UN refugee agency.

“Freedom, freedom, freedom,” the detainees chanted, as Deputy Citizens’ Protection Minister Spyros Vougias and the UNHCR delegation, led by Giorgos Tsarbopoulos, visited the facility on Thursday.

Both men condemned the poor conditions, which included about 200 women and children living in one ward with just two toilets and one shower. They saw damp mattresses soiled by water leaking from the toilets.

Deputy Minister Vougias, visiting Pagani during his first week in office, apologized to the detainees, who are mainly from Afghanistan and Somalia. “What I have seen today is a human tragedy, with conditions in which no human being should be kept,” he said.

“There is an urgent need to release vulnerable groups,” the minister stressed, while pledging that the government would improve the processing of new arrivals and work to ensure better living conditions.

Tsarbopoulos, head of the UNHCR office in Greece, said Pagani “should be shut down,” adding that the situation there reflected the impasse of policies applied at entry points, which led to people being detained.

He said UNHCR recommended that appropriate reception facilities, with screening mechanisms and expert staff, should be established at entry points, including islands like Lesvos which faces Turkey. These would help identify people in need of international protection and afford them special care.

“In parallel, drastic changes to the asylum system should be immediately introduced and the relevant responsibilities should be removed from the police and transferred to a political body,” Tsarbopoulos said, adding that he hoped the government’s commitment to improvement would result in concrete action.

Some 5,500 irregular migrants and asylum-seekers were detained in Lesvos during the first eight months of this year after crossing from Turkey, compared to more than 13,000 in 2008 and 6,100 in 2007. Most originated from conflict-torn countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia.

By Ketty Kehayioylou in Pagani Detention Centre, Greece

“As the Vice Minister turned his back” – Pagani Update

source and more photos here

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

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

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

Also, a little video.

At least eight refugees drown in the Aegean – one more unspeakable tragedy

source: associated press

8 Afghan immigrants drown as boat sinks in Greece

By NICHOLAS PAPHITIS
Associated Press Writer

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A small boat loaded with Afghan families smashed onto the rocks and sank off an island in the Aegean Sea on Tuesday, causing three immigrant women and five children to drown.

The deadly accident highlighted the plight of thousands of migrants who risk their lives every year to reach the European Union.

Athens accused neighboring Turkey, from where the vessel set off, of doing little to stop thousands of illegal immigrants from arriving in Greece. Human rights groups, however, urged Greece to improve its treatment of migrants and its handling of asylum applications.

The coast guard said high waves swept the flimsy boat with 18 on board onto a rocky shore on Lesvos. Seven men, a woman and a child – all Afghans – swam ashore and were hospitalized for observation.

One of the 10 survivors, only identified as a Turkish man, was arrested on smuggling charges.

Under Greece’s tough immigration laws, traffickers involved in fatal accidents face life terms and a minimum euro500,000 ($750,000) fine.

Later Tuesday, the coast guard rescued another 45 illegal immigrants found abandoned on an uninhabited islet off the island of Anafi in the southeastern Aegean.

Lying only five miles (eight kilometers) from Turkey’s western shore, Lesvos is one of the main points of arrival for illegal immigrants, who use rickety boats to slip through a porous sea border dotted with hundreds of islands.

Deputy Citizen’s Protection Minister Spyros Vougias said the incident merited an official complaint to Turkey.

“We need a solution to the problems Turkey causes by tolerating the actions of human traffickers,” he said. “There must be an end to this slave trade.”

Greece also wants more support from other EU members and has begun receiving assistance from the bloc’s new border protection agency, Frontex.

“Every day, Greek authorities have to handle the security of 300-400 people seeking a safe destination in Greece,” Citizen’s Protection Minister Michalis Chryssochoides said. “We lack sufficient infrastructure, funds and cross-border cooperation.”

Some 5,500 people were detained on Lesvos in the first eight months of this year, compared to more than 13,000 in 2008.

Often fleeing war zones in Asia and Africa, the migrants pay thousands of dollars to smuggling gangs for a long and perilous journey to the west. Accidents at sea are frequent, while migrants trying to enter by land from Turkey face border minefields that have claimed at least 82 lives since 1994.

A spokeswoman for the United Nations refugee agency said Tuesday’s drownings showed that migrants from war-torn countries are not deterred by strict anti-migration policies.

“As long as there are wars and violations of human rights, people will continue to be desperate and risk their lives,” U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees spokeswoman Ketty Kehagioglou said.

Kehagioglou urged the government to improve the screening process for asylum seekers and create better migrant holding facilities.

She said UNCHR officials who visited the Pagani center on Lesvos last weekend saw some 700 people held in “appalling, outrageous” conditions.

“In one ward, there were more than 200 women and children with only 2 toilets,” Kehagioglou said. “Their mattresses were soiled with water from the toilets and the smell was unbearable.”

The Socialist government, elected three weeks ago, has pledged to improve migrants’ rights.

—

Associated Press Writer Costas Kantouris in Thessaloniki contributed to this report.

Survivor of boat-accident imprisoned in Pagani!

Report from Lesvos antira ‘09.  Links to posts of this blog with frequent updates and photos on Lesvos situation are on the right sidebar.

10 people survived boat accident

Published on 27. October 2009.

A boat with 18 refugees drowned tonight close to Lesvos, Greece. This is what the Media reports about.

