clandestina

Migration and Struggle in Greece

Archive for November, 2009

Fascist bomb in Salonica, racist pogrom in Athens

Posted by clandestina on 26 November 2009

source of article and updates this libcom.org article

Fascist bomb in Salonica, racist pogrom in Athens

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Solidarity – Antiauthoritarian Movement

UPDATES

Nov 25 2009

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

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

 

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

Posted by clandestina on 26 November 2009

http://www.resistance2003.gr/

greek original here

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Solidarity – Antiauthoritarian Movement

www.resistance2003.gr

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

Posted by clandestina on 23 November 2009

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

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

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

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

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Unwelcoming shores

Posted by clandestina on 23 November 2009

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

Unwelcoming shores

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

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Hopes wash up on Aegean coast as dead bodies

Posted by clandestina on 23 November 2009

source: http://www.todayszaman.com

Hopes wash up on Aegean coast as dead bodies

by

RECEP KORKUT*

Nothing has changed in the Aegean Sea. The journey of hope(lessness) for those searching for a future at the brink of despair ends in sorrow.

The lifeless bodies of six Palestinian children aged between 2 and 12 wash up on the shore. Over a week ago 19 Palestinians, of which more than half were children, were crammed into a small boat in the town of Turgutreis in Bodrum to head to the Greek Island of Kos. They brought nothing along with them except their dreams. But death interfered in the hopes of six children after the boat overturned 500 meters from the coast. The tragedy was mentioned as a disaster that had occurred between the two Aegean coasts, while the deaths of immigrants, which has come to be perceived as commonplace, were simply just another number for statistics. The invisibility of those who escape the difficult conditions in their homeland with the hope of establishing a normal life, even when they die, leads to the question of whether contemporary human rights are applied to everyone.

Death bells tolling for immigrants in Aegean

The Aegean Sea is the first border between the conflict-prone destitute East and South and wealthy Europe. The two coastlines of the Aegean, which is the scene of frequent journey-to-hope disasters, resemble two completely different worlds. But more often than not dreams end up drowning in the dark Aegean waters before passengers are able to reach the other world. The biggest disaster in this sea was the accident that killed 70 people near Seferihisar on Dec. 10, 2007. The tragedy coincided with World Human Rights Day, and dozens of hopeful passengers were not able to see the sun on that day. Over the past decades, hundreds and thousands of immigrants have been killed in the Aegean, and more death bells will toll for immigrants in the future.

As a result of Greece’s inhuman practices and nationalist chauvinism, the problem stopped being a human rights problem and became seen as a massive influx of immigrants. Turkey’s indifferent attitude and tendency to blame others resulted in turning the incidents in the Aegean into a dirty epic war. The fact that the victims and the people being killed are humans is not even mentioned. As for civil society organizations, the tragedies in the Aegean are trapped in an absolute human rights reference frame. Turkey and Greece are not the only sides to this problem — it is a “mutual” issue that concerns the entire world.

Emigration is a human right

Immigrants comprise the largest groups of people in the world and more people are becoming immigrants. Emigration today is more an escape from conflict and wars than a search for a new life. But it’s worth mentioning that the cause of most wars today is poverty, which creates a ground for conflict and displacement, especially in places where there is a vast difference in standards of living.

Certainly there is no magic spell that can resolve this issue, but if half of the global alliance formed around the disapproval of emigration formed around other matters, this issue would not be such a thorny problem. The global disturbance with immigration propels more countries to come together and reach an agreement than any other issue. Precautionary measures based on global cooperation must be taken until the real factors that cause people to become emigrants and refugees are resolved. Instead of trying to prevent emigration and convincing immigrants to stay home, more investments need to be made in countries that cause emigration.

Lastly, it’s also important to point out that emigration is a very rational choice and a natural human right. It would be a grave injustice to deprive people of this right. In order for people who are forced to emigrate to continue their life in an honorable fashion, we must not withhold this right from them.

Let me conclude with a statement that suits Immanuel Kant’s description of hospitality: Just as emigration is a natural right of every citizen, this right must be respected and these people must be welcomed inside.

*Recep Korkut is a social worker with the Association for Solidarity with Asylum-Seekers and Migrants (SGDD) and a journalist who has written articles about minorities, migration and refugees. recepk85@gmail.com

22.11.2009

Op-Ed

 

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Iranian refugees in Athens: solidarity with the hunger strike!

Posted by clandestina on 23 November 2009

SOLIDARITY GATHERING TUESDAY 24 NOV 17.00

PROPYLAIA OF ATHENS UNIVERSITY, PANEPISTIMIOU STR., ATHENS

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

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

Posted by clandestina on 23 November 2009

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

source: ert gr filia on 17 November

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

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

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Released from Pagani, now trying to survive Athens…

Posted by clandestina on 15 November 2009

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!!!!!

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Free Milena Ivanova Now!

Posted by clandestina on 15 November 2009

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

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Iranian hunger strikers taken to hospital

Posted by clandestina on 15 November 2009

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

_DSC7621Tonight (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.

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