Who says a little revolt won't help?

Published on October 20, 2009 in Detention, Photos and Revolt. Closed

Yesterday we reported about another revolt in Pagani. Today, we hear that it was partly successful:

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At 4pm I got a phone call from one of the prisoners saying he was free, that he would go to the harbour totake the ship. When i came to meet him, I saw that 300 people had been set free from Pagani, both families and men. Most could buy tickets themselves and leave with the boat to Athens. Some others stayed behind, looking at the others waving farewell.

Local elderly men were asking what will happen with the ones that have no money for a ticket. The shipping company responsibles were not willing to take the 8 people without tickets. Although normally the tickets should be given from the state and the shipping company makes a big business with the refugees that have to leave the island and are their best clients.

Everyday around 100 new people arrive and hundreds of people are still imprisoned. Pagani is not empty. There is a lot of police inside the courtyard, the prisoners have the right to get out only once a week for 10 minutes and the next revolt is around the corner.

The bigger picture

Published on October 20, 2009 in Deportation, Detention, Dublin II, Featured and Insight. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

With the revolts going on in Pagani, what is the bigger picture? A friend wrote to let us know:

The minister of “citizen’s protection” (sic!, former ministry of public order) of the new socialist party government announced the liberation of 1.200 migrants from detention centers and police departments (from the total of 5.500 migrants who are kept in detention for illegal entry).

He presented this as a humanitarian move, but for sure this was necessary for the whole detention system, which was completely stuck after a summer with large police operations and arrests and the new arrivals. The released migrants will get the famous white paper (deportation decision with 30 days of tollerance to leave the country).

He also announced large scale repatriation with IOM’s help and with european funding and once again declared “zero tolerance to illegal migrants”.

You can also read an article in Kathimerini. So much for the new government (war is peace, citizen’s protection is repression, George is Orwell, etc). There was one incident in Athens were the police torture-killed a migrant. Occupied London has a report, and there was a demonstration afterwards which got attacked by the police. Another friend from Greece summarises the situation as follows:

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Yet Another Revolt [1 Update + Photos]

Published on October 19, 2009 in Detention, Featured, Photos and Revolt. Closed Tags: , , , , .

This report about a new revolt just reached us:

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Today (19.10.2009) around 3 o’clock pm, prisoners in Pagani set fire to at least two cells. They protest against their continued detention, and especially against the principle that some prisoners are released after a few weeks while other are imprisoned for much longer. They also continue to protest against the unbearable living conditions inside the prison.

They say that right about now, 900 people are imprisoned in Pagani, including youth. There is the case of a young afghan boy of about 12 years who received his release papers while his father is still imprisoned. So he also needs to stay inside. More youth have been spotted amongst the prisoners.

The fire was quite strong, which made a large intervention of the fire brigade necessary. Two refugees fainted, and another six were beaten so badly by the notorious anti-riot police that they need to be admitted to hospital. We’re trying to organise photos documenting this.

At about 6 pm, the fire was out, the injured had been brought to the hospital, and supporters started to arrive. The prisoners were still inside the yard, telling a lot of stories. One of them explained that he had been imprisoned for over four months. Others told that they mothers, wives and sisters had been released earlier and have gonbe to Athens, so they are worried about them being well. It seems that the prisoners will spend the night in the yard.

We also saw two prisoners who had been injured during their flight and who have not received any treatment so far.

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Update 1: Another friend wrote to let us know:

After the previous revolt, the police told the prisoners that in any revolt they were going to arrest two prisoners each time. They don’t care if these prisoners have any relation with the revolts or not. And they did it the previous time: they arrested two prisoners in the previous revolt. They kept the one of them for some days in the jail and then they sent him back to Pagani, but until now we don’t know where is the other one. About today’s revolt, I don’t know if they have arrested any people or not yet…

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We have an image gallery:

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Revolts, revolts

Published on October 16, 2009 in Detention and Revolt. Closed Tags: , , , , .

After the last revolt, we didn’t receive much news from Pagani. But now, there is this bit which we would like to share with you:

Last Saturday there was a revolt in Pagani. The prisonners set fire in their cell and the police was forced to open the door and put out the fire, so that the prisoners would not suffocate. 3 prisoners had to be brought to hospital. The prisoners’ demands are to be registered and to be set free and not to be kept imprisonned some more and some less long.

went tolast night 14/10 there was once more a revolt in pagani. Women and men started it. The prisononers said that the police hit two prisoners and took them away, probably to the police jail. The policemen told the prisnoners that everytime a revolt starts they will take two
people out of them to prison. Even if they did not take part in the revolt.