18 refugees crosed the sea between Turkey and Greece with a Boat. The sea was very stormy tonight. The boat crashed against a rock and the boat drowned. Some fisherman rescued them, for eight people the rescue came to late.

The Media makes it look like there has been a storm tonight. But in fact the sea was very calm around Lesvos.

Our source in Lesvos reported that some of the survivors are still in the hospital, the minors are accommodated in a Hotel in Mytilini, Lesvos and one man is in Pagani.

My name is Arif Khani Soldier. My wife, my daughter and me survived the accident. My family is in the hospital but they brought me here to the prison. I can not see or talk to them.

Palestinian minors and other refugees tortured in Greece

A long report on the situation by The Palestine Telegraph

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!

One of the Iranian hunger strikers was taken to hospital

source: athens indymedia post

Today, at 7:20 p.m., one of the hunger strikers was taken to the hospital as he had pain in the kidneys, was throwing out blood and was urinating blood. The ambulance took him from Propilaia and transfered him to the hospital, where he received first aid and the doctors prescriped him some medication. Late the same night, the Iranian political refugee returned to Propilaia and he will continue the hunger strike until the satisfaction of their demands, as he decided.

iranianrefugeesfromtipf.blogspot.com

Εurope at the Frontline of the Great Enclosure – Counterarguments to the 3d Forum on Immigration & Development.

The text below presents, in the briefest possible form, counterarguments to the 3rd Forum on Immigration and Development (GFMD2009) that is taking place on the 4th and 5th of November 2009 in Athens, Greece (after two preparatory «Civil Society Days» on the same subject hosted by the Onassis Foundation). It intends to decode certain points that are kept vague in the rhetorics of the GFMD2009, as are the «root causes of migration in light of the current global economic crisis», «migrant integration, reintegration and circulation for development», as well as «policy and institutional coherence and partnerships», the three topics of the GFMD2009 roundtable discussions.

Pagani detention centre in Lesvos to close down (for now?)

source: After the Greek Riots blog

#119 | One Less Prison: Pagani detention centre in Lesvos to close down (for now?)

The “migrant welcoming centre” (that is a prison in the government’s doublespeak) of Pagani in Lesvos was one of the main targets of the No Borders camp that took place in the island last August, with activists calling for the immediate closing down of a detention centre in which, “living” conditions were a disgrace, even by greek prison standards… On 22.10, a government official (Sp. Vougias) visited the prison to inspect living conditions there. Astonishingly, only hours after his visit, a 17-year old migrant detainee was severely beaten before being offered 350 euros by police, to keep silent about the attack…

The situation in Turkey: a text by Oktay Durukan from the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly

This is the text Oktay Durukan presented at the Public Event, Open Discussion in Thessaloniki: “People in mid-air: between deportation and asylum”.

Oktay Durukan from the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly (HCA) in Istanbul, Turkey.

HCA is an Istanbul-based Turkish human rights organization, working on a diversity of issues. Since 2004, protection of refugees and vulnerable migrants in Turkey became one of our priority areas of activity. We run a relatively extensive, specialised program to provide free legal counselling and assistance to individuals who want to seek asylum protection in Turkey. We litigate to intervene in situations involving prolonged arbitrary detention and risk of refoulement. We also monitor state policies and practices, write reports on protection gaps. We organise trainings for lawyers and other professionals.

Who are asylum seekers present in Turkey

Stop another 5 year program of death and detention!30 Nov – 1 Dec 2009, Brussels – Transnational Protests against Justice and Home Affairs Meeting

SOURCE: NO RACISM NET

Stop another 5 year program of death and detention!

30th of November and 1st of December 2009 in Brussels – Transnational Protests in front of the EU – Justice and Home Affairs – Meeting

Refugee Protection and Migrants Rights instead of a brutal EU-Border-regime! No to the repressive Stockholm program! After Tampere and The Hague, the Stockholm program will constitute the next 5-year-framework for Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) within the EU and its memberstates. The new program claims to build up the ‘area of freedom, justice and security’. But in fact it will continue to implement an even tighter regime of surveillance and control and will promote a securitisation of social life, undermining all civil rights and privacy despite contrary claims.

undeclared blood

In the last few days the mass media  in Greece have been producing all kinds of elaborate arguments in favour of the young police woman who was critically injured by the bullets of some obscure urban gorilla group.

There has been much more blood shed than that in Greece , much more. Blood that remained in the shadow of public attention.

Some horrible reminders:

At least eight refugees (women and children) drown in the Aegean – one more unspeakable tragedy

Immigrant victim of police torture passes away in Athens

Greece: 5 immigrants murdered in one year, 50 in the last decade

(and in the Mediterranean The massacre continues: 459 deaths in the first 6 months of 2009)

plus the horrible deaths at work, the so called “labor accidents” (many immigrants among them) – list “brought to attention”  by Alice’s blog).

According to the Labor Inspectors, the following fatal industrial accidents have been officially recorded in the last 10 years   :

• 2000 127 accidents
• 2001  188 accidents
• 2002  153 accidents
• 2003  145 accidents
• 2004  127 accidents
• 2005  111 accidents
• 2006  128 accidents
• 2007  115 accidents
• 2008  142 accidents
• it is estimated that in 2009, 57 people lost their lives at work.

