Following the events of last Sunday in Corinth detention centre, today the detainees of Komotini started an uprising. Left.gr reported that gun shots have been heard from within the prison and smoke was seen. A solidarity demonstration was held outside the detention center this afternoon, while extra police forces arrived to “control” the situation.
The new mass detention centres in Corinth, Komotini, Xanthi, amigdaleza and Drama are hosting huge numbers of detainees (200-800) under miserable conditions. Only last month the detainees heard of the new law extending detention periods. Desperate and without any information on the period they will have to survive there they have started protesting first in Corinth and now in Komotini.
The first of 30 detention centers for undocumented immigrants that the government is planning to open over the next two years is to be located in the administrative region of Attica (the area around Athens). According to government officials it will be located in the deserted Air Force camp in Katsimidi, near Mount Parnitha, north of Athens.
The ministry of national defense had sent the “ministry of citizen’s protection” a list of six inactive military camps that could be converted into immigrant detention centers, out of which Katisimidi was chosen.
On Sunday morning 7 immigrants were transferred to Attiko Hospital in Athens after the inmates of Amygdaleza detention center set fire on their beds and mattresses.
The immigrants were Palestinians, Algerians and Libyans, probably underage. Five of them were taken to hospital with respiratory problems and two with burns.
Source: http://www.tovima.gr/society/article/?aid=428847
On Saturday afternoon immigrants held in the detention center of Fylakio, Evros, set fire to mattresses.
Border police forced the inmates out of the building, where they were guarded by riot police units, while fire brigade that arrived from the city of Orestiada managed to put out the fire.
One immigrant was transferred by ambulance to the Medical Center of Orestiada.
Only recently the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) denounced that for almost a month, there has been no medical care to immigrants and asylum seekers in detention in Evros region.
Meanwhile, greek navy and coast police keep searching for survivors from early Saturday shipwreck near the island of Kefalonia. Unfortunately the number of dead will probably rise to 19.
Three immigrants detained at police station cells for “illegal entry in the country” attempted suicide in the last week in different detention spaces of Imathia Prefecture, Western Macedonia Region, Northern Greece. They all had been kept in police cells for months under horrible conditions.
An Iraqi detainee at the police station of Veroia set desparately two matresses on fire; he was saved by the police when they took notice of it.
Another Iraqi at Naousa police station tried to hang himself with his bed sheets.
The third detainee was also an Iraqi, 32 years old, at the border guard station of Georgianoi. He also tried to hang himself and was saved when his fellow detaineed heard his cries.
source: UK INDYMEDIA, Anti-racists from Rome | 31.03.2010
Rome immigration prison set on fire by detainees
«Total chaos!» At midnight on 30th March, this text message was sent from one of the detainees inside Ponte Galeria, the immigration prison in Rome, Italy. An hour prior to the text, a riot inside the detention centre had started: mattresses were burnt and two huge fires reached the infirmary. Some of the detainees were on the roof, while others broke three or four doors and reached the outer fence. The detention centre was soon full of riot police. Gunshots were heard around 1.20am.
There riot has allegedly caused €200,000 worth of damage; a hydraulic and electric system was put out of order; four people escaped and an unknown number of detainees were moved to other detention centres, while 17 were arrested. They are due in court on 31st March.
Since the 1st March, when the Red Cross handed over the management of the detention centre to another organisation, detainees have been on hunger strike and several riots have taken place over since then. They were rebelling against the use of violence and the daily abuse at the hands of the police with the complicity of the centre’s management.
The detainees are forced to live in unbearable conditions: unsanitary and unhealthy environment, off food, drugs (including Valium) put in the food and drinks. The riots and other forms of protest, such as self-harm, are the desperate response of people who have been imprisoned for up to six months only because they do not have the right documents.
On Wendsday, 31 March, at 8:30 am, there will be a sit-in at piazzale Clodio, in front of the court, in solidarity with the detainees who tried to rebel.
At 19:00, there will be a meeting at the Forte Prenestino squat for organising an immediate collective response to what is happening at Ponte Galeria and beyond.
NELLA TUA CITTÀ C’È UN LAGER
CHIUDIAMO TUTTI I C.I.E.
There is a lager (detention camp) in your city!
Close all the immigration prisons!
Here is a small report from yesterday…. Sofia, Bulgaria – On March 20, 2010 to the “Home for the temporary accommodation of foreigners” in the quarter Busmanci from 11 am to 13 pm held a peaceful protest rally against arbitrariness and repression against immigrants and in defense of their human rights.
—- Gathered about 40 people to protest against this antihumanno place for the immediate release of people in general and against the state policy against people detained there. The protest was organized by the Civil Initiative Committee and the Federation of Anarchists in Bulgaria. —- Anarohsaprotiva attended by activists, lawyers, friends of the detainees at the center, bloggers, and citizens.
