Tag: english

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Report from Schisto camp

Report from Schisto refugee camp

Τhe refugees and migrants that live on the camp of Schisto are facing an irrational imprisonment. They are not allowed to exit the camp despite the fact that there are no confirmed coronavirus cases. Of course the existence of such a case does not justifies the imprisonment of hundreds of people. It is obvious that the Greek government is trying on a basis of lies and pretexts to go on with its agenda that includes the unacceptable and immoral imprisonment of tens of thousands of migrants and refugees. People that have left their homelands also due to the financial and military actions of the European Union and the Western states. The sanitary conditions inside the camp are tragic. While the lockdown is supposed to protect public health the residents of the camp have basically zero access to healthcare. Even the few that have managed to access the General Hospital of Nikaia cannot receive the medicine they have prescription for. The doctors inside the camp do not supply these medicine and the management of the camp and the Greek police apply a cruel prohibition on all exits. Moreover the responsible authority for collecting the trash hasn’t visited the camp due to covid! (The camp is located within the limits of the municipality of Haidari). Τhe garbage pile inside the camp. Dozens of families live outdoors, the fact that children have fever due to the coldness of night is being called as an example of “possible coronavirus cases”. Due to the terrible sanitary conditions all children have serious skin ailments. During the night rats have repeatedly attacked and bit children. Police has fined a number of migrants (5000 euros). After a series of protests(including refusal to receive food) the management of the camp was committed to supply clothing to immigrants that live outdours. At the same time it claims it is obliged to take care only for the residents that have apllied for asylum. It doesn’t provide for their basic needs either.

Refugees, migrants, locals, we demand:

Stop the war on migrants / waged by the Greek state and the EU, stop all their military operations abroad.

Shut down all concentration camps and “hot spots” now, and replace them with truly open, social structures in our cities, open structures for homeless and marginalized migrants and locals as well.

Papers, healthcare, financial aid, housing, equal work rights and schooling for all! Equal rights for all.

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Police terrorizing migrants at Agios Panteleiomonas

Yesterday, on Saturday night (9 to 10 October), at 00:45, 4 DIAS motorbikes, coming on high speed from Acharnon street, went into Agiou Panteleimona square. The square at that moment was full of migrants and little children, around 80-100 persons. The cops chased with the motorbikes all the people while making noise and running after them. The migrants ran in a panic and the square was empty after 1 minute. After that, the cops stayed in the center of the square being proud of what they did and went away to Alkiviadou street from the other side of the square.

In this whole event, we felt the fear of the migrants who are in a constant state of repression and chase. We should not get used to such actions by the cops and in front of what is happening on public spaces and the migrant neighborhoods, there must be resistance. We observed the comfort and convenience of the cops to do such things in a square full of multinational population, a fact that shows that with this confidence that cops feel this period, it is not difficult to make these actions their game.

https://athens.indymedia.org/post/1607722/

 

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Ιntervention at the offices of NGO Praxis against the eviction of S

FROM THEORY TO PRAΧΙS…

WHEN “HUMANITARIAN” ORGANIZATIONS THROW REFUGEE FAMILIES TO THE STREETS

  1. is a woman from Afghanistan with two children, 1.5 and 5 years old. In recent months, she has found temporary refuge in an apartment of the non-governmental organization PRAXIS, while she is waiting for the decision on her asylum claim. A while ago, S. was informed by the NGO PRAXIS that she has to leave the apartment. On Wednesday 16/9, in an unacceptable move, the NGO PRAXIS proceeded to change the lock so that the family could not leave and re-enter the house. The next day, an employee of the NGO PRAXIS came to carry out the eviction and aggressively threatened to call the police when people protested against this. The eviction was temporarily prevented by the intervention of people in solidarity.

On Monday 21/9, we carried out an intervention at the offices of PRAXIS with a request to find a solution to the housing issue of S. and her family. On the same day, PRAXIS employees reappeared at the apartment and called the police, while people in solidarity are still present protesting against this development.

The NGO PRAXIS, which states that its goal is “to fight the social and economic exclusion of socially vulnerable groups and to defend their individual and social rights” literally throws a refugee with two small children to the street with absolutely no concern regarding their future situation. In stark contrast to its stated goals and in full alignment with the state’s anti-immigration policy, it burdens the excluded individuals themselves to find solutions to structural problems.

S., like many other migrants and refugees, has nowhere else to go. The so-called “open hospitality centers”, places with unlivable conditions and deeply racist, are currently being turned into closed prisons, a process that has been accelerated under the pretext of the pandemic. The government, which is imposing a racist lockdown to thousands on the basis of unsubstantiated public health arguments, has at the same time launched a massive operation of evicting 11,000 recognized refugees and asylum seekers from “structures”, that is camps, hotels and apartments.

The “absurdity” of the state mechanism, however, does not stop here. For refugees who are forced into homelessness, it reserves repression from the RIOT police and forced transfer to detention centers, as we have seen many times in Victoria Square recently. Housing programs for asylum seekers and recognized refugees, such as ESTIA and HELIOS, advertised as the epitome of humanity, are just a bureaucratic and ineffective business that directly or indirectly excludes most eligible individuals. It is no coincidence that S. and her children, who meet all the conditions for housing through the ESTIA program, have been waiting for 7 months for a response to their request.

We believe that a socially just solution to the housing problem of S. and thousands of other displaced persons CAN be found. There is no lack of houses and money for that, there is lack of political will from the states that allocate their resources according to the interests of the war and the “humanitarian” industry and other businesses. With moves like these, the NGO PRAXIS takes a clear stand in the total legal, social and military-police war that refugees and migrants are facing. In this war they will find us against them.

We demand from Praxis and other NGOs, the government and the UNHCR to stop the practice of evictions. We call on workers and all the people in solidarity to oppose inhumane and racist evictions, as well as the whole system of incarceration and devaluation of migrants.

JOINT STRUGGLES OF LOCALS AND MIGRANTS

HOUSING, HEALTHCARE, PAPERS AND FREEDOM FOR ALL

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Report from demo outside the camp of Elaionas

Report from yesterday’s demo (150 – 200 people) outside the camp of Elaionas.

Migrants staying in the camp were shouting slogans and livened up the gathering. With police blocking the main entrance, we united our voices when people climbed up the banisters and also gave multilingual texts to be distributed inside the camp. Communication with the detained migrants is more necessary than ever! We won’t leave migrants alone with cops, the military and the fascists.

We demand

-An end to the Greek State’s and the EU’s war on migrants, and a stop to all the military expeditions abroad.

– Shut down all the concentration camps, ‘’hot-spots’’ and replace them with truly open social structures within the cities for the homeless and marginalized locals and migrants.

Legal documents, health services, benefits, housing, equal working rights and education for everyone.

Common struggles of locals and migrants