It’s necessary that comrades who are still on the way to the camp bring extra blankets, tents, sleeping bags with them. A square has been occupied in the center of Mytilini and a Noborder Info Point for the camp has been set up there. Refugees who have been released from the Pagani detention center are also hosted there, since they are still not able to leave the island. The blankets and tents are necessary for their accomodation at the Info Point.
Welcome To Europe presents the blog formerly known as lesvos09.antira.info
Monthly Archive for August, 2009
Page 2 of 5
Thanks to the people spending their time cutting video…
The local authorities are moving: Today, 200 people detained in Pagani, mainly family and women with children, will be released from that horrible jail. They will not be thrown into the streets, rather they will be brought to an existing facility. They will also receive the “white paper”, giving them a semi-legal status for 30 days and granting some freedom of movement within this short period.
We welcome the release of the 200 from Pagani. However, we adamently continue to demand the immediate release of all prisoners from Pagani, the closure of Pagani as a detention centres and the subsequent transformation of Pagani into an open transit centre for refugees offer shelter and food, but no detention.
In the meanwhile, we demand that any refugees and migrants arriving in Lesvos receive the “white paper” immediately without being detained.
The authorities has shown that they are able to move. After this initial step, they now need to take the next step and close Pagani.
Today, we are “officially” opening the Noborder Camp Lesvos 2009. Several hundred people have been in the camp yesterday already, and today saw the arrival of scored of new people. We are still debating how many we are now. But we are definitely more than 500.
Although we start today, the people who came earlier to help set up the camp as well as the people from Lesvos have been active for several days already. The hungerstrike of 150 minors in Pagani detention centre sparked a campaign for the immediate closure of the detention centre which led us to establish a permanent infopoint in Mytilini.
Noborder Lesvos ’09 offers a broad programme. With people from all over the world attending and contributing their individual skills and knowledge, we will form a powerful collective to overcome the realities of the european borders. In workshops, we will exchange and learn from each other. Different actions are targeting authorities responsible for death and suffering at the borders and inside detention centres.
In the meanwhile, a detention centre construction site in Netherlands as well as a former deportation prison in Germany went up in flames.
If you couldn’t make it to Lesvos, you can nevertheless be part of Lesvos09. Follow us on this website, our twitter feed or at your local indymedia. Spread the message about noborder, fill gaps in reporting. We might be calling for collective action, so stay alert!
There will also be a camp radio. Locally, you can listen to it at FM105.05. Web stream, we are still working on it.
No border – No nation.
Shut down all detention centres.
Fight Frontex at Work.
According to a german article from turkishpress.de from August 7 2009 (our translation):
Close to Izmir, 47 illegalised refugees were arrested by the turkish gendarmerie. After their identities were checked, the 37 Palestinians, 3 Afghanis and 7 refugees from Burma said that they had been brought to a strip of coast unknown to them from Istanbul by bus. They were then brought, by two turkish men, to Lesvos with a boat. Afterwards, greek security forces apprehended them. They were robbed of their passports and money, said the refugees.
Afterwards, a Palestinian told under tears, they were brought on two ships of the coastguard. They drove into the sea. Shortly before reaching the waters of Turkey, as the turkish authorities found out, they were told to swim the rest of the distance to the turkish coast.
For the last days, we have been putting up quite a fight to get Pagani, that outrageous detention centre for refugees, closed. Today saw the visit of the UNHCR director for Greece to that jail.
A small group of activists had gathered at the site. Again, loud shouts for freedom could be heard from inside as well a outside of Pagani. When the UNHCR director left, we pressed him for a statement.
Today in the port of Mitilini, Lesvos a demonstration was held concerning the refugees recently released from the detention centre in Pagani with no means to support themselves. A symbolic blockade took place to show that while holidaymakers come and go freely, many migrants are trapped on Lesvos in a situation of complete destitution. Leaflets (pdf: gr, en) were distributed to hundreds of passing tourists and locals in several languages explaining the situation the migrants are facing.
This action was a reaction to the dismissive release of a group of 38 migrants from the Pagani detention centre on Thurday. The plenary of the Noborder camp decided not only to attempt to meet the basic needs of the migrants by inviting them to come to the noborder camp but also to make their situation visible to the local population and to increase pressure on the local authorities to provide a real solution.
In this very moment, activists from the noborder camp gather in Mytiline to protest against the treatment of refugees in Lesvos. A particular concern is the situation of the refugees released from Pagani two days ago, who cannot leave the island but also don’t have any accomodation or other means zo sustain themselves.
We demand the immediate closure of Pagani and that the responsible authorities provide shelter and food to the refugees they threw into the streets.
Follow this action at our twitter-feed at twitter.com/noborderlesvos.
We already posted that information once, but now we know more and want to publish a follow-up report.
Yesterday, at least 38 refugees were released from Pagani at night. They obtained the “white paper” but didn’t get a ticket for a ferry to the mainland. Nor did they receive any other means of supporting themselves. Consequence is that they are now stuck in Lesvos, they spent their night at the port.
Continue reading ‘Refugees released from Pagani yesterday night’
Voices from the Inside of Pagani (2009)
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