1293 dead workers

UN chief at the 3rd Global Forum on Migration & Development, on the “poor migrant asylum record” of Greece

source: earth times

 

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

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

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

EU plans joint ‘charter flights’ to deport immigrants

 

source: EURACTIV

5 November 2009

EU plans ‘charter flights’ to deport illegal immigrants

Published: Wednesday 4 November 2009

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

Some data on immigrants economic life in Greece

This is a translation of this enet article.  Many thanks to Efi for her translation.

Stapsa for clandestinenglish

 

The immigrants’ piggy bank

Immigrants work a lot, live in small apartments, don’t have credit cards, don’t go out much, do not take loans, but do use public transportation.

However, the lifestyle of immigrants living in Greece is not full of “don’t” and negations. Research shows that regardless of the financial crisis, they go on saving money and they take every opportunity for small housing investments. Data from Central Bank of Greece show that immigrants’ saving accounts outnumber the average savings of Greek citizens; out of a total of 300.000 bank accounts in Greek banks, the majority belongs to Albanian depositors.

394 million Euros in bank transfers.

In contrast to previous years, immigrant depositors seem to increasingly trust Greek banks. According to the Central Bank of Albania, there is a 6, 1% decrease in deposits in comparison to last year. Even though international bank transfers have decreased from January until June 2009, the total amount of remittances has reached 394 million Euros.

The immigrants still save money. D. Aspassios comments that, according to data collected from research interviews conducted for the Department of Balkan Studies, West Macedonia University, “there is a significant increase in the number of immigrants who currently own a savings account compared to their first working years in Greece”. Immigrants save money in order to make future buys and investments in Greece. Most of the participants in Aspassios’ research stated that they were still sending money to accounts in their home countries, but the amounts are smaller than in the past years.

According to real estate agencies in Attica, in the first months of 2009, 40% of available housing -mainly older constructions- was mostly sold to Albanian citizens.

It seems that the financial crisis is not affecting immigrants that much both because they are adopting more flexible consumption attitudes than the indigenous Greeks, and they adapt their saving strategy accordingly.

However, immigrants’ consumption attitudes are based on the products’ price than on quality- with the exemption of foods (source: “Survey on consumer habits and standards in culturally diverse groups”- Cross-cultural management and technological improvement).

Credit cards and loans

Immigrants don’t like taking loans, neither from Greek banks (85%) nor from banks based in their country of origin (92, 7%). 68% of them do not have or use credit cards, although some of them have cash cards. It is not coincidental that most immigrant entrepreneurs in Northern Greece start up their businesses without taking any bank loans. They support their start- ups either through prior personal capital savings or though intrafamily loans.

Immigrant women

Moreover, one third of immigrant women “cannot save money, since income is not enough”. 53, 1% of the remaining two thirds prefer opening a savings account in a Greek bank; a smaller number of women sends money to relatives in the country of origin. Female immigrants either do not use or do not trust banking systems.

 

After Pagani (…?). 20 acres of military estate to be turned into refugee settlement.

This is a translation of this enet article.  Many thanks to Efi for the translation.

Stapsa for clandestinenglish

20 acres of military estate to be turned into refugee settlement

There are a lot of legends connected to the Hill of Karatepe in the island of Mytilene, Lesbos. During the Roman era, Dafnis and Chloe’s love story is said to have taken place on this hill. When Greece was part of the Ottoman Empire,  the Mytilene branch of the “Filikoi”, the secret organisation said to have prepared the 1821 Revolution,  had hid on it. In World War II, the German forces attacked it, and during the Greek civil war it was a place of torture. Currently both the hill and the area surrounding it belong to the Greek military forces.

20 acres of this estate are going to be turned into an “exemplary refugee camp”, as the Minister of  National Defence, Mr. Evangelos Venizelos stated in a recent press conference in Athens. This ambitious plan is a cooperation between the Ministries of Citizen Protection and National Defence, and the Hellenic Army National Staff.

A year ago, the head of Lesbos prefecture, Mr. Pavlos Vogiatzis, had requested for the land to be granted to the prefecture. However, the Ministry of National Defense initially rejected his request, although the Ministry of interior had announced that they were looking for an estate that would host a new refugee camp, since the living conditions in the already overpopulated “Pagani” camp in Lesbos were deteriorating.

The 20-acre-estate is located close to the local fire brigade; in 1974 the Mytilene Charity Insitutions had sold the land to the National Defense Fund for the symbolic price of 50,000 drachmas in order to cover military housing needs or defense plans.

Hunger strike in Pagani

Published on 8. November 2009 at lesvos antira 09

We will not eat in a place like here!!

The 30 people in Pagani are angry. Most of them are families with a lot of kids. The people refused the food because of the horrible ambiance. One woman is disgusted about the circumstances inside the “open centre” of Pagani.

Our close are all wet, we have nothing dry to wear. The sheets and beds are used, dirty and hideous. They will not give us fresh sheet our dry clothes. It is ridiculous, they bring us to the hospital to check f we are ll or something but they let us sleep in sheet full of virus and with wet clothes!?

Close down Pagani and every detention centre, now and all about!!!

“One year after the hunger-strike in Chania: empowered by the movement’s past, for the movement’s tomorrow” – Event in Chania, Crete, Friday 20 Nov ‘09.

Forum of Immigrant in Crete event – open discussion about last year’s hunger strike in Chania.

Worker Unions’  Center, Chania, Friday, 20 Nov 2009, 19.30.