Despite good weather and sent press releases – the place had a TV and 2 journalists. None cameraman nor any other journalists. However, police were in place, ie before the high walls of prison long before the protesters. Video-duty cop was also on his post. People in prison have been informed of protests and even in the kind of people stood in the first bars. Dozens of hands with Victory sign to pass through the narrow bars. Many of the people inside were tied hands and mouths with rags, probably torn sheets. Many photos showed through the bars of their children. Provesiha handmade banner with the inscription Busmantzi - Freedom;. Throughout chanting – Guantanamo,Freedom, Human Rights we want Freedom … attempts to chanting in Bulgarian.
By the protesters was distributing leaflet on the problem and the newspaper “Free Thought”. Leaflet was read during the megaphone, for a short talk and a former prisoner at center. Chants were in Bulgarian and English slogans such as “There’s no Illegal people,” “*Papers for All or No Papers at* All!” The freedom of movement is everybody’s right, we are here and we will fight, “Busmanci – Guantanamo”, “No borders, no nations stop deportation” and others.
It was a little parade down the street to jail. Police did not intervene, and after half an hour the protesters withdrew, arguing before the high closed that “we will be back, this is only the beginning. People long waved through the bars and shouting “Thank you” while the group away.
This was the first protest in Bulgaria for the rights of immigrants and refugees ever….
Monday Feb 15 Tention in the police station of Tripoli, Peloponese after the suicide attempt of a 35 yearold Palestinian who was imprisoned in purpose to be deported. Other migrants prisoners, also under deportation, looted blankets so a small fire was caused. The pigs entered the detention centers and evacuated the imprisoning cells by transfering the prisoners to a room beside. Later, the migrants were also transfered to the Panarcadic Hospital for health checks, where also the Palestinian was transfered whose deportation is planned to take place in two weeks. http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1133089
Tuesday Feb 16 In Archontiki village, Rethymnon, Crete, an Indian farm worker was shot and heavily injured by his boss – a shepherd himself. The culprit then took the victim on his car which crushed on the road. He left the victim there in a horrid condition and disappeared. http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1132976
A shoot-out between cops and bank robbers in the neighbourhood of Vironas, Athens saw an innocent passer-by assassinated by the cops: 25-year old migrant worker Nikollas Todi was unfortunate to be at the shooting range of the pigs in uniform. He was executed in cold blood, shot with nine bullets in the back, one going through his head and another one through his heart. Leuteris Oikonomou, head of the greek police, stated that “nothing went wrong in the operation – simply the 25-year old found himself amidst crossfire”. Trying to supposedly disassociate himself from this provocative statement, Michalis Chrisochoidis (minister of citizen protection) stated that “a crucial battle was won, even if the cost was dear”. Earlier today, Chrisochoidis announced that Athens will see “unprecedented” policing operations after easter. http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1133637
Thursday, Feb 18 50 Palestinian refugees detained at the Samos refugee center were boarded on a ship to Athens probably to be deported. They cannot communicate and they have no legal assistance. http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1133671
Friday, Feb 19 In Patras, the police warned earlier today the Sudanis living in the makeshift settlement in an old train depot that they should evacuate it (the plan is to make a parking there) or be arrested and deported. http://patras.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=7337
The political prisoner Adoui Aboudou Wassiou from Togo is at risk of deportation to the tyrannical regime of his country of origin. Since last Sunday he has been detained at the Achaia, Peloponese Police headquarters.
Adoui was charged for possessing a fake visa, and although he was acquitted at court he is still detained and to be deported.
In case Adoui is deported his life would be jeopardized because of the difficult political situation in Togo. He was probably transferred to Athens last night until next Thursday when his deportation is believed to take place.
At least 150 economic and political refugeesof have been arrested in Patras. Given the lack of places of detention in the Police Headquarters of Achaia, the majority of detainees have been transferred to Agrinio and Pyrgos (nearby cities); these are people mainly from Sudan and Somalia.
Yesterday a delegation of the Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Movement visited the Director of Security of Patras, discussed the matter and was authorized to determine the needs of the detainees and aid them.
Among the prisoners there are enough people of Albanian nationality, as well as Afghanis, Palestinians and possibly Algerians.
(Testimony from the hell of Petrou Ralli by comrades that were detained in the prison wing for migrant women on P. Ralli St. after the occupation of the Keratsini Town Hall in solidarity to the 22 persecuted in the “Resalto” social space on 5th December 2009).
