Archive for the 'Locations' Category

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Igoumenitsa Jungle

This video shows under which conditions migrants have to live in Igoumenitsa…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aWpHu13jWE

Solidarity all over: Common Actions

Also read the Call for a Common Day of Action on the 11th of February

The hunger strike of the 300 has been going on for over a week now. The reactions in Greece are quite strong, a lot of people and organisations have expressed their solidarity with the hunger strikers, however, the state has not been idle either, first attacking the hunger strikers because of their choice of place to hold the strike, then threatening their eviction by force. Now they are also going after the supporters, threatening them with legal action.

It is time that we show our solidarity! We call for a European Week of Solidarity with the hunger strike, from the 7th to the 13th of February. Not only are there Greek consulates and embassies all over, the problem is a European one, so there are plenty of places to go and to protest.

We’ll keep this post updated with actions going on, so please drop us a comment if you plan to do something.

Actions planned so far

Continue reading ‘Solidarity all over: Common Actions’

Performative statement of civil disobedience!

This statement, is an answer to the attempt by the government, to criminalize solidarity with the hunger strikers by saying that “those who are responsible for these processes we will search for with the prosecutor’s intervention and those who participated will be held accountable”.
Below is an email address for you to support this performative statement!

Continue reading ‘Performative statement of civil disobedience!’

Declaration of solidarity with the hunger strikers in Greece – Legalisation and equal rights now – Call for a week of action

The 25th of January is the day on which 300 migrants in Greece started a hunger strike. Their demand is a collective legalisation of all the people excluded from Greek society based on their status – be it asylum seekers, not recognised refugees, illegalised people, exploited migrant labourers. It is not the first hunger strike in Greece where human beings are forced to use such a drastic measure to fight for their rights.

Hunger strikers in Thessaloniki

Hunger strikers in Thessaloniki


Continue reading ‘Declaration of solidarity with the hunger strikers in Greece – Legalisation and equal rights now – Call for a week of action’

[300] Hunger strike to start tomorrow

Short Update on the upcoming Hunger Strike for Legalisation in Greece. First of all, there is a new blog that will cover the hunger strike in Greek language: hungerstrike300.espivblogs.net. We will try to get as much content as possible translated on this site. You can follow all updates in this category: hungerstrike300 (rss).

So much for the technicalities. In the meanwhile, about 300 hunger strikers have arrived from Chania, Crete to join the other hunger strikers in Athens and Thessaloniki. Here is a video of their arrival in the port of Patra

The hunger strike will start tomorrow

25th of January 300 migrants will go on hunger strike in Greece

Announcement by the Assembly of Migrant Hunger Strikers

We are migrant men and women from all over Greece. We came here due to poverty, unemployment, wars and dictatorships. The multinational companies and their political servants did not leave another choice for us than risking 10 times our lives to arrive in Europe’s door. The West that is depriving our countries while having much better living conditions is our only chance to live as humans. We came (either with regular entry or not) in Greece and we are working to support ourselves and our families. We live without dignity, in the darkness of illegalness in order to benefit employers and state’s services from the harsh exploitation of our labor. We live from our sweat and with the dream, some day, to have equal rights with our Greek fellow workers.

During the last period our life has become even more unbearable. As salaries and pensions are cut and everything is getting more expensive, the migrants are presented as those to blame, as those whose fault is the abjection and harsh exploitation of greek workers and small businessman. The propaganda of fascist and racist parties and groups is nowadays the official state discourse for issues of migration. The far right discourse is reproduced through media when they talk about us. The “proposals” of the far right are announced as governmental policies: wall in Evros, floating detention centers and European army in the Aegean, repression in the cities, massive deportations. They want to convince greek workers that, all in a sudden, we are a threat to them, that we are to blame for the unprecedented attack from their own governments.

The answer to the lies and the cruelty has to be given now and it will come from us, from migrant men and women. We are going in the front line, with our own lives to stop this injustice. We ask the legalization of all migrant men and women, we ask for equal political and social rights and obligations with greek workers. We ask from our greek fellow workers, from every person suffering from exploitation to stand next to us. We ask them to support our struggle. Not to let the lie, the injustice, the fascism and the autarchy of the political and economic elites to be dominant in their own places too; all these conditions that are dominant in our countries and led us to migrate, us and our children, in order to be able to live with dignity.

We don’t have another way to make our voices heard, to make you learn about our rights. Three hundred (300) of us will start a Hunger Strike in Athens and in Thessaloniki, in the 25th of January. We risk our lives, as, one way or another, this is no life for people with dignity. We prefer to die here rather our children to suffer what we have been through.

January 2011
Assembly of migrant hunger strikers

[Update] There are now blogs of the Hunger Strikers:

Sudanese Refugees in Patras

A short TV report on the situation of Sudanese refugees in Patras, that does for once not try to problematise migration, but focuses on the situation of the protagonists and gives a voice to them.

Greek parliament approves new migration legislation

Hürriyet daily alerts us to the fact that the Greek Parliament has passed the long announced overhaul of the country’s migration law.

The new law removes control over asylum seekers from the police and hands it over to a new asylum service that will deal with a backlog of some 47,000 applicants, many of them awaiting approval for years. The law will also put in place a procedure for appealing rejected asylum requests.

Citizen’s Protection Minister Christos Papoutsis said the law would allow Greece to set up a screening process under which illegal migrants “will be voluntarily repatriated or expelled.”

We had previously reported on the screening centres: Screening, Detention, Centres

US embassy cables: Greece and migration

The Guardian released two embassy cables provided by the by now well-known wikileaks cablegate that report on the Greek government’s position and strategy on dealing with irregular migration. This article provides a short summary of the contents. Both reports were written shortly after the change of government in October 2009, in December and February respectively. They don’t offer any surprising insight, but sketch some policy lines.

  1. Greece tackles migration and asylum issues. 4th of December 2009
  2. Greece revamps security service and tackles immigration. 1st of February 2010

The first embassy cable, Greece tackles migration and asylum issues confirms that asylum and migration are high priority to the new government, both on a domestic as well as on a European level. From the summary:

Continue reading ‘US embassy cables: Greece and migration’

Ongoing hunger strike of Afghan refugees in Athens

Today is day 12 of the hunger strike, and some of the strikers sewed their lips to emphasize their determination. While we have not been documenting this struggle, our friends at ‘afghan muhajer’ have done so extensively, so please pay them a visit to find out more.

continue reading on Afghan Muhajer Blog.
Update: Here is another Blog: AFGHAN POLITICAL ASYLUM SEEKERS IN PROPYLAIA – ATHENS – GREECE

About w2eu

This is the blog of the antiracist network Welcome to Europe. It was formerly known as lesvos09.antira.info.

 

The name Welcome to Europe expresses the discontent and anger we feel when looking at the fatal realities of the European external border: the long documented deaths and suffering have continued for years, and no end is in sight. We stand for a grassroots movement that embraces migration and wants to create a Europe of hospitality.

 

We maintain our focus on the European external border in Greece, but will not limit ourselves to that geographical area. The right of freely roaming the globe has to be fought for everywhere. Join us!

 

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Voices from the Inside of Pagani (2009)

Watch the video