About the Iranian political refugees on hunger strike

This is about the Political refugees from Iran hunger strike in Athens.

source : http://iranianrefugeesfromtipf.blogspot.com/

The Iranian political refugees are ex-members of P.M.O.I. They were recruited from countries near Iran, where they had found shelter, after being chased by Khomeini’s regime and were transported to a camp in Iraq for military training. They joined the organization believing that they would fight for political change and the freedom of their people. But, in the camp they encounter a very illiberal system, totally different with their personal beliefs, humiliations, constant brainwashing in order to exalt the organization’s leader and many times, torture and imprisonments. Now, they consider P.M.O.I. to be even worse than Khomeini himself.
In 2002, P.M.O.I. signed a secret agreement with U.S.A., which has invaded Iraq, according to which Americans had to keep for 5 years all the dissidents of the organization in a secret prison camp (T.I.P.F.), 50 kilometres outside Bagdad, and P.M.O.I. had to give information about Iran in return. In this prison, they suffered heavy torture again until they were set free in 2007, after the agreement expired. The United Nations’ High Committee for Refugees recognized them as political refugees in 2006 after interview via satellite, while they were still in prison.

The following is the testimony of one of the hunger strikers, as he wrote it:

“After the war between U.S.A and Iraq, one of the American commanders (general Odierno) came to our base, camp Ashraf near Bagdad , and told us that we can not be armed anymore and that they will help the ones of us, who want to go to other countries.
Note that this was a lie from the start because P.M.O.I. (our former organization) had secretly signed an agreement with the Americans to hold us captives for 5 years. As a result, instead of helping us leave Iraq they put as in a camp called T.I.P.F. (Temporary Interview & Protection Facility). We were supposed to stay there for 2 or 3 months but were set free 5 years later.
This “camp” was no different than Guantanamo prison. We were dressed in uniforms and we lived in tents. We were allowed to take one 3 minutes shower every 10 days and our food was M.R.E. (Meal Ready to Eat), which is provided to the American soldiers when they take part in military operations and is therefore not suitable for long-term consumption. They also used us for testing new American drugs. When we had headaches or sleeping disorders they gave us pills with false names without limitations for pills per day. I particularly remember a painkiller called oltrom which we could take 10 or 20 times per day.As a result, lots of us developed psychological problems. Some times they didn’t provide us new razors to shave and diseases were transferred from one to another through the old and common razors.
For 2 years no one knew that there was a prison in this part of the world until 5 persons escaped from the “camp” and told to BBC radio and human rights organizations, like Red Cross, United Nations High Committee for Refugees etc., that there is a top secret prison 50 kilometers outside Bagdad. When the Americans were informed about this incident they removed the black flag, which meant that this was a P.O.W. (prisoners of war) camp, they brought a generator and built other facilities in order to alter the prison image and trick human rights organizations. Then UNHCR wanted to have an interview with us but the Americans allowed it one year later. The interview took place via satellite because the Americans claimed that it was unsafe for the UNHCR members to come in Iraq. On the 5th of May 2006 we were finally recognized as political refugees.
Despite that fact, the U.S. army refused to send our case files to the countries, which accept refugees. The government of Iraq started then to push U.S. army to set us free. Finally in December of 2007 the prison gate opened and we were allowed to leave in groups of 4-5 people without any documents.
I was in the third group and managed through a lot of trouble to arrive to the Kurdish area of Iraq. There I paid a smuggler to help me enter Turkey illegally. I went to the UNHCR ‘s office in Ankara where I was given 2 papers certifying that I am a refugee and I was sent to Afion city to introduce myself to the local police. At first I was welcomed but a week later I was arrested because Turkey has signed a security contract with Iran and I was now considered a threat for Turkey’s national security. They took me to the borders with Iraq.”

To be continued…

UK: Refugee and Migrant Justice Lawyers call on the UK Government to stop removing asylum-seekers to Greece

>>> SOURCE/READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE AT http://refugee-migrant-justice.org.uk <<<

10 November 2009

RMJ asks UK to stop removing asylum-seekers to Greece, following international complaint to European Commission against Greece

Refugee and Migrant Justice (RMJ) today calls on the UK Government to stop removing asylum-seekers to Greece until conditions there improve.

Fifteen European refugee NGOs, led by Refugee and Migrant Justice and the Dutch Refugee Council, are calling for the Greek Government’s treatment of asylum-seekers to be referred to the European Court of Justice. The complaint will be presented to the European Commission today, 10 November, and will be heard at the end of November 2009.

Many asylum-seekers travel by sea to Greece. The Greek authorities often try to prevent them from entering Greek territory by turning boats back at sea or sometimes puncturing inflatable rafts. Life threatening situations have occurred in the process. When asylum-seekers do make it to Greek territory, many of them are detained upon arrival. Conditions in some of the detention centres are appalling – most of them are warehouses that are severely overcrowded and lack adequate sanitation and cooking facilities.

There is a severe shortage of reception facilities and no specialist social care for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. Many migrants end up sleeping rough where they often experience ill-health.

The Greek authorities make it very difficult for asylum seekers to gain access to the Greek asylum procedures, a clear violation of EC law, as well as international human rights instruments. In 2008 22,100 asylum applications were lodged in Greece, yet less than one per cent of asylum applicants were granted refugee status or other forms of protection, compared with 31 per cent in the UK.

