Detained immigrants attempt suicide at Imathia police stations.

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: athens indymedia repost of a Tuesday, March 30,  Rhizospastis newspaper article.

Rome immigration prison set on fire by detainees

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!

Fishworkers’ strike: An effective response to strikebreaking

An effective response to strikebreaking

Michaniona vessel bosses attempted yesterday, March 28, to transfer 12 Egyptian fishworkers from Keratsini, Athens, to Thessaloniki, on a bus. After dealing with the confusion of contradictory information, the fishworkers at Michaniona made this known and the mobilization that followed prevented the bosses’ plan from materializing.

Since early people had started gathering at the Thessaloniki bus station, train station and at other terminal stations so that to obstruct scabs’ arrival. Members of the PAME, the Solidarity Assembly and other groups were checking and controling those spots in parallel with the strikers who kept arriving from Michaniona. Late at night, the bulk of people gathered at the central bus station, which was thought as the most probable spot the scabs to arrive at; both other spots were kept constantly under control, though.

At 2 a.m. the bus arrived and the “dialogue” between the strikers and the would-be scabs concluded with the latter going to a place of reception for some time under the surveillance of strikers and stay there until they got the first bus back to Athens. The excuse they used was that they were not aware they would work for the Michaniona bosses and thought they would work for other employers in Northern Greece.

The 4 trawler bosses who would accompany them, after having been informed about what they were to meet at the bus station, deserted the van which would drive the fishworkers to Michaniona. The driver who would drive that van also left a little bit too hasty and crushed his car some meters along the road.

Generally speaking, and despite the vague and contradictory information, the people mobilized were many, they responded fast and effectively and stayed until late at night. On the other hand, if this is the best the bosses can do in terms of organisation, then things might not be that easy for them.

Of course, since the state’s service for labour employment (ΟΑΕΔ) and the Ministry of Employment have clearly taken the bosses’ side and has deemed the hiring of scabs legal (despite the fact that the strike is for now legal on a court’s decision), the trawlers bosses have already started hiring Bulgarian fishworkers in an effort to pave the road for strikebreaking. The Egyptian Fishworkers’ Union has already taken legal action against this but the injunction will not be brought to court earlier than April 16.

The way the strikers will deal with the actions of the bosses and their state allies will mean a lot for the future of the strike.

This is a translation of this solidarity assembly post.   previous posts on the strike here.

The transformations of Petrou Ralli Street, or the search for asylum in Greece.

This is a translation of this filoxenoi.wordpress post. More posts on Petrou Ralli str. Directorate for Foreigners here, here and here.

Many thanks to Olga for her help with this.

26/03/2010 by filoxenoi

The “department of foreigners” at Petrou Ralli is a reference point of the “glorious” policies of the Greek state in terms of asylum granting, as all those that follow the developments in the field know.  It consists of humiliating bureaucracy, indecent treatment, endless waiting hours in queues, no sense of rationality, poor or non-existent medical care, assaults, torture and even murders.

This situation has caused some reactions and resistance. When three refugees were murdered while waiting outside the directorate, refugees and sympathizers gathered and blocked the streets, demonstrated and made the events public. After all this, the ever- efficient people in charge there came up with the solution: to transfer the entrance from Petrou Ralli street to Salamina street – “to better serve” the thousands of people that were gathering to make their applications .  With regard to the process and the realities that these people were facing, absolutely nothing changed, apart from the crucial fact that they were now less visible. The Greek police – which, due to another Greek peculiarity, was responsible for the asylum granting – would be able to experiment as much as it wanted on the bodies and souls of the hundreds of refugees that had already started making the now infamous “queue of Salaminias”, hidden from the indiscreet eyes of various “curious” and “unwanted” passers-by.

In any case, one should not forget that those who managed to get to the end of the Salaminias queue all they were granted was a small paper, by which they could claim having an appointment, usually after several months, occasion at which they could file the application and then have their cases examined and decided upon. One  should also not forget that “out of 15.928 asylum applications presented to Greece in 2009, only 0,04% were accepted and the refugee status was only granted to 0,06% of the cases”.

Over the last months, the immigration policy of the Greek state including the policies on asylum have being going through a process of restructuring and remodeling. One part of the restructuring, at least at an institutional level, seems to be the the law regarding the granting of Greek citizenship to second generation immigrants and the further sealing of the country’s borders.

Regarding the asylum policies, there have been up to now –always socialist- proclamations for the improvement of the process of asylum granting by assigning it to an independent commission, staffed with experts on immigration and asylum issues, interpreters etc., and with the role of the police regulated to be less important.

In the meantime, the queue has disappeared. Not because there are no people in Greece that need protection from their own countries’ regimes, but because the responsible body refuses to take more applications. In other words, whoever goes to the directorate of foreigners at Petrou Ralli, will leave empty handed, in an absurd story of Kafkaesque inspiration. As easily as that, the modern “hospitable” Greek democracy, the one springing directly out of the basic principles of the ancient Greek civilisation of Xenios Zeus, refuses to accept and register the applications for asylum (the access to which, according to the 1951 Geneva Convention on the legal status of refugees, should be undisturbed and the mere expression of seeking asylum by the refugee should be enough for its registration).

