If you have been following our actions of the last days, you are aware about the immediate necessity to close down the detention centre of Pagani here in Lesvos. Now we call all on everybody out there, wherever you are, to take action. It is quick and easy, and you can really help to make a change: you just need to send a fax or an email.
Participate in the struggle for the immediate closure of Pagani by sending a fax or an email to the Greek Ministry of Health and Social Care as well as to the Ministry of Interior Affairs, demanding the immediate closure of Pagani and the release of the people detained inside. You can also call them. These ministries are the authorities responsible for Pagani, and they have not been willing to move. Let us force them to do so.
If you have sent the fax, leave a short comment on this site that you did so. It will show the force of people behind the demands. Also, spread this campaign and get more people to be involved.
We formulated a sample text you can send, but of course feel free to write your own text. Here are the addresses:
Ministry of Interior Affairs
- email: info@ypes.gr
- telephone: ++30 2131364931 / 2131364932 / 2131364933
Ministry of Health and Social
- email: minister@yyka.gov.gr, minister@mohaw.gr
- fax: +30 2105235749
- telephone: +30 2105233798 / 2105233573 / 2105232821 / 2105232829 / 2105249011 or 2105235703
To the
Ministry of Health and Social Care
Ministry of the Interiorconcerning the disastrous situation in the Detention Center of Pagani, Lesvos, I want to express my deepest concern to you as the authorities responsible. The circumstances for refugees detained in Pagani, as they were presented in many greek newspapers recently, are not bearable at all. At present, more than a thousand refugees are detained in Pagani. Amongst these are many women detained with their children and babies and numerous unaccompanied minors, whose imprisonment is illegal under greek law.
During his last visit to Pagani on the 24th of August, 2009, the director of the greek UNHCR branch, Giorgos Tsarbopoulos, stated that the Pagani prison doesn’t match neither greek nor internation standards. He also stated that there are numerous breaches of greek law.
People are imprisoned for many weeks, even month. They are forced to share a room with aproximately hundred people! Sanitary and medical conditions are beyond any possible imagination. It is not even necessary to describe the further consequences of forcing people to live under these circumstances, since the absolute lack of human rights is all too obvious.
My protest also concerns the praxis of discharge. By releasing people from Pagani in huge numbers without further sustain, they are forced to live on the streets without any support by the Greek state. Without the possibility to catch a boat to Athens or any place to stay, they are forced to sleep outside not even having access to food or water.
Therefore, my demands are:
- Immediate closure of the detention center of Pagani!
- Freedom for ALL prisoners of Pagani!
- Accommodation with food and water, as well as medical treatment and support!
- Infrastructure for refugees arriving to or released from Pagani, while waiting for the ferry!
- Immediate access to travelling papers, so they can continue their journey!
- Freedom of movement and papers for everyone!
Yours,
Freedom of movement and papers for everyone! I sent the emails. Perseverance for the struggles! Solidarity Greetings from Vienna, Petra
Solidarity greetings from Bremen ! I hope by the end of the camp Pagani will be closed down, Franzis
I have just sent an Email to the three Email Addresses.
Cheers and keep up the good work!!!
O. Adeagbo
Munich
hello to lesvos! I sent the emails and think of you
guys in the lesvos camp. let’s make a differenence!!!
It is unbelieveable!!!
When a person thinks he has seen enough of human maltreatement, you only wake up to see something that frighttens you more than the previous!
Human treatment to another human being is condemnable. All these leads to instability in the world. It is worse that people run away from their homeland because of different reasons, only to fall into deeper maltreatment that the previous.
I call for the immediate closure of Pagani.
I have sent an email to the addresses and I am adding my voice here again that that detention camp, worse than Guantanamo should not exist. Close it down!!!!!!!!!!
Solidarity greetings from salzburg !!
helga
Yeah, I hope the automatic form is not obligatory, because I kinda wrote whatever I wanted to.
Just sent your letters to all the proposed addresses…
Shalom & Salam,
Dietrich from hamburg
[Don't just copy the above text. Write your own. This has more effect. (Experience from Amnesty International.) Below is my version.]
I apologize for being unable to speak/write Greek. Although I did take one semester of Greek in college, that was completely inadequate and long ago.
I am very concerned that Greece, the cradle of western civilization and of democracy, is presently involved in uncivilized, undemocratic and inhumane activities. I need not provide you with details of the Pagani refugee camp on Lesvos; you are well aware of the situation. You are also aware that there are countless violations of Greek law, international standards, and human rights.
I understand from an interview with Tsarbopoulos, UNHRC director for Greece, that a decision to close this camp was made a year ago, but that apparently bureaucracy has hindered the execution of such. I call upon you to refrain from any further delay in this closing and in the release of those there imprisoned. Your lethargy comes at the expense of human beings and the reputation of Greece and the EU.
R. Bach
Austria
i just have sent the mails to the three mail addresses.
solidarity greetings from bremen!
susanne
I have send the emails as well!
bests
I have just sent the e-mails as well. The history proved yesterday, considering the solidarity to Thodoris Iliopoulos, that if we act all together for something, we can make it real.
Solidarity greetings from Naoussa, Greece
just sent the email. greetings to everybody. keep going
Stefan
we have sent the emails as well.
bests
ARI berlin-germany
Just sent the emails. Solidarity greetings from Hamburg, Germany!
Melanie
I sent an email. Good luck!
sent mail. good luck!
just sent the emails.
a world without frontiers is a powerful world!good luck!
irini
just sent mails…
sent a message to all three addresses. hope we’ll make a difference!
I sent an email.
just sent the emails. No border, no nation, no prison, no deportation!
I’ve just sent some e-mails. Keep up the good work!
Greetings from Sweden.
i, too, sent an email.
in solidarity
s*
also sent your text to all the adresses. hope the prison will be closed down soon.
greetings from frankfurt/germany
mails sent!
Sent the messages. solidarity greetings from cologne
did it
Just sent the mails.
Greetings from Sweden
solidarity greetings from Wuppertal, Germany. Well done! Every wall has to fall one time. I send the email. Good luck!
Sent the messages. Solidarity greetings from Vienna.
sent an e-mail too.
hamburg/germany
emails sent — solidarity and hugs from london, uk!
A little show of solidarity from us in Aotearoa/New Zealand
http://indymedia.org.nz/article/77629/protest-greece-embassy
sent mail for freedom.
I’ve just sent the following personalized message (thanks for the tip, Robert Bach!).
In soldarity!
Kimberly
Dear Ministry of Health and Social Care Ministry of the Interior:
My name is Kimberly Hughes, and I am a first-time visitor to your
stunning country. Specifically, I am enjoying myself on the gorgeous
Skala Eresos village on the island of Lesvos.
It concerns and saddens me greatly, however, that while I am free to
enjoy all that this amazing place has to offer, there are human beings
the same as you and I who are now suffering in crowded and inhumane
conditions at the Pagani Detention Center. I also understand that the facility
is in violation of numerous Greek laws.
In the name of human rights and compassion, I urge you to please consider
the suffering of the inviduals involved, and take steps to immediately close the
facility and provide these people with proper resources so that they may go on
their way toward the better lives that they came seeking.
Many thanks in advance for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Kimberly Hughes
(USA / Japan)
I send a mail too. Good Luck!
i sent them…
andrew/berlin
I tried to send a fax to the Ministry of Health and Social Care at +30 2105235749, but this doesn’t seem to work.
I sent the emails
email sent- cruel world!