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

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!!!!!

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.

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 <<<

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…

Somalis in Greece

source: http://www.mareeg.com/fidsan.php?sid=14200&tirsan=3

Glimpse of-hope for Somali immigrants suffering in Greece to improve in the near

A massive demonstration in which all illegal immigrants at any level of age, with full participation of Somalis in Greece has peacefully happened on 4^{th November, 2009}

The purpose of demonstrators was to ask the Greek government to clarify what the future holds for illegal immigrants in Greece.

What problems are the Somalis experiencing in Greece?

The life- issue of Somali immigrants in Greece is really ineffable and seems strange. There is no any one who felt an obligation to write and verbalize about dire complaints and hardships of the immigrants, especially Somalis in Greece. Most of Somalis in home, Africa and Asia are obsessed about going to Europe by any means, believing that poverty, ignorance, lack of healthcare, poor education, unemployment and uncertainty of the future are the only signs in the life outside Europe. To avoid those horrendous and aching scenarios in Africa and Asia, most of Somalis choose more than other immigrants in the world to wildly embark upon death – life journeys to get to – as they believe – the most comfortable and prosperous countries in Europe, Scandinavian nations or Great Britain in particular in search of unfailing future together with what the best life in those countries can offer to everyone. Although there are many travel routes in which Somalis exert, all of them don’t succeed in accomplishing the painful travels they face so some all the time take a risk and lose their lives on their way to their desiring destinations after they drown in either Mediterranean sea or red sea. A great number of Somali prisoners who are immigrants – because their country already turned to a ghost land – are in the jails of the countries like Libya, Tanzania Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique and others.

Some Somali immigrants successfully completed their adventurous trips to Europe but some got trapped in Greece where in recent times became only route for Somalis illegally departing to Europe. There their dreams of life changing came to an end in despair. These people have encountered a lot of hardships in the life and lacked any way to get out of Greek country while their families who arranged the travels financially and morally for them anxiously wait to find any kind of life – support from them.

Ms. Safio Isaq Anshur, a Somali female immigrant in Greece’s capital Athens talked at length about the living conditions of Somalis and said, “The living standoff between Somali immigrants and Greek officials had been frequent and there were arrests conducted against immigrants especially Somalis in Greece after complaint demonstrations were held. There are many Somalis here who failed in resumption of the travels to their already allocated countries

Ms. Safio Isaq Anshur who genuinely talked in her magnificent report which she forwarded to most of Somali speaking websites went on and said, “Greek security forces at all times without indiscrimination shackle Somalis youth in groups after they demonstrate how they are not pleased with the ways Greece deals with them,”

Greek government authorities regularly address about the situation in order to find a lasting solution to the plight of Somali immigrants. The officers put strong recommendations forward to Somalis living in the country to take Greek permanent immigrants documents and the government would handle the needs of Somalis or to enroll themselves in UNHCR offices in the country and that is not lovable for them. These substantial advices from Greece went to deaf ears because Somali migrants who are so far on move of passing though Greece to Scandinavia or UK are extremely scared to be ever stuck in Greece because of their fingerprints taken by the police.

Although regular demonstrations in which Somalis in Greece turn out increase zero, the call from the officer has instantly inspired all immigrants in Greece in general and Somalis in particular with a little of life hope. This follows after Greek authorities in office received countless requests from supreme agents of Somali immigrants, encouraging Greece to crack down on the living conditions of immigrants

After arresting the biggest number of Somali prisoners in the last week, Greek foreign Minister held talks with representatives from Somali-Greek Diaspora. Among the discussed matters in meeting was Somali inmates who some of them had been in jails for long

Somali Greek Diaspora activist, Mr. Ilyaas Ali, called at some of Greek detention centers in Athens like Elidabon,Kiria and another prison in the vicinity of Athens airport where the detainees are mostly Somalis to assess the conditions and make out the arrested number of Somalis. This evaluation visit seems to the suffering Somalis in Greece the start of release of hundreds of Somalis in jails and the route to better life in the near future.

Translated /Written by

Ustaad Mohamed – Nur Hersi Abdi Tallman

Tallmog@hotmail.com

 

Nairobi – Kenya

Sender from Greece Safiya Isaaq Canshuur

 

Saafi43@hotmail.com

Toddler behind bars

• source: ATHENS NEWS 05/10/2009, page: 17,
• brought to attention by deviousdiva blog
  

by Kathy Tzilivakis

Issue No. 13358

Three-year-old Rozita and her mother, Zahra, have spent nearly a year in prison

ROZITA has spent one-third of her life in prison. She’s three years old.

