This is a first interim report of this year’s Swarming No Border activities in Greece. The first stop was Samos, an island in the Aegean sea, close to the Turkish mainland. The proximity to Turkey is why many migrants arrive here and consequently Frontex is stationed here too. Together with activists from Samos, we organised an anti-racist weekend during our stay there.
On Monday we took our exhibition Traces from Lesvos through Europe
to Pagani and turned the space where refugees and migrants have been detained and humiliated into a museum – a place that belongs to the past.
Saturday, 4th of September 2010, Platia Sappho, Mitilini. 6pm
Exhibition Traces from Lesvos through Europe – one year after the noborder camp in Lesvos
Last year during noborder, we met a lot of people that soon continued their way through Europe. With the exhibition, we want to bring the stories of the people back. Where did they go and what happened to them?
Sunday, 5th of September 2010, Skala Sikaminias. 5pm
Installation of a memorial for the drowned refugees of October 2009
On 26.10.2009 next to the coast of Korakas, eight refugees drowned during their attempt to reach Europe. A local fisherman could rescue a baby from one of the families, who had the luck to survive. To remember this great act of solidarity but also all the deaths of fortress europe we will be installing a memorial at the lighthouse at the beach of Korakas outside Skala Sikaminias.
Monday, 6th of September 2010, Pagani, Mitilini. 6pm to 9pm
Temporary museum of migrant struggles against detention camps
We present the exhibition Traces
as well as photo- and video-screenings about the continued resistance of refugees and migrants from the inside and about the protests from the outside against the imprisonment of refugees and migrants. The protests led to its official closure in October of last year. Pagani is an abandoned place today, but the traces of the struggles are still alive.
Yes, we have arrived on Lesvos island, and we are preparing out first reports, discussing our timetable and meeting with local activists. Expect updates soon.
But right now, we would like to turn your attention to Australia, where more than 80 Afghan refugees whose asylum claim had been rejected and who were detained in a privately run detention centre in Darwin have broken free and staged a protest in order to halt their deportation. They have now been arrested and are being taken to another detention centre.
From an article in the The Australian:
Immigration Department spokesman Sandi Logan earlier said the men had broken through two electrified fences – an interior fence and a perimeter fence, both carrying 11,000 volts – at about 6.30 this morning.
Followups: here, here and there generally seem to be tensions at Darwin detention centre: Indonesian fisherman who are charged with people smuggling and face a 20-year prison sentence have been rioting.
We send our solidarity to all those imprisoned in Australian detention centre! Freedom! Azadi!
Update 2: Victory!
Just found the information on the UNHCR website. We wrote:
We were discussing with a lawyer here in Greece, and she said that she would find it highly unlikely if they received political asylum, since the actual asylum system has been suspended. The Ministry of citizen protection itself has pointed out that it cannot brake the law by giving asylum based on a suspended presidential decree and said that only in September, when the new presidential decree would enter into force, asylum could be granted.
The UNHCR says:
Given the imminent threat to the health and lives of Iranian asylum seekers continued hunger strike in front of the Office of the High Commissioner of UNHCR, the Ministry of Civil Protection has decided yesterday to activate the Appeal Board for the accumulated applications provided by Presidential Decree 81/2009, “on humanitarian grounds and very exceptional, […] despite the government’s steadfast position that the current asylum procedure is impractical, ineffective and outdated.
So yes, our doubts were right, and yes, they did indeed get a proper asylum status. That is very good. Congratulations, we are so happy that all went well in the end! Why did our friends have to take such drastic measures in the first place?
#END OF UPDATE 2
Update 1: Victory?
Today, on the 30th of August, there was the announcement that the six of the seven hunger strikers will obtain political asylum, and that the seventh might likely receive it tomorrow. That would be a huge success. The hunger strikers have since been brought to the hospital, and we are very lucky that the hunger strike is concluded.
You notice the question mark in the headline? We were discussing with a lawyer here in Greece, and she said that she would find it highly unlikely if they received political asylum, since the actual asylum system has been suspended. The Ministry of citizen protection itself has pointed out that it cannot brake the law by giving asylum based on a suspended presidential decree and said that only in September, when the new presidential decree would enter into force, asylum could be granted.
So we were wondering if the hunger strikers were granted humanitarian protection rather than asylum? That would leave them in a much more difficult status, since it would not allow them to leave Greece as some hunger strikers have wished, and the access to social support in Greece would also be much more precarious. We really do hope that the hunger strikes did obtain a proper refugee recognition, and we will continue to look for more precise information. If you know something, please post it in the comments.
#END OF UPDATE 1
Since 13 days seven Iranians are on hunger strike in front of the UNHCR office in Athens. Two of them are in their 32nd day, and you can find previous reports here, here and here + video + video.
We went to see the hunger strikers, and this is our account:
One hunger striker, Seid Rouhollah (28) was deported from Germany back to Greece one and a half years ago under the Dublin II system. He came to Greece via Mytiline, Lesvos, in one small boat with 26 persons. He was the only survivor when the Greek coast guard punched a hole in their dinghy. Seid is a good swimmer, so he managed to survive, but since than he is afraid of the sea and in his nightmares he sees black bodies drowning in the sea and he can’t do anything – just save his own life.
Seid managed to leave Greece after three months. He arrives in Germany where he gets caught in the airport. He spends another three months in detention camp and is finally deported to “Grieschenland” (the word for Greece in a particular German accent). And “Tschüüüss” the german word for bye-bye he still remembers as the police said to him at the deportation. They also told him that it would be nice in Greece, because of the fine weather. He says: Maybe for vacation it is nice.