The Greek authorities regularly deport asylum-seekers back to Turkey from where they may be removed to their countries of origin.

Caroline Slocock, Chief Executive of Refugee and Migrant Justice, says

“The inhumane conditions facing asylum-seekers in Greece are a scandal. Greece’s system is not just unfair to asylum seekers, it places unreasonable burdens on other European countries, like the UK, that have more respect for European and international obligations to identify and protect those who fear persecution.. . Many asylum-seekers end up travelling across Europe to France and the UK because they cannot get a fair hearing in Greece. We are appealing to the European Commission to put this right but in the meantime the UK Government should stop returning asylum-seekers to Greece under EU laws, as their safety cannot be guaranteed.”

Case studies

RMJ has collated witness statements of asylum-seekers who have come to the UK via Greece…

>>> SOURCE/READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE AT http://refugee-migrant-justice.org.uk <<<

Minister of Citizen Protection, gladly surprised by lack of abuse, threatens…

source, adapted from: http://www.enet.gr/?i=news.el.article&id=100563

Improved Detention Conditions promises Minister of Citizen Protection

Deputy Minister of Citizen Protection Spyros Vougias went to see for himself the places of detention for foreigners. The aim of the ministry according to Mr. Vougias is to relieve the overcrowded detention facilities of the Immigration Police Service.

[clandestinenglish note: these facilities ]

Vougias welcomed  the eclipse of violence and abuse at the detention centers, but appeared concerned about the large number, larger than the permitted, of the illegal immigrants concentrated in them.

At the same time, he noted that the detention center in Pagani of Lesvos will reopen when prison conditions improve and in cooperation with the Ministry of Defense, in Mytilene, a new site immigrants, who was destined for housing officers, will be used.

He also said that patrols on land and sea will be strengthened so that traffickers be identified and severely punished.  Mr. Vougias said that he has  informed the EU on the problems of migrant smuggling, and that there should be negotiation with Turkey, so that the centers are in the neighboring country and not in Greece.

Testimony from Pagani (and Athens after it)

source: lesvos09.antira.info

“We really didn’t feel like refugees!”

Athens, 25th of October 2009 | Reflections on Lesvos two months after Noborder:

Hello, my name is Milad. I am 17 years old. I was for 23 days imprisoned in Pagani in Mitilini and first I want to define how was the situation inside this prison and how was the behaviour of police and doctors with us.

Some guys were sick for weeks, they were calling for a doctor, but nobody was ready to listen to our voices. There was no treatment for sick persons and the drinking water had a bad smell. If we asked for a doctor, for clean water or anything, mostly nobody was even listening.

They also did not have a good behaviour to the families with the small kids. One day I saw the kids had their ten minutes time to go out. They were playing football and one policeman was beating a small kid, he was about 8 years old, his mother was crying.

Threats from the University’s administration towards the hunger strikers

source : http://iranianrefugeesfromtipf.blogspot.com/

On Wednesday morning, Panagiotis Kontos, a high member of the council of the University of Athens, told to the Iranian political refugees who are on hunger strike in Propilaia, that they have decided to give them a week’s deadline to take their stuff and leave from that place. He threatened them that if they don’t leave in one week, they will take measures to kick them out of from the university premises, where it is ASYLUM.
It seems the dean and the other council members use diplomacy when they have to deal with massive occupations, like the recent occupation of the University but when it comes to some common refugees, they show their real face. Obviously, the ultimate struggle of these people for their rights spoils the image of the University.
From their side, the hunger strikers ask for true support from everyone who feels solidarity to them in this fight that they have decided to take to the end, especially now that the continuous hunger strike has wore them down.

HANDS OFF OF THE IRANIAN POLITICAL REFUGEES!

Event in Athens on Refugee Camps & Petrou Ralli Foreigners Police Station

 

event's poster

BORDERS ARE WITHIN OUR NEIGHBORHOODS

EVENT – DISCUSSION AND VIDEO PROJECTION ON REFUGEE CONCENTRATION CAMPS AND THE PETROU RALLI POLICE STATION TORTURE CHAMBER

T.E.I. OF ATHENS, INFORMATICS HALL, THURSDAY 12 NOV. 19.00

by the Aegaleo Anarchists Inititative

http://anarxikoiaigaleo.squat.gr/

 

Both the Pagani 17-year-old refugee abuse case AND Mohammad Kamran’s death case considered “cold cases”.

This a translation of this Nov 11, Avgi article, about this recent case of immigrant abuse in Pagani and the legal developments on Kamran Atif’s death .  Thanks to Efi for her work.

stapsa for clandestinenglish

The assault on the 17-year- old refugee is a “cold case”.

The assault on the 17-year-old refugee Mr. Mohamed Hussein Khantar by police guards in the Pagani refugee camp last October is considered a “cold case”. The same applies for the case of the death of the Pakistani immigrant Mohamed Kamran- who had been allegedly tortured in the police department of Nikea in Athens

According to newspaper Avgi’s sources, during the preliminary investigations conducted with regards to the assault case, Mytilene’s state attorney could not find sufficient evidence leading to possible prosecutions of police guards in the Pagani refugee camp. Thus, the case is considered cold, and all preliminary investigations regarding police officials are going to be archived.