Her parents, undocumented migrants from Afghanistan, were arrested in Greece and sentenced for forgery and immigration violations. They had illegally entered the country last year and were caught trying to leave on forged passports.

A court in Kilkis, a town in central Macedonia, sentenced the couple to six months in prison and fined them 3,000 euros. The sentence was indefinitely suspended on the grounds they would be deported.

This was in December 2008. They are still awaiting deportation.

They are still behind bars. To be deported, they need passports, which they do not have. This is why Rozita and her mother, Zahra, remain locked up.

Rozita is with her mother in a women’s prison in Thiva, about 50km outside Athens. The father is being held in a separate facility. Over the past 10 months, mother and daughter have been shuttled around the country: from a jail in Kilkis to a detention facility in Thessaloniki and the Korydalos prison in Athens.

Unlawful

According to Electra Koutra, an Athens lawyer and founder of the non-governmental organisation Hellenic Action for Human Rights, the family was unlawfully denied a lawyer and interpreter when they first appeared before the Kilkis court.

A second judicial blow came last week when a court in Thiva rejected a petition to release Rozita and her mother on the grounds they are seeking asylum in Greece and do not pose a threat to public order. The court rejected their petition and ruled they must remain in prison until deported.

“Not only is it inhuman to keep a child locked up, but it’s also a gross violation of human rights,” Koutra tells the Athens News. “The little girl came down with scabies and is always getting sick. She had to be taken to hospital twice.”

If mother and daughter are not immediately released, Koutra warns the case will be taken to the European Court of Human Rights.

According to Asan Sukuri, president of the local Afghan association Noor, Zahra’s life is in danger if she is returned to Afghanistan because she belongs to the Hazara ethnic minority group. He also said she is from a region that is under Taliban control.

Sukuri says he told the Thiva court that if the mother and daughter were released they would be hosted by relatives legally residing in Greece and that his association would help them find employment while their application for asylum is being processed. The court denied his proposal.

“Zahra cries all the time when we speak on the telephone,” Sukuri told the Athens News on September 29. “She cries and tells me that she cannot stand the situation any more. She has been in prison for almost a year. Something needs to be done.”

Asylum in Greece

Greece has one of the lowest refugee recognition rates in the European Union. Last year, Greece granted refugee status to 379 people out of nearly 20,000 applications reviewed.

By law, authorities must process all claims for asylum immediately. Asylum seekers should be fingerprinted and issued a so-called pink card (rose karta).

Holders of this card are entitled to free medical treatment and the right to employment. Authorities, by law, have three months to examine the asylum claim and render a decision. This is seldom the case.

New legislation passed in July has severely undermined the appeals procedure, according to local and international human rights groups like Amnesty International and the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR).

The new rules force rejected asylum seekers to take their case to the Council of State, Greece’s highest administrative court. This requires them to hire a lawyer – something which few can afford.

Greece has faced a barrage of Europe-wide criticism since November 2007 when the German non-governmental organisation Pro Asyl published a shocking report accusing the Greek coastguard of “systematically abusing newly-arrived refugees”.

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: They could not understand why they and their children were being detained

source: http://www.reporterfreelance.info/2009/09/greece-%EF%BF%BDthey-could-not-understand-why-they-and-their-children-were-being-detained%EF%BF%BD/

Greece 2009 © MSF

In the detention facility for migrants in Lesvos, MSF arranges for detained children to see their fathers.

Ioanna Kotsioni works as the Deputy Head of Mission for the Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) project providing assistance to migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees in Greece since December 2008. She has visited the project in the detention center of Pagani in Lesvos, an island in the eastern Aegean Sea, and she shares with us her experience inside the detention center.

Between August 20 and 28, I visited the detention center of Pagani to support the MSF team that since July has been providing psychosocial support to the undocumented migrants inside the center. The situation I faced when I first arrived was shocking.