As easily as that, the hospitable Greek democracy condemns hundreds of people to live in fear and to be helpless in the hands of the cops that they will encounter. They even face torture and death with their obligatory return to their countries, from which they fought so hard to escape, since the controls and the expulsions from the country are still going on -despite the fact that the asylum procedures have stopped…

Fishworkers strike: solidarity discussion and concert in Thessaloniki

SOLIDARITY ASSEMBLY BLOG

http://solidarityaliergates.blogspot.com/

“Sweep” and evacuation operations in Patras and Athens.

This is last summer repeating, with evacuations and mass arrests in Patras and Athens – about last summer see this post and this post) .  The continuity of oppressive policies against sans papiers between the previous government and the current one cannot be disguised with cheap sensational denouncements by government officials of immigrant plight.

Early yesterday, Wednesday 24 of March, the police evacuated the abandoned train station of Aghios Andreas and arrested 70 Sudanese refugees who had found refuge there.  This happened two days after the refugees had made a protest in the streets of Patras  against the inhumane conditions they are forced to live under.   The Common Solidarity Action organises events in Patras to protest against the recent developments.  The story behind this new case of evacuation and mass arrest in Patras is once more one involving municipality authority and private real estate interests.  (sources: http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1147356, http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1147617 ).

This is also the case in the evacuations at Athens Downtown.  The plan launched by the previous government last summer continues now under the new one.  Police and other authorities, on the pretext of operations against drugs and prostitution, blockade Sokratous, Evripidou, Verantzerou and more streets of Athens “historic centre” and move out immigrants and refugees.  Up to last week there hade been 61 arrests.   sources:http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?, anarchypress.wordpress.com

the first protest in Bulgaria for the rights of immigrants and refugees ever….

source: http://filoxenoi.wordpress.com/

LGB, AS group Sofia.

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….

Pictures here:

http://bulgaria.indymedia.org/article/36611

LGB, AS group Sofia.

Police attacks protestors at Venna refugee concentration camp.

source: http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1146716, http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1146343.  Thanx to Ben for his help with this post.

police force at the horrible camp

The horrible living conditions in the Venna detention centre, a refugee camp located 30 minutes outside the northern Greek city of Komotini, was the spark that fueled over 100 protestors to converge on the site on Sunday. Among the protest group were doctors, lawyers and members of the No Borders Assembly.

The group was met at the site in Venna by a police force that also had around 100 members, among them much riot police. The group of activists was there to protest while the doctors among the group checked the health and living conditions of those inside the detention centre.

A clash between the protest group and riot police began after the police attacked the group on no provocation at all. The police threw stones at the protestors and then moved in on them with their clubs, injuring two people after hitting them in the face and head. Some members of the riots squad were also injured in the clash.

Three people were arrested and transferred to the police station in Komotini but the rest of the protest group was stopped from entering the town after the police blocked the Egnatia highway.

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More cases of racist police violence in Igoumenitsa

source: http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1146452, thanx to Ben for his help with this post.

photo from athens indymedia

photo from athens indymedia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On March 10, Igoumenitsa port police beat an innocent immigrant with their clubs in the port area of Igoumenitsa. The man sustained serious injuries in the attack.

 

This followed a similar incident where police harassed two men seeking assistance at a local health centre. The men were tormented and pushed around by the policemen who informed them that they could not use the services at the health centre and that it was “not a health centre for them”. 

The small town of Igoumenitsa has been known in the past for its racially motivated attacks on immigrants. One such attack occurred on an immigrant with severe health problems who was unable to defend himself when police set their dogs on the man (Police brutality once more in Igoumenitsa: Cops let loose their dog against immigrant).

The attacks continue, and as recently as last Wednesday, when an immigrant disembarked a ferry from Italy and was met by waiting port policemen.  

It is alleged the man had been beaten by both the Italian police and security thugs aboard the ferry, before being handed over to the Greek police for further punishment. His injuries were so severe that his internal organs had been seriously damaged by the repeated beatings. 

The situation in Igoumenitsa is out of control with local police using racially motivated violence in a display of abuse against these people’s basic human rights. The Igoumenitsa police continue to raid the immigrant settlement near Ladochori and on March 4 violently attacked six immigrants and left them with serious injuries.  

Igoumenitsa may be an isolated provincial town and the local police may believe their crimes will remain unknown, but they are wrong. Those people in solidarity with immigrants from Western Greece now monitor the situation and speak out against the abuse of innocent people. As the protests on March 2 have shown, nothing will remain in darkness.  

Two days of solidarity action in Athens

Two more “single incidents” of the everyday war against immigrants.

On Friday March 4 an immigrant fron Guinea was arrested, incriminated with drug dealing, only for the police to show off their anti-drug raids.  More in this post

Last Decmber immigrant street vendors were severly abused by cops during a manhunt in Athens high street, and then at the infamous Acropolis police station.  Victims of this story are still detained.  A court hearing is tomorrow, March 19.  More in this post and this post.

TWO DAYS OF ACTION

INFO & DICUSSION EVENT  AND VIDEO PROJECTION,THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 20.00, EMME BUILDING, 2, KALAMIOTOU STR., KAPNIKAREA AREA (near Ermou str.)

SOLIDARITY GATHERING@ATHENS COURTS (Evelpidon str.) MARCH 19, 09.00.

Assembly for Solidarity to Immigrants