The manner in which the case is concluded, confirms the fears of various bodies and organizations that an abuse case would be covered- up by the police forces. It is claimed that witnesses in the Pagani camp were offered “pink cards” in return for their silence, and were sent to Athens, where it is impossible to be traced.

Moreover, questions arise with regards to the contradictory conclusions after Mr. Khantar’s examination. According to his attending physician’s statement, injuries and traumatic lesions were found on his head, back area and hands; however, the medical examiner concluded that his injuries were older than the day of the alleged police assault.

The police assault has allegedly taken place in the afternoon of October 22nd, in the Pagani refugee camp, just a few hours after Mr. Spyros Vougias, who is the undersecretary of the Ministry of Citizen Protection, visited the camp. After the event was made public, the Ministry of Citizen Protection ordered a preliminary investigation of the case, which was conducted by Mytilene’s state attorney.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has made an announcement, pleading for an in-depth investigation of the case and a subsequent prosecution of the people involved. The Greek political party SYRIZA is planning to bring the topic in parliamentary discussion.

Kamran’s case

With regards to Mohamed Kamran’s case, leaked information from the Ministry of Citizen Protection reveal that toxicology tests show Kamran intoxicated; according to the same leak, the post mortem toxicology investigation found Kamran using alcohol and other substances before his death.

However, Mr. Fragiskos Ragoussis, Kamran family’s attorney stated that there are no official toxicology test results yet, and that in any case his clients are going to ask for a test re-run, since according to the Greek law the family has the right to appoint an external medical examiner during the autopsy.

Antiracist 2 day event in Rethymno, Crete 14-15 Nov.

AT THE HOUSE OF CULTURE, OLD TOWN, RETHYMNO GREECE

DISCUSSIONS + VIDEO PROJECTIONS

Kuneva’s case buried in political and legal manouvres

The Greek government’s effort to hide the closing of Kuneva’s case in plain sight.

In the last week Konstantina Kuneva’s case made it into the headlines.   Kuneva spoke to tv channels and newspapers; the ministry of employment offered her an apartment; the minister of citizens protection (ex-public order) Chrysochoidis said he takes under his personal care the effort to find and arrest the perpetrator(s) of the crime against her. Together with the ministry of economics, he signed an 1 milion euros reward for them (400.000 more than the one for the anarchists “robbers in black”). The effort of the minister of citizens protection is clearly to appear unbiased against any kind of crime, to reverse the mood against him, that with his provocative stance towards Exarcheia he provoked the strike against the police station of Aghia Paraskevi… and of course to “disarm” ideologically anarchists in view of December.

All these at a time when the case’s legal future was decided by judges. The examiner of the case had suggested that it should be archived; the public attorney was against this; the pertinent to resolve the disagreement first degree council of judges decided not to close the case and go on with the examination process. . This was hailed by mainstream press as a progressive sign of the justice system willing to continue the search for truth and justice.

There is a catch to it, however. The case will not officially close, still, everything the attorney suggested that should be done was rejected, apart from the provision that Kuneva may be examined once more.   In other words, the decision does not at all take into account the memorandum by Kuneva’s lawyers on the blatant defficiencies and stubbornly wrong orientation of the police work on the case.

This means that the police will be judicially justified to continue turning away testimonies, as they did hours only after the event, when they turned away people from the nearby area willing to testify, on the pretext that since they did not see the crime itself happening their testimonies were useless!!! And of course, they are not going to look at the direction of Kuneva’s employers, who were palpably directing the research and examination process from behind the scenes.

In other words, the case is in effect closed.

Info and analysis from this week’s issue of KONTΡΑ newspaper.

Iranian hunger strikers taken to hospital

source: http://iranianrefugeesfromtipf.blogspot.com/

Tonight (Friday, Nov. 13), at 7:15, one more of the political refugees and hunger strikers was taken to the hospital because he broke down. Yesterday morning, a group of The Doctors of the World came to Propilaia to examine them and they warned him that he may suffer from kidney failure. The doctors kept him in the hospital for tonight and we will know more about his situation tomorrow.

update as of Sat 14

The hunger striker left the hospital today. He decided to leave because the doctors were pushing him to eat. The medical examinations showed that his blood is unusually thin and one of his kidneys malfunctions. He returned to Propilaia and continues the hunger strike.

Free Milena Ivanova Now!

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

Free Milena Ivanova Now!

Background (Preamble):

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

THE CASE IS THIS

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

THIS

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

ALSO

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

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

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

Zakynthos, Greece November 11, 2009

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

thankara@yahoo.gr

mariahaikali@yahoo.gr

Released from Pagani, now trying to survive Athens…

Published on 13. November 2009 at lesvos.antira.info

We have to sleep in 3 hour shifts

M. is an Afghan unaccompanied minor who was released from Pagani.
He was in the group of 130 refugees released the last day and who left for Athens with the boat and since then he is in Athens trying to survive. Actually M. like most other minors in Pagani,got released with a paper saying that he is staying in the villa Azadi the minors house in
Mytilini. But he has never been informed about this ,he has never been brought up to the villa and he doesn’t know his right to be protected as a Minor. Most minors that have been in Pagani the last two months have been release with this paper without having been informed about their right to be taken to the minors house.