In the center, there were more than 900 people detained in extremely overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. The facility is actually an old warehouse that is not suitable to accommodate people. According to local authorities, its capacity is for up to 300 people, but when I visited I saw three times that many people—men, women, adolescents, and children—living in overcrowded cells, most of them sleeping on mattresses on the floor with no bed sheets. In each of the seven cells, including the cell with women and children, there were only two toilets and showers to be used by the 100 to 250 people detained there. People eat their meals inside the cell and are not regularly allowed in the yard.

To move around, you had to walk over dirty mattresses lying on the floor . . . most of the women were complaining that their children were sick and that they had not seen a doctor for days.

The situation was extremely tense in the detention center, as many people had been held for days without knowing when they would be released. Some of the unaccompanied minors had already been in detention for 50 days or more. The day I arrived, more than 100 unaccompanied minors were on the third day of a hunger strike, protesting over the living conditions in the center and demanding to be released. In total, more than 220 unaccompanied minors were kept in two cells. Fortunately, that hunger strike ended the following day, as some of them were released and transferred to the hospitality center for unaccompanied minors in Agiassos.

Families Divided

What was very alarming for MSF was that there were many women with small children inside the center. In one cell of about 200 square meters we found more than 200 women with children. Out of the 68 children, 36 where under the age of five. Among the women there were five pregnant women in the final months of pregnancy. Two of them gave birth in the local hospital in the second half of August. Conditions in that cell were extremely overcrowded. To move around, you had to walk over dirty mattresses lying on the floor. Because of the overcrowding and the poor sanitary conditions, most of the women were complaining that their children were sick and that they had not seen a doctor for days.

Greece 2009 © MSF

A group of migrants from Lesvos arrive in Athens.

Many of the women who talked to our psychologist and me were in a very bad psychological condition, especially those who had been detained in the center for a long period of time, often for over three weeks. They could not understand why they and their children were being detained there in such bad living conditions. They were in distress and had given up hope, as they were expecting every day to be released from the detention center. They were uncertain about their future and all of them were asking to be released. One Eritrean woman, held there for more than 45 days, threatened she would hurt herself if she was not released. Another Afghan woman told me that she was shocked when she arrived in Greece and was brought to this detention center, because she thought that she had finally reached Europe—the Europe that had taught the world about human rights. So she was asking me why she and her elder mother were locked in there.

Children greet their fathers through bars

Our team was faced with a general situation of distress. Priority was given to the most vulnerable groups: children, unaccompanied minors, and women. When we arrived, women had not been allowed out of their cell into the yard for a few days. One of the first things we did was arrange for the children to leave the cell, and we accompanied them to visit their fathers in the rooms at the front part of the building. That was a very touching moment for us to see the fathers hugging their small children through the bars of the cell, many of them crying. We also asked the police to allow the children to go out in the yard, where we organized some group activities, so that children could make drawings and play. The psychologist was also able to conduct some individual sessions with patients, who needed special attention.

He was worried that his wife and his newborn baby would be brought back to the detention center. He was also afraid that he and his family would die in there.

One father kept asking us about his wife and his newborn child that had been born a few days ago in the local hospital. His wife and the baby were still in the hospital and he was not allowed to visit them there. He was worried that his wife and his newborn baby would be brought back to the detention center. He was also afraid that he and his family would die in there.

It became apparent that the situation in the detention center was dangerous and that an immediate solution had to be found so that the 200 unaccompanied minors and 200 women with children would be moved to another facility. In an urgent meeting with local authorities, the UNHCR, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in the center, we tried to emphasize the humanitarian needs of women and young children and to pressure local authorities to find a shelter for them in another facility with better living conditions, where children would not be locked up in cells.

A better solution needed

Local authorities came up with a temporary measure to host unaccompanied minors, women, and children in an open holiday camp site in Lesvos. There, women and children could wait for their fathers to be released. Indeed over the next four days many women, children, and unaccompanied minors were transferred from Pagani to the camp site, where living conditions were much better. However, they could stay there for only a few days, until they could obtain a boat ticket to Athens. Leaving for Athens, they held in their hands their release note, which stated that their refoulement—the return of a refugee to their home country—was not possible. They were asked to leave Greece by their own means in the next 30 days.

Two days later, a boat with approximately 300 people, mostly families and unaccompanied minors who had been released from Pagani, arrived in the port of Piraeus in Athens. Among them were two Palestinian families with small children, the mothers of whom were in their eighth month of pregnancy. There was also an Afghan family with a newborn child and two more young children. The aunt of the newborn told me they decided to name the baby Daria, which means “sea”, and kept telling me that she is a Greek baby now, as she was born in Greece.