Last week a woman was brought to Pagani after giving birth, and was set free after three days only because of the pressure from outside.

Today the jungest prisoner is a mere30 days old.

The police together with the local authorities is responsible for the punishing attitude towards the prisoners, responsible for the imprisonment of minors and women and children.

Shut down Pagani! Azadi!

Published on October 6, 2009 in eval { }, Featured and noborder lesvos '09. Closed Tags: , , , , .

Another evaluation of the no border camp in Lesvos. By transact!, October 2009. Published in german language in ak – analyse und kritik.

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Never before have we experienced a noborder camp on the outer borders of the EU at which political protests and social struggles for the freedom of movement were as intertwined as they were in Lesvos. International press coverage about the detention centre Pagani was considerable and we return with many new impulses for transnational networking. Even if meetings were characterised by strong disagreements, our evaluation of Lesvos is overwhelmingly positive.

Tomorrow when we continue our journey, we will be refugees again. But till the last minute we will be just people here tonight, friends celebrating together. Who would’ve thought that on this island we wouldn’t have to hide in the woods and that we would get the gift of a night of freedom amongst friends!

Continue reading ‘Shut down Pagani! Azadi!’

Of lies, more lies and some successes

Published on October 2, 2009 in Deportation, Detention, Dublin II and Featured. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

Last week, we reported about the revolt going on in Pagani. In the immediate days after the revolt, there seemed to be some development favourable to the situation of refugees. Some friendly observers from Lesvos reported that on the very Tuesday of the revolt, there were

700 prisoners in Pagani, around 150 women and children and 150 unaccompanied minors. The minors living on the first floor set fire to matrasses in their cell, which produced a lot of smoke. To escape from the smoke they broke the bars of the window and went on the very small balcony in front of their cell window. They screamed for their freedom, some were very upset and the situation was very dangerous. The policemen of the prison managed to extinguish the fire. More policemen, fire brigades, journalists and observer in solidarity arrived. The tension spread to the other cells.

The prisoners broke the door with the iron bars and went out into the yard. They were absolutely peaceful and the police didn’t react. Around 400 prisoners were in the yard. The negotiations between the prisoners and the police and the prefect lasted until late in the night.

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NoborderTV available on bittorrent

Published on September 30, 2009 in noborder lesvos '09. Closed Tags: , , , , , .

Due to popular demand, we make NoborderTV, i.e. all videos from noborder lesvos 09 available on the net. We decided to use the popular p2p filesharing protocol bittorrent as a distribution mechanism in order not to put too much strain on our servers, the torrent comprises 13 films totalling 1.6 GB.

Please don’t just download the films and then kill the torrent: Keep the torrent going, because like this, you help other people to download the films as well. Again: Once the download is completed, do NOT delete the torrent, and don’t remove the files from the incoming folder. Sharing is caring!

For all those who don’t know what bittorrent is: Serious Operating Systems/Distributions usually come with a client, for Windows and MacOSX, you will need to download one. There are plenty of open source clients, check here and here.

Download the Torrent file. (mirror)

List of Contents when you
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Pagani revolting

Published on September 22, 2009 in Detention, Featured, Photos, Revolt and Videos. Closed Tags: , , , , .

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Revolt at Pagani. We just heard that people imprisoned in Pagani have taken direct action. The three cells at the ground level are open, imprisoned migrants have flocked to the yard of the prison, shouting “Azadi, Azadi” (freedom). Also, women detained on the first floor are leaving their cells. Inside the cells, matrasses have been burnt, and the bars from some cell windows have been removed. More and more people from Mytilini are coming to Pagani, press and TV is there also.

Links: skip to latest update | twitter.com/noborderlesvos | always up2date: noborder09lesvos.blogspot.com | athens.indymedia: 1 2 3

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Noborder Newspaper

Published on September 18, 2009 in Lesvos and noborder lesvos '09. Closed Tags: , , , , .

exegermena#4 People from the squat in Mytilini published a newspaper about the noborder actions in August 2009. It is only in Greek but for those who speak Greek, enjoy: download the pdf.

Two new Videos

Published on September 14, 2009 in Detention, Featured, Frontex and Videos. Closed Tags: , , , , , , .

They just went live: two new videos, one about the action day against Pagani prison, the other about the Frontex action day. They were actually supposed to come online earlier (apologies, esp. to the cutters), but there were problems with the video format. In the end, ffmpeg and ogg/theora saved us.

Noborder Pagani Action Day

Noborder Harbour Action

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)

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