This morning at 10 o’clock, ten noborder activists from Austria, Sweden, Spain, France, Czech Republik, Portugal, the Netherlands and Germany occupied the roof of the refugee jail in Pagani. With this action, we are increasing the pressure to finally get Pagani closed.
Welcome To Europe presents the blog formerly known as lesvos09.antira.info
Archive for the 'Injustice' Category
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Today, it was noborder’s action day against the practices of the coast guard and their support by the European Border Agency Frontex. At present, Frontex is here in Lesvos with one ship. We already managed to drive them away once, today, they retreated to the open sea and set anchor there. It it too obvious that they couldn’t accept out decent challenge, they seem to prefer to hunt migrants at night.
On Saturday, we reported about the action of prisoners in Pagani, getting out of their cells, demanding their release. Then, there were ongoing negotiations about the release of people, and conflicting numbers. Since the situation was so unclear, we took the article offline, in order to go and find, what was really happening.
The passion for freedom is stronger than any prison!
We now have an account of a noborder activist who was present: 29th of August at Pagani detention centre: refugees organise hunger strike for release, no-border-activists occupy prison yard
Continue reading ‘Pagani: refugees and activists unite and fight’
28 of August, or Day 4 of the noborder lesvos 09 was the action day focussing on Pagani detention centre. If you have been following us over the last days, you are familiar with what is going on there. The noborder camp was mobilising for a big demonstration to Pagani, to again demand the immediate release of all prisoners, the closure of Pagani detention centre and the abolition of detention altogether.
Watch these two videos which result from the visit of the noborder delegation to Pagani detention centre. The first video shows again the conditions inside.
The second video is from an interview with two delegates.
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.
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.
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.
Voices from the Inside of Pagani (2009)
noborder09lesvos
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- at the side-street May 11, 2010
- where are my friends? March 31, 2010
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