These families and others, in total 40 people, were stranded at the port having nowhere to go and looking hopeless. After a couple of hours, the municipality of Piraeus took the initiative to host them temporarily in a shelter. While welcomed, this is however an ad hoc temporary solution. Indeed for all these undocumented migrants there is no provision for shelter, food, and—very importantly—access to health care.

Their condition remains extremely critical in a country like Greece that does not ensure a minimum of access to health care for migrant families with young children, unaccompanied minors, and people with health problems, and does not cover their enormous humanitarian needs. MSF is extremely worried about the fate of all these vulnerable people who face a future of destitution and uncertainty.

Unaccompanied minors abandoned between Greece and Turkey

source: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47862

MIGRATION: Abandoned Between Two States

By Apostolis Fotiadis

IZMIR, Turkey, Jul 29 (IPS) – Isabelle Caillol, an activist with the Turkish branch of the human rights advocacy group Helsinki Citizens Assembly, sent a mass email to pro-migrant activists in Greece in May seeking help to find the family of Abbas Khavari, a 14-year-old Afghan refugee born in Iran.

“He and his family left Iran a few months ago and transited through Turkey to go to Greece,” she wrote in her email. “In December 2008, he and his family arrived in Athens. After ten days spent in Athens, when he was out of the house without his family, he was arrested by Greek authorities and deported to Turkey.”

Khavari was kept at a centre for unaccompanied minors in Istanbul, where Caillol found him. He had no phone number for his family in Athens, and no way of knowing if they were still there. And he had no contacts within the Afghan community in Istanbul that might help him search for them.

Khavari’s deportation and detention is yet more evidence of the anti- immigrant policies and a denial of international protection for refugees. It is evidence also of increased confrontation between Greece and Turkey over migrants.

Over the last two months Greece has stepped up blame on Turkey for insufficient action to stem the outflow of migrants from its territory and to renew a refoulement protocol signed between the two countries in 2001 under which Greece could immediately send back undocumented migrants coming from Turkey.

Greece has launched a campaign for greater cooperation among EU countries, and for the EU to make the Turkish position a factor in its accession move. “There is a need to strengthen cooperation at the European level and to boost our common means and efforts in order to deal with this issue effectively,” Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis said on a visit to Stockholm last week. Sweden has EU presidency for the second half of this year.

Two weeks back Karamanlis visited Spain and Italy. Mediterranean countries are demanding reversal of the Dublin II agreement, and increased policing of European borders.

Under Dublin II, asylum applicants must register in the first country where they come in contact with authorities. An asylum seeker moving to another country would have to be sent back to the country where he or she was initially registered.

The agreement has been widely criticised by human rights activists as a device to raise the walls of ‘Fortress Europe’, and for many EU states to reduce their responsibilities at the expense of border states.

Leaders from the Mediterranean countries plan to press hard on these issues ahead of the Stockholm Programme to be initiated later this year, that will largely determine Europe’s political and security agenda from 2010 to 2014.

Turkey, aware of the anti-immigration push in Europe, is preparing the necessary infrastructure in anticipation of new pressure.

“There are seven new reception centres able to accommodate 750 people each along the Turkish territory,” Prof. Taner Zorba from the Turkish Amnesty International told Greek and Turkish activists and lawyers at a meeting in Izmir city, 329 km south of Istanbul on the Turkish Aegean coast. “Another six detention centres are under planning.” Pro-migrant groups expect that this move will be accompanied by stepped up policing of irregular migration.

“We have decided to join efforts and organise an independent network that will help individual activists, members of NGOs, and lawyers exchange information on refoulements and detentions on both sides,” Marianna Tzeferakou, a lawyer from Athens told IPS.

“The plan is to raise public awareness and organise pressure on authorities. The message we want to send is that the illegal refoulements and the lives wasted in the Aegean are not accidents but the result of specific policies that ought to be stopped.”

The activists have symbolically named their campaign Kayiki, a common word in Turkish and Greek for the little boats fishermen use along the Aegean Sea. The first initiative will be to publicise stories of refugees and migrants in both countries in order to spotlight the inter-relation of their policies. (END/2009)