Antifa demo in Athens: “It’s either them or us!”

December 18, 2012 – Global Day of Action: WE MIGRATE TO LIVE, NO MORE DEATHS, NO MORE MISSING PEOPLE!

The Global Day of Action for the Rights of Migrants, Refugees and Displaced people on December 18, 2011 was the first step towards the setting-up of a global movement of migrants and of all people who support them. More than 20 countries carried out various activities. What we managed to do was to transform that day in a collective event in which all ideas that are being executed every day by different organizations and networks that defend migrants’ rights came together.

This year we would like to experience it one again, together with those who were with us in 2011 and also with those who crossed our paths during the last year. We invite all organizations and networks to become promoters of the Global Day of Action. Below you can find the call WE MIGRATE TO LIVE, NO MORE DEATHS, NO MORE MISSING PEOPLE which throws this years’ Global Action Day.

To adhere to it you can send your to: info@globalmigrantsaction.org

More information: http://globalmigrantsaction.org/

THE CALL

December 18, 2012 – Global Day of Action

WE MIGRATE TO LIVE, NO MORE DEATHS, NO MORE MISSING PEOPLE

To migrate is a decision we take to improve our lives, to escape misery or war, in search of a better future for us and our families.

Crossing borders, however, by land or sea, today is a synonym of death. All the migration paths around the world are marked by graves. Every year thousands disappear on these paths leaving behind their families in anguish and uncertainty.

more than 500 fascist attacks against migrants in the last six months

Source: http://infomobile.w2eu.net/

While the police is operating a huge sweep in Athens and Evros since August 2nd, racist attacks are getting more. Migrants communities speak of more than 500 hate crimes in the last six months and an organised wave of hate crimes in the last days.
The government assumes that these hate crimes are the try of extreme right wing groups to subvert the “organised” (and highly repressive) approach of government to deal with the migration issue in order to keep their political gains as they had in the last two elections due to their xenophobic agenda. Government officials commented that this reaction was foreseeable when the starting sweep operation set out to take away the main agenda of the fascist party GD. While the government warns the extreme right and announces to encounter hate crimes in a very strict manner, migrant communities complain about more than 500 racist attacks in the last six months and an ongoing apathy by the police who is not reacting.
The most recent victim was a young IRaqi refugee who fell victim to his attackers stabbing him close to the place of worship he was visiting in the month of Rhamazan. He had visited the place in the early morning around 4:30 in order to eat before sunrise. The attackers came on four motorbikes in front of the mosq and attacked the young man with knives. He died yesterday due to the severe injuries after the transfer to he hospital.
Migrants communities see a planed series of hate crimes within the last days. Last Thursday at 21:30 15-20 persons attacked another place of worship in Piraeus while there were 20 Pakistanis. ON Saturday night attacked two other mosqs in Reddi and Nikaia, Athens. In Crete in the night of Saturday there was a fight between a group of fascists and migrants from Pakistan that evolved out of provocative comments by the first. The fight ended in the arrest of one Greek who had beaten an Pakistani badly on his head and a Pakistani who was lacking legal papers. Five days ago four unknown persons attacked some Indian migrants in Rethimno, Crete, stabbing them with knives. One week ago a similar incident was registered in Likovrisi. The victim is still hospitalized after the severe injuries inflicted to him.
In the police press release they refer amongst others to a hate crime on June 12 against Egyptian fishermen in Perama, the stabbing of migrants in Neos Kosmos by a group with motorbikes, an attack with metal globs against Pakistani workers in chalikida, the pogrom against migrants in Likovrisi by mid June and some other attacks in Nikaia. In most of the cases the perpetrators were not yet identified and arrested.

by Stelios Verderis in Ta Nea, republished in Preza.Tv. (in greek)

At the same time, the fascist party GD is preparing meetings all over the country in order to “map” the “problems” fascist Greek people have with Roma and Sinti and with migrants. The aim is to then “clean” the areas from the “problematic” population as GD has already done in some areas of Athens such as Agios Panteleimonas and Attiki Square. Fascist attacks might lead to vendetta like situations in the smaller towns of Greece and other severe hate crimes at places of agglomeration i.e. during the feast of Eid by the end of Ramazan.

preza tv (in greek)

also read and listen to the following reportage in english

Iraqi refugee dies after being stabbed in Athens centre

A 19-year-old Iraqi died in an Athens hospital on Sunday after being stabbed late on Saturday night by five unknown persons riding motorcycles, police said. The assailants had earlier targeted two other immigrants, one from Romania and one from Morocco, who managed to escape.

Four Indians knifed in Rethymno

Four Indian men were being treated for knife wounds at a hospital in the Cretan prefecture of Rethymno on Thursday after being attacked by a group of unidentified assailants while they were waiting at a bus stop in the Sfakaki area.

A total of six Indians had been waiting for the bus to go to work when a car pulled up, four men jumped out and started beating them. One of the assailants pulled out a knife and knifed four of the migrants. After the assault, the four assailants got back into the car and fled the scene, according to the victims who said they believed the men to be Greeks but gave no other details.

Operation “Xenios Zeus” in Athens

More than 1,100 sans-papiers migrants were arrested and another 4,900 brought in for questioning by police on Saturday in the context of a sweep operation code-named “Xenios Zeus” in the wider Athens area, the Attica Police General Directorate (GADA) announced on Sunday. 52 house searches were also conducted.
A police announcement noted that the police checks would continue daily.
Operation Xenios Zeus, named after the name of the king of the ancient Greek gods in his role as protector of guests, mobilised 2,000 police in Athens and another 2,500 on Greece’s eastern border with Turkey.
The Athens operation came as creditors from the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the European Central Bank meet with Greek officials to discuss the further budget cuts needed to unlock the next tranche of aid in September, worth 31.5 billion euros.