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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:

New hungerstrike in Pagani

Some activists went to Pagani and learnt that there is a new hungerstrike on. 47 minors are on hungerstrike, and four are not even drinking. They don’t receive any medical support. Shut down Pagani!

DSC08485 Kopie

update 4.9.09 A lot has happened. The hunger strike in Pagani is still on, and as reported above, some people even took to a thirst strike. There was a solidarity action at the detention centre yesterday. What is really bad is that they still incarcerate women with babies in Pagani, as you can see on the pictures from yesterday, and the open camp at the airport will be closed tomorrow. So it seems that the authorities really do get back to business as usual. We will not accept this, for sure. In the meanwhile, there is a lot YOU can do. Our video Voices from Inside Pagani has been shown on several TV stations, we know of both German state TV channels, the Dutch TV and CNN (but they always falsly claim that a human rights organisation put the video online. Of course it was noborder). Indeed, the situation in Pagani made news globally, and the heat is still on. You can help by making a protest in your city at the Greek embassy or consulate (if there is), like our friends in Wellington, New Zealand (!) did. You can also follow our email campaign.

In the meanwhile, the Frontex boat from Romania has left, and has been replaced by some military style outfits, having even a special “Operation Poseidon” t-shirt. Last time, they were seen controlling (quite brutally) people that take the ferry to Athens (sic). So there is two conclusions you can take from that: either that Frontex is really doing much more than policing the borders, also starting to take their actions into Schengen mainland, or you are of the impression that Europe is one big border anyway.

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