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.

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.

Folk singer hospitalised after attack by neo-nazis in Athens

source: taxikipali on Oct 1 2009 at libcom

Submitted by taxikipali on Oct 1 2009 at libcom

Sofia Papazoglou, a popular folk singer was attacked by members of the Golden Dawn neo-nazi party in Athens after throwing election leaflets handed to her in the garbage. The singer remains hospitalised with serious burns from use of unidentified acid spray and with impaired vision.

Sofia Papazoglou, a popular folk singer of the “entehno” genre known for her progressive politics was attacked on Thursday 1st of October outside the metro station of Katehaki, in Athens, by ten members of the neo-nazi party Golden Dawn when she threw election leaflets handed to her by the thugs in the garbage. The Golden Dawn was created in the 1980s by the convicted neo-nazi bomber Mihaloliakos at the orders of the imprisoned head of the military junta of 1967-1974 Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos. Since, the Golden Dawn has been waging a campaign of terror against the left wing and anarchists as well as immigrants, people of color and jews. Nevertheless, as it comes under the explicit protection of EYP, the greek secret services (the daily eleftherotypia has published a pay-sheet of Mihaloliakos by EYP), the neo-nazi group has never been persecuted and is allowed to participate in national elections. As a clear indication of the above patron-client relation with the secret services, the election campaign booth of the neo-nazis was placed this year directly under the headquarters of the EYP, in Katehaki avenue, a few meters away from the main riot police camp of the greek capital. When Ms Papazoglou threw the racist leaflets in the bin, ten thugs attacked her with a still unidentified acid spray in the eyes and then proceeded to beat her up savagely. The police did not intervene and the folk singer was taken to hospital after the intervention of metro workers. Half an hour later the neo-nazis were dispersed by anarchist who arrived at the spot upon hearing the news of the new vicious attack.

Ms Papazoglou remains in hospital with impaired vision and serious burns and bruises on her body. The Golden Dawn denies involvement in the incident, decrying it as “rumors spread by dirty jews and freemasons” and “protectors of ecologists and greens”…

Mass hunger strike at Athens Airport since Sunday

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

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

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

Anti-immigrant gathering in Aghios Panteleimonas, racist assaults against school students in Rethymno

Yesterday, September 23, an anti-immigrant gathering took place in the Aghios Panteleimonas square in Athen.  The usual riff raff of “indignated citizens” along with militant neo-nazis took pride collectively for kicking immigrants out of “their” squares.

source: tvxs article

In Rethymno, Crete, there have been some new incidents of racist violence and many threats against teenagers from Albania.  The students of the technical high school reported the incidents to the police on September 21.  No lawsuit has been lodged but it seems that the local community knows that a local pocket of  junta nostalgic youngsters is behind all this.

source: http://neolaiasynreth.blogspot.com/2009/09/blog-post_22.html

Violent assaults against immigrants in Athens during August

Two new attacks on refugees in the area of Aghios Panteleimonas

In the first case on August 6 an asylum seeker from Afghanistan was prevented from some Greeks to pass through the square and when he asked them the reasonhe was attacked by at least ten of them, who immobilized and beat him, and then left him unconscious on the street.

The local police did not register the event but referred him to a hospital where he remained  the following day until dawn as his injuries were severe.   He returned to the police station where he was deferred twice from filing a complaint.  After this the victim with the legal advice of the Council of Refugees filed a lawsuit in Athens Prosecutor.

The more recent  case is the one of an Afghan of recognized refugee status who has been receiving the last two weeks daily pressures and threats to close down his shop  «so that foreigners stop gathering there».  On August 17 about 10 people started hitting the window of the restaurant and told him to shut down; he refused, called the police for help but the police never came.   He was forced to close his shop, since the threats were repeated, and the police never came on the spot.

source: http://www.enet.gr/?i=news.el.article&id=76200

One more fascist attack in Attiki Square

An Afghan immigrant was produced by ambulance to the emergency wing of Evangelismos hospital, having been heavily injured yesterday at 8.30pm on an attack at Attikis square.  He suffers several injuries throughout his body and has been pierced with a crowbar  beneath the heart!