They say: Don’t worry, now they will care for you!
He arrives at Athens airport. They keep him imprisoned for 20 days. It is totally overcrowded, 20-30 persons in one cell. Only once a day there is food: ‘Malakas’ they say and they feed us like animals.
There is no shower and when he leaves he has scabies.
They issue him a Pink Card. Go, go!
they say and he has no shelter and no money. He contacts the Greek Refugee Council, but they say he shoud come again after one week. Since one and a half year now. There are not enough places in the shelters and since Seid is an adult man, he is not considered especially vulnerable. He has slept in a park since then. He says he had been waiting for the chance the hunger strike now gives to him, to finally make his voice heard.
Continue reading ‘On two of the hunger strikers in Athens [2 Updates]’
Today, Saturday, was the designated Frontex action day in Samos. We scored our first victory in the morning when all coast guard and Frontex ships withdrew from the port, disappearing somewhere. Up to now, they have not returned. The image below shows where they usually park their ships during the day… it is empty. We demilitarised, de-frontexisised Vathy, at least for a day.
We were a bit slow to pick this news up, and there has already been extensive writing about the hunger strike, so all we want to do is to turn your attention to this ongoing struggle and urge you to support it in any way possible. You can start reading with this post of Devious Diva (true blog slogan!), and perhaps this search query which should take you further. All the best to the hunger strikers, we fear for your lifes!
Samos is one of the Greek island off the Turkish coast. At the closest point, you have the feeling you can easily touch the other side if you stretch your arm a little. Not surprisingly, many refugees and migrants attempt to cross the border to the European Union here with small boats.
In 2007, a new detention centre was opened on the hills above the island’s capitol Vathy. Before, migrants were detained right in the city centre, behind the main church and the city hall, in the first floor of an old, run-down building. All those that passed this jail said that the conditions were unimaginable and made many people sick. With funding from the European Union, the new detention centre is nothing like that. It consists of 14 buildings made from metal, most of them are used for the detainees while some are administrative buildings. The whole camp is surrounded by a double barb-wired fence, CCTV cameras as well as loudspeakers are everywhere: bidirectional communication to the advantage of the guards. The camp even has a children’s playground as well as a basketball court. Too bad that there are no basketballs available, so the court is mainly used in summer, when the capacity of the camp does not suffice and newly detained migrants have to sleep there, on the bare ground (like in 2009).
Summer is coming, we are again going to Greece, you might want to join us. In the meanwhile, we updated this blog and put more information and analysis into it. With this post, we will provide a short overview (Blogs are so messy…)
Swarming Noborder: From the 27th of August to the 11th of September 2010, the Network Welcome to Europe will once again travel to Greece. Join us, come along, be part of it, or simply follow our activities and findings in this blog. If you want to know more, read all details of the Swarming Noborder Greece 2010. And of course, you can follow all our activities on this site.
Screening Centres: Apart from establishing an asylum agency, the Greek state also plans to introduce so called screening centres in the quest to reform and modernize the system of migration control. In this analysis, we look into the proposal.
Frontex in the Aegean: The Europe of Schengen strikes back. If Greece cannot stop the migration flow, the European Union has a dedicated agency most happy to step in: Frontex, the European border agency. What are doing, what are they up to? Find out in our analysis.
Interviews: Milad, a friend of ours from last year’s noborder tells us how his situation is in Sweden, how Dublin II pushed people all over Europe and continues to do so, and what he thinks needs to happen. In another interview, we talk to M., a 17-year-old Palestinian youth that was framed by Frontex in Samos. They had taken a picture of the boat he was using to cross over from Turkey and boldly claimed that he was the driver and hence smuggler. A court saw this differently.
Pagani – Villa Azadi – Dikili: Many questions reached us concerning the state of Pagani and other things that are going on in Lesvos. We put together a short update. Another update gives a longer report about what is going on in Lesvos these days.
Samos: w2eu will take to Samos. Why? What is happening there? What is the significance of the new detention centre there, and what is Frontex doing on the island? Find out!
Discourse Space: Amnesty International released a report about the detention of migrants and refugees in Greece, and it sheds not good light on the state of affairs. The European Court of Human Rights condemned Greece for the detention and maltreatment of a Palestinian refugee, while Greece itself calls for a suspension of Dublin II.
w2eu.info: This is the other website of the network welcome to europe, providing information about the state of Dublin II, Asylum, Migration in the different countries of the European Union and beyond. It is meant as a direct resource for all border-crossers out there that need to know where to go best, and what to do there.
Last year a noborder camp took place in Lesvos, one of the main arrival islands in the Aegean Sea. The pictures of the totally overcrowded island prison Pagani and the deeply inhuman internment practices have not been forgotten. However, the revolts and campaigns that led to the closing of Pagani prison, were just as impressive, and in many refugee camps in the whole of Europe the stories of ‘noborder’ is still being told.
Europe is intervening. As if to quickly patch the situation, Frontex, the European border agency is involved in establishing a system of selection and deportation, which is equivalent to European ‘standards’. ‘Screening centres’ will be the new name for the detention centres in Greece. They target what has been possible despite all the repression and chaos in Greece: freedom of movement, the ability to continue the journey to the countries in the centre of Europe.
From the 27th of August to the 11th of September 2010, the Network Welcome to Europe will once again travel to Greece. Join us, come along, be part of it, or simply follow our activities and findings in this blog. If you want to know more, read all details of the Swarming Noborder Greece 2010.
noborder09lesvos clandestina.org schengen visa “dangle” Calais Migrant Solidarity birds of immigrants