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!!!!!

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

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.

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.

AT THE HOUSE OF CULTURE, OLD TOWN, RETHYMNO GREECE

DISCUSSIONS + VIDEO PROJECTIONS

SOURCE: http://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk

Greek asylum procedures are violating EU law, say organisations from across Europe

13 November 2009

Refugee groups from across the EU, including the Refugee Council, have today filed a complaint with the European Commission stating that the Greek asylum system is failing and, as it currently stands, violates EU legislation on the treatment of asylum seekers.

The complaint states that asylum seekers in Greece are detained in overcrowded, dirty prisons or forced to live on the streets where many of them face harassment and violence. Asylum application can only be made on Saturdays at the police station in Athens. Every week thousands of asylum seekers queue up outside the station, yet only a small number are able to make a claim. There is a severe lack of information available about the asylum process, no interpreters and little access to legal aid. A serious shortage of accommodation means men, women and children are being left street homeless. And there is a serious risk that many refugees will end up being sent back either over the border to Turkey or to their home country to face the persecution from which they were fleeing, violating the terms of the 1951 Refugee Convention.

Because of its geographical position, Greece receives a high number of asylum seekers. Each year tens of thousands of asylum seekers arrive in Greece. On top of this, the UK returns refugees who arrive in the UK to Greece without considering their asylum application if it can be shown that they have passed through the country.

Jonathan Ellis, Director of Policy and Development said:

“The situation is untenable. We can no longer stand by while the Greek authorities continue to violate EU law and treat asylum seekers in this way. Until the asylum process is accessible and fair we should halt all returns to Greece immediately. It is unacceptable that anyone should be sent back to Greece while we have such serious concerns for their safety and how they might be treated.

“This is yet another example of why we need a pan-European approach towards those who seek refuge in Europe. European countries need to work together to ensure that each country does its fair share to relieve the pressure on countries close to the borders and ensure that all asylum seekers to the EU are treated fairly and humanely.”

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.

AN ASSESSMENT OF THE REACTIONS TO THE Global Forum on Migration and Development with special reference to clandestina’s discussions and the 30th October event –

(the text below was sent to friends from the American group Retort and other people who we have been in contact with in the last months over the issue of the Forum and co-wrote with them Europe at the Frontline of the Great Enclosure).

1. The new socialist government was smart enough to seriously downplay the Forum. They knew (as we all did, and had also openly explained) that would the Forum be given a lot of coverage in the media, the central streets of Athens (alongside stationed vehicles, rubbish bins and maybe shop-windows) would be set on fire for a few nights. Too expensive for the State, too much waste of time for the new ministry of Public Order (renamed Ministry of Citizens’ Protection in socialist newspeak), and too dangerous for the police (they are being shot at in broad daylight lately in the capital of Greece – as a response to that, a new law, introduced a few weeks ago, abolished external guards at police stations). As expected, anarchists and antiauthoritarians indeed tagged the Forum low-priority.

1b. Not only was it downplayed, the Forum was publicly discussed in a disorienting manner. Prime minister Papandreou talked to the UN secretary general (who was here for the Forum), yet the newspapers reported their discussion as being primarily about, allegedly, Greek “national issues”, namely Cyprus and (FYRO)Macedonia.

2. The PASOK antiauthoritarians (as the government has called itself) immediately lifted the law refusing citizenship to second-generation immigrants born in Greece and closed down the detention center in Pagani on the island of Lesvos. Also the new deputy minister promised better detention conditions. In other words, they turned the levels of repression back to where they were last year (give or take a few detention flights and the promise of half-way citizenship for kinds and a suffrage in municipal elections for immigrants who have lived here for more than 10 years), though giving the impression that they took really progressive and liberal measures.

3. An important event, characteristic of how the movement politicizes immigrant issues: On the 10th of October a victim of brutal police violence, the Pakistani Mohammed Kamran Atif passed away. (Read the story here). Anarchists in Athens demonstrated and attacked a police station in protest. Five (Greek) demostrators were arrested and there were occupations of public buildings and a great wave of solidarity demanding their release.