He was attacked by a gang of fascists who patrol every night in the area.  The standard, daily gathering spot of the fascist gang is just 30 meters from the Police Department of  Aghios Panteleimonas.   It is obvious that the contract between the fascists and the minister of public order involves daily patrols of thugs who stab and beat immigrants. In the summer many immigrants have been produced to hospitals according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

source: http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1072344

A sum-up of August so far

THE SITUATION IN GENERAL

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4 Iraqis on hunger strike in Arta

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

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

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

source: athens indymedia

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

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

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

Hunger Strike in Pagani, Lesvos

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

Published on 20. August 2009,

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

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

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

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

One letter we received reads:

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

Best regards, prisoners

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Deaths in Kos and Igoumenitsa

from fortresseurope.blogspot

07/08/09

Greece

Body found at Igoumenitsa port. He sneaked onto a truck believing it was about to board a ferry for Italy and he died after he jumped off when it appears that the truck was headed for mainland Greece

13/08/09

Greece

Two bodies were recovered from the sea off the coast of the eastern Aegean island of Kos while another three people were reported to be missing

Children in prison in Thessaloniki

August 12, 2009

source: tvxs.gr

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

Rift Between the North and the South

SOURCE: NOBORDERS BRIGHTON

The rift between the northern and southern EU states is set to grow larger as yesterday’s meeting of EU Interior Ministers in Stockholm postponedany re-examination of the Dublin II Regulation till 2014. The Dublin II Regulation, which stipulates that migrants must apply for asylum in the first EU member state they enter, has resulted in what southern EU states claim is disproportionate pressure on the immigrant reception services in Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Malta.

Roberto Maroni, Italy’s interior minister and member of the right wing Lega Nord, demanded that the issue of ‘burden-sharing’ should be one of the top priorities in the EU’s new five-year plan on justice issues. As a result, the EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot agreed to make the European Refugee Fund applicable to all incoming migrants, not just those successfully claiming asylum and that several million euros in aid will be given to the Mediterranean states to spend on additional reception centres, food and social support for migrants.

This comes against the backdrop of a number of other recent developments. On Wednesday, the Greek and Italian Prime Ministers met and agreed on a common front to push for EU policy to curbing the numbers of illegal migrants, negotiating repatriation pacts between Brussels and the migrants’ states of origin and transit countries and increasing the role of the EU’s border monitoring agency Frontex.

Wednesday also saw the deportation of 90 migrants by air to Pakistan and Afghanistan, the latest in a growing number of flights from Athens as Greece seeks to remove the 99% plus of migrants whose asylum claims the Greek state routinely turns down.

Earlier in the week the UNHCR criticised both countries for their immigration policies. Greece was criticised for the decision to destroy the Patras migrant camp and deport some of the migrants before their asylum claims had been examined. It also appealed to Greece to avoid so-called “push-backs” of migrants originating from war zones (Greece regularly buses migrants back to Turkey without any due process).

Athens has recently accused Ankara of failing to stop clandestine immigration through Turkish territory, which the Greeks, and now even the EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot, say has pushed their resources to the limit and is destabilising “Greek democracy” (a reference to the recent election of extreme right wing LAOS MEPs). Interestingly, new figures from the Greek coastguard show a pronounced drop in migrant interceptions over the past few months.

Greece officials have also been examining disused army barracks to open as temporary reception centres for the thousands of migrants awaiting the processing of their asylum applications. One likely choice is a disused military site on the island of Evia.

Italy has also been the recipient of forceful criticism from the UNHCR about its use of force when intercepting 82 mainly Eritrean migrants on July 1st 30 miles off the Lampedusa coast, who were then returned to Libya under Italy’s own ‘push-back’ immigration policy. A ‘’significant number” of people on board the boat, including nine women and six children, were returned illegally as they had legitimate claims to asylum status, the agency claimed.

In an astonishing fit of pique, Italy’s EU Affairs Minister, Andrea Ronchi, rebuffed the criticism, saying the UNHCR ‘’should be ashamed of itself” and should ”apologise to Italy” over the allegations. ”These are hasty, false, demagogic, offensive and repugnant accusations that offend our armed forces, who every day demonstrate their morality, their dedication, humanity, competence and sacrifice”.

