10.365 metres of fence of 4 metres height lead now on the land border between Greece and Turkey from Fylakio of Kastanies until the river Evros. The construction that began in May 5th was completed on December 15 and costed 3 million Euro.
information with, about and for refugees in Greece
Monthly Archive for December, 2012
Page 2 of 3
On Saturday 15th December in the early morning hours the coast guard found 18 corpses of migrant men and one survivor in Thermi, Lesvos. Until now 21 corpses have been found, two persons have survived (one is in Mytilini and one in Turkey) and seven are still missing. The survivor found first on the Greek side informed the authorities that they had started with a ship of 30 migrants from Turkey which capsized on Friday. the authorities try to locate the rest of the migrants in the sea now – among them two women and two children.
Only one 16-year-old survivor has been plucked out of the water and was hospitalised in the island capital Mytilene and another 17-year-old on the Turkish side. The young boy found in the sea near Lesvos told investigators most of those on board the boat which also carried women and children were from Afghanistan with only two persons from Turkey. Greek public television Net said two women and two children had been among the passengers. The group set sail from the western coast of Turkey on Thursday but ran into bad weather that sank their boat during the night, about two miles off Lesvos.
UPDATE: Two of the corpses were recognised by relatives living in Greece and Sweden respectively. One of the is a 17-year-old whose cousin came to recognise him from Naxos where he is living and the other is a 42-year-old whose brother came from Sweden to check for his whereabouts. Through the recognition of the 17-year-old it became known that there has been found another survivor on the Turkish side. The young survivor found in Lesvos left hospital on Tuesday 18 and was transferred to the detention cells of the coast guard.
yahoo news (in greek)
left.gr (in greek)
tvxs (in greek)
lesvos news (in greek)
to vima (in greek)
Read the Press Release of MSF Mission on Lesvos:
Greece: MSF raises concerns after boat tragedy in Lesvos
Date Published: 19/12/2012 11:10
On the dawn of Friday 14th December, a boat sank near the coast of the Greek island of Lesvos where Médecins Sans Frontières/ Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has been providing medical and relief assistance to newly arrived migrants and refugees since October. It is believed that 28 migrants were on board. The death toll has so far risen to 21 while the coast guard is still looking for six missing people. There is only one survivor so far, an 18 year old male.
Continue reading ’21 dead migrants found on Lesvos Islands’ coast, two survivors – the rest still missing!’
Germany has decided to hold off for a second consecutive year on sending asylum seekers back to Greece in an effort to relieve pressure on its European Union partner as it reforms its asylum system.
Under the so-called Dublin procedure, EU countries return illegal migrants to the first EU country they entered. In most cases, that is Greece, on the bloc’s southeastern edge.
Continue reading ‘Germany suspends returning asylum seekers to Greece for second year’
Athary v. Turkey (no. 50372/09) [Article 5]
The applicant is an Iranian national who applied for asylum in Turkey in 2004. Pending a decision on his application, he was granted a temporary residence permit. In 2007 he was convicted of a drugs offence and sentenced to 18 moths imprisonment. Following his release in December 2008, he was placed in a foreigners’ removal centre from which he only was released when he was granted refugee status in The Netherlands and moved there in April 2010. He complained under Article 5 of the Convention that his detention in the removal centre had been unlawful, that he had not been informed of the reasons thereof and that he had not had an effective remedy at his disposal to challenge the lawfulness of his detention. The Court found violations of Articles 5(1), 5(2) and 5(4).
For the full text of the judgment please click here.
Le Réseau de Solidarité et d’Information pour l’Action Antifasciste et Antirépressive en Grèce présente une … (Télé-)Réalite:
L’Aube Dorée, sa promotion par les Médias, sa collaboration avec la police et la lutte anti-fasciste en Grèce.
http://vimeo.com/54319309#
Newly arriving migrants are detained on Samos island in the inadequate cells of the coast guard, among them women, children, elderly, sick etc. they are locked up in 30m2 and fed with the rest of the food from a retirement home once in 24 hours as well as the donations of some officers and solidarity people of the island.
Plans for the re-opening of the former detention centre have been postponed for the next year and after January 2013.
Meanwhile, Syriza parliamentarians sent a letter of inquiry to the Ministry demanding answers on the questions of detention conditions, reception and the new detention centre.
As Greece continues a sweep of illegal aliens, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is proposing to eliminate a law that grants citizenship to immigrants, many of them minors who were born in Greece, attend Greek schools and speak Greek.
Continue reading ‘Greece moves to repeal immigrant citizenship law / SE Times’
“Confined like animals”, no water or heating: so is the Greek Guantanamo / Delta World about Corinth
Cramped, without warm clothes, no hot water, no heating, in appalling hygiene conditions, malnourished, without barely access to medicines, in a legal situation uncertain and subject to harassment and occasional beatings.
They are the conditions in which Greece maintains several thousand immigrants and undocumented refugees, in the so-called”detention for foreigners”, which are so degrading to inmates of one of them, of Corinth, ironically call it with the same name of the notorious us base: Guantanamo.
“They kept us locked up like animals. We don’t have rights”, complains Ali Hasan, an Afghan fleeing from their country and who remains detained for two months along with 800 others in the center of Corinth, a former military barracks.
Samos 07.12.12 – Movement for the Human rights – Solidarity to Refugees
PRESS RELEASE
Following the visit of members of the Movement in the coast guard facilities where 41 persons – among them eight newly arrived women and seven children mainly coming from Syria – are hold, and where we were asked to offer our support with clothing and hygiene articles, we noticed the following:
In this informal detention place of the Samos coast guards’ special forces men, women and children are closed up together with three penal detainees and one unaccompanied minor who is waiting since long time to be transferred into a special reception centre for minors.
The detention place is absolutely unsuitable and the detention conditions are miserable. There are no matresses, blankets, hygiene articles and there is only one toilette. The newly arrived Syrian refugees came wet and exhausted without being offered dry clothes or food.
The treatment by the authorities and the abolute lack of protection that the Greek government is encountering them with are reminding of darker periods when the informal detention centre of Kapnokoptiriou was still in function – a warehouse of souls.
The coast guard – the responsible ones for the detention – told us that they had requested support from all local authroities without receiving any responds.
SILENCE IS COMPLICITY
LETS NOT LOSE OUR HUMANITY DUE TO CRISIS
On December 1st migrants detained in Amigdaleza detention center started a protest against the detention conditions and demanding their freedom. It is not the first time and will not be the last time of protests in Amigdaleza and other detention centers.
In The night of that Saturday, the detainees gathered in the yard pulling the fence and shouting slogans for freedom.
The protest was encountered with Riot police who “convinced” the protestors to return silently into their cells.
Continue reading ‘Revolt in Amigdaleza detention center’