We met in the centre of Athens . He came with a little Afghan boy of about 7 years with whose family they share a room. We sat in a coffee place and orders something to eat. M. eat very little and very slowly and explained to me that he had not eaten since two days and that when you have no money for food ,but you get food you have to be careful to eat little otherwise your stomach is hungry soon again because it got used to food. He also mentioned that he doesn’t go out from the place he stays,one room shared by 36 persons among them two families. They have to sleep in a 3 hours shifts on the mattresses. They are lucky that the family of one of them gives them shelter. Most others from Pagani are sleeping in the scare in Athens in the park. He doesn’t go out because when you are in the treats you all he time see people eating and drinking and this makes you even more hungry and thirsty. I asked him if he could speak about the situation after they came out of Pagani:

What happened when you arrived in Athens?

M: When we arrived we were 190 persons ,we went to the ministry and the ministry told us go to the gsr (Greek council of refugees) but gsr did not pay attention to us. After that we come to Attiki park and we pent two days there.

After those two days we find some relatives we are living together we are sleeping 36 persons, four families are with us and twelve boys, minors,like us.
All people from Pagani. All refugees.
We are just sitting after one, two days we are eating little bread. Its bad for people. That they pay not attention the government to us.

I told them in the GSR. I said they want to give us food? They said no!

We don’t have enough home to give you If you want you can only be in the Pagani. We said no! we don’t want to be in the Pagani! We want to live in the centre. Because of that we are here.

What do you think to do now?

I am thinking that after two days I want to left this place but I cant because I don’t have money I don’t have anything to go.

Where do you want to go?

I want to go to Germany,all the people want to go to Germany you ask them where you want to go all of them want to go to Germany. There was a family here they where deported from Austria they where deported. They where with us in the church . So one day we go to the church and eat something the other day we don’t go. Because the police is coming taking our papers,we have a lot of problems,they beat us.

You know their are places you can go to eat?

Yes! the church.But the police is beating us saying :go! its finished food! Its a lot of problem.

They beat us when we go for food!

The Greek government is not giving attention to any refugee. Some guys have been here 4 months 6 months. So they have red card. But the Greek government don’t give attention to them they just leave us like this and our families don’t know where we are, they are saying if we are alive or we are dead they don’t know. Its very  difficult.

A., also a unaccompanied minor in Greece is in Athens six  since  months, trying to get out of Greece. He is registered by the Greec police about five or six times now.

A. is trying since half a year ,M. just starts now, thousand others unaccompanied minors who should be protected and families, single men and women are only wishing to be able to leave Greece as soon as possible and to arrive in some european country where their rights being refugees are respected.

But Greece doesn’t let them go!!!!!

Greek citizenship for migrant children born in Greece only to the children of legal immigrants

This is about these promises of the Greek government Greek socialists to grant citizenship to migrants’ children.

source: ert gr filia on 17 November

Greek citizenship for migrant children born in Greece – as announced by Prime Minister George Papandreou at the World Migration Forum – applies only to the children of legal immigrants, clarified the Interior undersecretary Theodora Tzakri yesterday, in response to a question by New Democracy deputy Evangelos Antonaros.

On his part, Antonaros warned that the prospect of immediate citizenship for the children would exacerbate the constantly growing number of immigrants heading for Greece. In his opinion, he said, the children of legal immigrants should be classified as “long-term residents” and, when they reach the age of 18, would have the possibility of deciding if they want the nationality of their parents or Greek citizenship.

Iranian refugees in Athens: solidarity with the hunger strike!

SOLIDARITY GATHERING TUESDAY 24 NOV 17.00

PROPYLAIA OF ATHENS UNIVERSITY, PANEPISTIMIOU STR., ATHENS

more at http://iranianrefugeesfromtipf.blogspot.com/

Unwelcoming shores

Source: http://www.independentworldreport.com.

21 NOV 09

Simone Troller of Human Rights Watch describes the plight of migrant and refugee children in Greece and how Greek authorities are doing the dirty work for other members of the European Union – giving them the opportunity to get rid of migrants, including potential refugees.

“We were one group of twelve persons they took out from the detention centre. They drove us in a car, for maybe one and a half hours. We arrived in the forest around 9 PM. They kept us there until midnight, they told us not to move, otherwise the Turkish police would find us. It was next to a small river. This side was Greece, the other side was Turkey… The boat was a metal boat, a long metal boat. Inside the boat there was one policeman. He started the engine and after we arrived to the other side he told us to get out quickly and the boat went straight back. When the Turkish police arrived two of us explained what happened. We were, for twelve days, in Turkish detention. They beat me too much… When the Turkish police beat me they said I should call my family to send me money to return to Afghanistan. I asked them not to send me back to Afghanistan, because I had problems. I asked them to keep me. But they did not care.”

This was how a seventeen-year-old Afghan boy described his secret expulsion from Greece to Turkey and ultimately back to Afghanistan. Unfortunately, his experience is typical of the fate of thousands of migrants and asylum seekers who have been expelled from the European Union at the hands of Greek authorities. As a result, many people who need protection are sent back to danger, abuse or inhuman detention conditions.

In 2008 and 2009, Human Rights Watch investigated the treatment of migrants and asylum seekers, including unaccompanied children, in Greece and published its findings in three reports. In late 2008, when we first presented our findings to the Greek government about systematic illegal expulsions of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees to Turkey, we were given the cold shoulder – they ignored our findings.