The scene is the same as if it were a high security prison; the difference is that no one has committed any “crime” here. The cctv’s that are everywhere in the cells, apart from the toilets, are an example of how human dignity is violated in here. The detainees are under 24/7 surveillance, they can’t get a moment of privacy and no personal data protection policy is in effect. Even the cell doors are made of iron bars, from top to bottom, and in order to create a somehow private space the detainees have hung bed sheets. “I cannot bear it that everyone walking up and down the corridor can see me”, an immigrant woman told us. The wings made of cement have electric doors of latest technology, windows (some without pane) that look out on… the rest of the cells and are at a height that you cannot reach in order to see what is happening outside. The cells are equipped with “post-modern” beds made of cement (square ones that remind of benches) with worn-out foam rubber on top, a “soft” blanket that resembles emery cloth (exclusively sponsored by the Greek army) and no pillow whatsoever.
Hygiene conditions are non-existent, which explicitly shows the intention to “decompose” the body and to eliminate any characteristic that reminds detainees that they are human. The medieval-style toilets – which often host cute insects such as cockroaches– are only four and superdirty. The idea in the Petrou Ralli St hell is that cleanness is a fallacy [trans: play on words on a popular Greek saying]… Soaps, shampoo, toothpaste, toilet paper and sanitary towels are considered “small bourgeois residues” and consequently are unnecessary. Instead of a mirror, they use a piece of plastic that reflects like tinfoil the faces of those who live there for up to 6 months (according to the new law): distorted and partial reflections of persons that eventually forget who they are. All adds up in order to forget your very own existence.
Food is transported daily from GADA [trans: police headquarters] and of course it does not contain milk because there is fear that it will go bad during transportation. Everybody is given an instant coffee, a juice and a chocolate croissant. Even children are given the same (from 12-month babies to 10 year-old boys); age and personal needs do not matter. For lunch we were given bean soup, olives and one loaf of bread per cell to be shared by all the detainees, as well as oranges from Arta [trans: Greek city] at preference. The detainees serve themselves in plastic yoghurt-pots. There is no refectory or special room for food to be served, and they are obliged to place their bread on dirty, miserable blankets. Special needs are not taken into consideration, and diseases like diabetes, intestinal dysfunctions, cardiopathies etc do not receive any special alimentary treatment. We heard the detainees complain that they and their children suffered from itching. Cases of dermatological problems, such as mycoses, scabies, allergies and other kinds of dermatitis are frequent; they are mainly due to the sordid mattresses and the horrendous hygiene conditions in the cells and the toilets. They even face serious problems with their teeth, as they are not given enough bottled water and are forced to drink tap water from the toilets.
The women also talked to us about the aggressive behaviour of their underage children. And what is more reasonable for a child that grows up in prison than to develop an “antisocial” and aggressive behaviour. How can it not hate the world, as it is experiencing it from this hell? It has been marked for life by this experience and we better not dare to ask it in puberty why it’s throwing stones. Surely, in any case, the prisons on P.R. St. are an ideal environment for panic crises and psychosomatic conditions. The human being is a part of nature itself, and therefore it cannot survive in an environment made of cement.
Some prisoners have made artistic interventions to their cells in order to make them feel cosier. A Russian detainee has drawn huge cartoons on the walls. My soul is in pain… she misses her baby. She has transformed the cell into a child’s room. Love graven in hearts, and around the beds graven lines that mark days and months that have gone by. Engraved poems, promises, memoirs, names. In other cells the detainees have made an iconostasis; they have hung pictures of Saints everywhere in an effort to keep their hopes and dreams alive. Above their heads Angelina Jolie and Helen Menegaki [trans: Greek television star] next to shampoo labels, anything that can fill the empty walls.
Communication with the outside world is difficult and only those who have the money to buy a phone card have the possibility to make calls. Even the communication between the detainees is difficult as many of them do not speak nor understand Greek. There are no interpreters whatsoever and communication takes place through eye contact and gestures in an effort to exchange information on daily survival. Of course, this means they are deprived of their right to claim their rights or to be informed on their detention status and the date of their release. Complete isolation and loneliness.
Contact with the air, the rain and the sun is simply zero, as there is no yard to go out to. Detainees can only walk in the corridor (1 meter width and 20 meters length) that is outside the cells. They are deprived of a room where they could sit or do physical exercise; as a consequence they can only walk or lie down, in other words they carry around their pestered body. In this decorative background we saw small kids holding dolls, climbing up the iron bars and walking barefoot on filthy water and liquids of unknown origin. Their shoe laces had been taken away from them, thus they cannot even run. Some older children have understood what’s going on and every spark of life in their eyes has disappeared. Who can explain to them how one day they were returning home after school with their mum and suddenly they found themselves behind prison walls?