Strikes, hunger strikes and clashes in Greece

source: libcom.org

Submitted by taxikipali on Jul 14 2009

Strikes, hunger strikes and environmental action leading to clashes with riot police open week after weekend of state terror in Greece.

After the weekend of terror in Greece, the mid-summer week has started with a wave of strikes and environmental actions, underlining that the spine of the movement is too strong to break.

On Monday 13/7 trains across Greece came to a halt for 48h as a result of a rolling 3-hour stoopage industrial action by railway workers.At the same time workers at Wind, the mobile telecommunications giant, in Greece declared a 24h strike. Workers of Wind and solidarity workers of other industrial sectors gathered outside the company’s HQ and blockaded its entrance on Tuesday 14/7 morning till the afternoon.

The same day the committee against harm, and the committee against exploitation in the village of Megali Panagia in Chalkidiki joined by scores of locals form the wider area built block houses along the forest roads leading to Scouries, the area that a big gold-mining company wants to transform into a wasteland with the support of the greek government which has recently passed a law that declares any opposition to the exploitation of minerals as treason. The area has a long history of struggle against gold mines which peaked in the late 1990s with the titanic struggle of Olympiada villagers against TVX-Gold.

Meanwhile OTE, the National Telecomunication Company has sued the historical Athens Polytechnic for hosting athens indymedia in its server, alleging that this violates the conditions of its contract with OTE. The Polytechnic has condemned the legal action as censorship in line with LAOS (fascist party) demands of gagging radical dissent to the regime. The legal action was also condemned by the Coalition of Radical Left. On Tuesday 14/7 protesters attacked the central OTE tower in Athens with black paint symbolising the information black out planned by its managers. Many workers in the tower expressed their support to the action.

The same day locals of Grammaticos who are resisting the construction of an open refuse damp in their area, and clashed with riot police last week erecting barricades and torching company bulldozers organised a protest march towards the riot police blockade of the construction site. The locals clashed with the police throwing stones and other projectiles, including a few molotov cocktails. The battle lasted for about an hour and the locals suffered the extended use of tear gas and ‘blast flash’ grenades.

In the prison front, Thodoris Iliopoulos started a hunger strike on the 10th of July 2009. Iliopoulos was arrested on the 18th of December 2008 in Akadimias street during a riot police sweeping operation in the context of the December Uprising. He is held since the 22nd of December in the Court Prisons of Koridallos accused for 3 crimes with no witnesses other than policement. Iliopoulos denies all charges against him, and has launched a long campaign to prove his innocence. On the 8th of July his petition for release until his trial was waived by judges, being the only arrested from the December Uprising to be still held hostage. On beginning his hunger strike Iliopoulos declared: “In go on hunger strike. It is the only means remaining to me as a hostage on order to cry out the truth and denounce the terrible injustice. To denounce the hatred and the empathy of ‘justice’ mechanisms. To denounce the arbitrariness and the violence of a ‘justice’ which is blind indeed, the its even more ‘blind’ functionaries”. In solidarity the convict Nicos Tsouvalakis has also started a hunger strike demanding the release of Iliopoulos and in protest to the dehumanising prison conditions. As of Monday 13 of July the inmates of the First Wing of Koridallos Prison, the central prison of the country in Athens, declared that they abstain from the prison kitchen ration.

Meanwhile 19 Pakistani asylum seekers held in the police station of Glyfada, south Athens, are in their fourth day of hunger strike in protest to the agreement of the ministry of Public Order and the Pakistani Embassy to repatriate them. The asylum seekers claim that their life is in danger if they return to Pakistan.

Immigrant workers degradation practices: boss’ thugs assault Pakistanis asking their wages in Nikaea, Athens

Two Pakistani builders in Nikaia, Athens, fell victims of their employer on Sunday. When they went to get the wages a cafe owner owed them, theywere  faced with … shooting and a wild beating!

These are Waseem Akram and Imran Qaser, who have been for long claiming their wages from the owner of the café.  On Sunday at 3.30 pm, they had an appointment in some square of the area , in order to get the money.

Instead, however, for the money, the bosses thugs appeared, firing into the air.  They assaulted and brutally beat the immigrants, shouting «lousy pakistanis, go back to your country».  They even threatened that they would report   Ouasim Akram to the police to deport him for not having documents.

info: tvxs article