When we presented them to EU policymakers in Brussels and also described the total absence of protection for migrant children who arrive without a parent or caregiver, there was recognisable disbelief and even shock in people’s faces. When I summarised in a meeting with a policymaker in Brussels that an unaccompanied migrant child who enters Greece is either detained or left to survive on the streets, I was told: “I don’t believe this.”

It may be hard to believe that such callous and illegal acts are taking place in the heart of Europe that has long committed itself to respect basic human rights standards. It may also be hard to believe that Greece offers no safety net for unaccompanied children. Those who are not expelled are either detained in filthy and overcrowded conditions or released onto the streets where they face a miserable struggle for survival and exploitation, including as child labourers.

Yet, ignoring the reality on the ground means such acts will continue to take place. Greece’s treatment of migrants and refugees, including these children, violates binding European Union directives for asylum seekers.

Despite the shocked reactions in Brussels when we described what we had found, our call to the European Commission to take Greece to the European Court of Justice for these violations has so far gone unheeded.

We also expected a stronger signal from other EU member states. In late 2008, in a meeting with EU member state delegations, we urged them to stop sending migrants and asylum seekers back to Greece under the so-called Dublin II regulations, because of the ill-treatment, detention and unfair asylum procedures. They told us, in the words of one diplomat: “If we stop doing that, more migrants will arrive to our country.”

There is no doubt that Greece is on the frontline of migration to Europe and that it carries a heavy burden for the rest of the EU under the Dublin II rules. But that reflects a wider failure of Europe’s asylum and migration policy that puts pressure on countries at its borders instead of ensuring equitable burden-sharing across the continent.

Under Dublin II regulations, the country where a person first enters the EU is generally held responsible for examining that person’s asylum claim, though for unaccompanied children the rule applies only if the child has made a claim there. The regulations are premised on the notion that all EU member states have comparable asylum and migration practices. Yet, there are wide disparities, with countries like Greece effectively offering no protection at all.

Greece gives refugee status to 0.05% of asylum seekers after a first interview and recently abolished meaningful appeals. This prompted the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to withdraw from a formal role in Greece’s asylum procedure. Yet, EU member states continue to return migrants, asylum seekers, and even unaccompanied children to Greece, simply pretending that everything is perfectly fine.

It is hard not to get the impression that these EU member states are perfectly happy with Greece doing the dirty work for them – giving them the opportunity to get rid of these migrants, including potential refugees among them. In mid-2009, six months after we brought our findings to both Greek and EU attention, the Greek government began a new crackdown against migrants – arresting hundreds across the country, bulldozing a make-shift camp in Patras, evicting them from run-down dwellings in Athens, and detaining new arrivals on its islands.

Human Rights Watch returned to Greece in September 2009 and collected evidence that Greek authorities have arrested persons all over the country, and summarily expelled some of them across the river to Turkey, though previously it only sent those who had just entered from Turkey back that way. This means that no part of Greece is now safe for anyone in need of protection.

While the EU has largely remained silent on Greece’s abusive record or has focused on blaming Turkey for refusing to take migrants back, there are some encouraging signs from the newly elected Greek government. It announced in mid-October that Greece would no longer be a hell pit for migrants. The government also pledged to release 1,200 migrants from detention, where most are held in inhuman conditions, and to create a special police unit to investigate allegations of abuse.

Fixing the system will be a tall order, though. The new government inherits an asylum system that no longer deserves that name, a police force that commits abuses against migrants both in broad daylight and in secret nighttime operations, and detention facilities that are a hazard for detainees and staff alike. Fixing this will require more than promises and symbolic acts.

Despite the overwhelming agenda, there are obvious priorities. The Greek government can protect the most vulnerable migrants, especially unaccompanied children, and get rid of the stark alternatives in the current system of either detaining them or abandoning them to the streets and to exploitation. Greece should give them decent shelter, food, clothing, health care, and, of course, protection from traffickers.

Not all of the more urgent reforms even require more resources. An unambiguous commitment to stop the illegal expulsion of migrants to Turkey is essentially a matter of political will to operate according to the rule of law. The new police unit should immediately investigate these secret expulsions and levy sanctions against those responsible. Accountability for these acts is paramount for meaningful police reform.

Greece also needs to come to terms with the reality that many undocumented foreigners, adults and children alike, left their countries because their lives were in danger and have a legitimate claim for protection. The government needs to put its broken asylum system back on track, take the asylum procedure away from the police, create a special body that assesses claims fairly and promptly and institute a fair, workable appeals process. Otherwise, the adults and children the Greek government releases from detention now will end up again in a dead-end situation: unable to leave Greece, unable to return to their countries, and unable to be recognised as refugees.

Halting human rights abuses that have gone unchecked for too long should be urgent priorities both for Athens and for Brussels. The European Commission should make clear to Athens that unless the new government takes steps to bring its laws and practice in line with EU and human rights standards, the commission will refer the matter to the European Court of Justice. In addition, the EU needs to ensure that EU member states are held to account when they fail to respect their obligations under EU law, and ultimately to reform the Dublin system. Only then can the EU take meaningful steps toward creating a common European asylum system that offers equal level of protection across the continent and supports the countries on the frontline.♦

Simone Troller is Researcher, Human Rights Watch. For more on migrant and refugee children in Greece, see: Greece: Unsafe and unwelcoming shores and Left to survive: Systematic failure to protect unaccompanied migrant children in Greece, available at http://www.hrw.org