So when the five were actually released (two days later) the movement had experienced a kind of decompression and momentary satisfaction – the tension was easing. We feel that this also contributed to a sense that “enough has been done for the immigrants for the time being, let the Global Forum be”.

4. A left wing network partly linked to the SYRIZA left-coalition party and antiracist groups did organize a day of talks in Athens (last Sunday), which was unfortunately not very well attended. A left wing initiative in Athens, and left wing groups in Thessaloniki also called demos in the two cities. Around 1000 people attended the one in Athens, not more than 150-200 attended the one in Thessaloniki. Such a turnup in the two towns would be assessed as a failure, had these talks and demos been prepared and discussed. Yet they seemed to just fulfill a quick wish of the organizers to get it out the way, over and done with.

4b. A further reason why anarchists did not cooperate with the Left: You might remember us telling you about the former government’s police openly attacking immigrants at the Aghios Panteleimon Square in collaboration with fascists [for a reminder see this post].  The Left had not helped the anarchists back then. Now, when left-wing groups tried to organize a concert, extra-police forces appeared in order to actually help remove the 40 fascists that wanted to interrupt an event attended by 500! The new police in a new role. The anarchists thus felt the leftists’ gig was “handed to them” by the police and not dynamically fought for. So they also chose to abstain from the leftists’ discussions and demo.

5. Our own technique was, as we had described in August, to organize a series of talks and discuss the meaning of the Forum as broadly as possible. We co-organized four open discussions (plus a solidarity concert with a band from Germany). One we co-organized with the Anti-racist initiative in Larisa as part of their Anti-racist Festival, where there was a discussion with people from the canonical Left, a second with the “Assembly of Kalamaria” (an eastern suburb of Thessaloniki with a lively citizens’ open assembly, a legacy of the “December uprising”), where a wide range of opinions was expressed and discussed for many hours, and many new contacts were made with people from all walks of life, ages and backgrounds, a third with the open assembly of the Western suburbs, which went great, was out in the open, and attracted mostly young antiauthoritarians from that part of the town (but also grannies and kids because of the fancy videos we were showing). As a result of our discussion, this coming Friday, this assembly is coordinating (with other groups from town) a demo in the Western suburbs (quite unusual and refreshing) in solidarity to immigrants. At all three events we articulated the arguments in the Europe at the Frontline text in ways that we felt corresponded to the needs and moods of the audiences.

The fourth discussion, which we coorganized with the Hellenic League for Human Rights, we had placed particular importance on. Karl Kopp from ProAsyl in Frankfurt, Germany, Oktay Durukan from the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly in Turkey and Vassilis Ladas, a lawyer and writer active at the settlement of Patras, were fabulous and extremely well-informed speakers. We were quite worried that factors 1, 2, 3 and 4 would have a negative effect on the discussion, but in fact over a hundred people, including activists, students, law professors, human rights lawyers (even an MP from the Coalition of the Left party) came to discuss in the terms that were being set by the discussion and our (and the Leagues’) texts. We feel that it was an important exchange between a certain level of “opinion makers”, lawyers and activists, going “beyond the line that separates humanism from politics” (in the words of Karl Kopp), and the longer-term effects remain to be seen. For the time being, the League for Human Rights is sending a group of lawyers that are going to visit detention centers with the collaboration of the Citizens’ Assembly in Turkey and with the German ProAsyl NGO, help whomever they can, and issue official reports of the conditions. Also, a new immigrant radio show is in the air, as part of a free radio in Thessaloniki (1431AM) a it is organizing two days of discussions and concerts with immigrant bands. That will be another opportunity to further discuss the Europe at the Frontline text, which we have already distributed in a few thousand copies and six towns in Greece.

Here is the English text published on the clandestina website.

Here are three of the posters (not all done by us) announcing the discussions.

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/

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

Threats from the University’s administration towards the hunger strikers

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!