URGENT ANNOUNCEMENT CONCERNING THE CASE OF THE ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCE OF BULUT YAYLA

Published on June 2, 2013 in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

Athens, 2.6.2013

On Thursday 30.05.2013 at 9.30pm, Bulut Yayla, a 24 years old, Turkish political refugee was detained, beaten and violently abducted by people aboard a private car at the center of Athens – Greece.
Through eyewitness testimonies and research conducted by the victim’s comrades and lawyers, it was revealed that the license plate of the car in question belongs to the Greek Police. However, the police still claim they have nothing to do with the incident, despite the persistent and constant allegations of his comrades, lawyers and political actors.
Yesterday 01.06.2013, Bulut Yayla’s family announced that he is kept in custody at Istanbul’s Antiterrorist Unit. According to the victim’s allegations, a group of people speaking Greek, pushed him inside a car, using extreme violence, shutting his mouth and eyes. Then he was transferred by another car by a second group of people speaking Greek and Turkish and then a third group who spoke Turkish and English. Continue reading ‘URGENT ANNOUNCEMENT CONCERNING THE CASE OF THE ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCE OF BULUT YAYLA’

Turkish Kurd asylum seeker abducted in Athens and handed over to Turkish authorities

Published on June 2, 2013 in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , .

The Movement “Expel Racism” reported yesterday (01 June 2013) that, according to information given by the Turkish police to his lawyers and relatives, Yayla Bulut, a Turkish Kurd asylum seeker in Greece, is now in police custody in Turkey. He was abducted in downtown Athens in the evening of 30 May by five men who dragged him in a car and had been unheard from since.

An urgent press release dated 31 May and co-signed by the Greek Council for Refugees, the Social Support Network for Refugees and Migrants, the Team of Lawyers for Refugee and Migrant Rights and the Solidarity Committee for Political Prisoners in Turkey and Kurdistan describe events surrounding his disappearance as follows:
As Yayla Bulut crossed the street after leaving a Kurdish restaurant in the Exarchia neighbourhood of Athens, five men leapt out of a car that had been parked nearby for several hours, immobilized him, beat him savagely, gagged him and shoved him into the car before driving away. Continue reading ‘Turkish Kurd asylum seeker abducted in Athens and handed over to Turkish authorities’

Reception centre for unaccompanied minors in Mytilini in danger to be closed

Published on May 30, 2013 in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , .

According to the Ombudsman for the Child Greece, Giorgos Moschos, there are currently more than 5.000 unaccompanied minors in Greece but only less than 400 places in specialised reception centres. Furthermore, there are no reception centres for the under 12-year-olds or for unaccompanied girls.

Despite the overall lack of accommodation facilities currently the reception centre in Agiassos, Mitilini, which is one of the biggest in Greece and exists since five years, is in danger to be closed putting 60 unaccompanied minors in danger of becoming homeless and a dozen of employees in fear to stay jobless.

enet (in greek)

38 detained migrants in hunger strike in Iraklio, Crete / also hunger strikes in Xanthi and Piraeus

Published on May 29, 2013 in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Following the repeated announcement of prolonguation of their detention, the migrants which were arrested during police raids of the Xenios Dias police operation started a hunger strike in the police station of Iraklio, Crete. Reportedly they suffer also from police violence and repeated ill-treatments.

“It happens often that they beat us with punches and kicks whenever we ask for something, even the smallest thing. The worst behaviour is shown by the officers when some one of us is ill and asks to see a doctor or to get medicine. One officer shouted repeatedly: ‘Put my d…g in your mouth and you won’t need any further medicine!'”

rozkarta (in greek)

Only 10 days earlier 21 migrants had started a hunger strike in Xanthi detention centre when they heard their detention period will be extended again and they might stay almost 2 years in prison without committing any crime.

roz karta (in greek)

In the end of April detainees in Kalipoli police station in Piraeus had started a hunger strike to protest the prolonged detention in a cell with no access to natural light designed for maximum 1-2 days of detention. Some of them have been there since August 2012. The officers made a whole in the wall to get some sun light in because they said detainees had lost their natural feeling for day and night. Among the persons detained there is one with cardiological problems and another who needs psychological treatment. Some of them were detained in summer, lacked winter clothes and now ask for summer clothes again. They have almost reached one year of detention in a small cell.

indymedia athens (in greek)

Private security for immigrant detention centres

Published on May 23, 2013 in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , .

Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias on Thursday announced that the government is planning to hire a private security company to guard Greece’s immigrant detention centres

A private security company will be charged with guarding the country’s immigrant detention centres in cooperation with the Greek police, Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias announced on Thursday.

Answering a parliamentary question by New Democracy MP Christos Dimas, the minister also said that a military camp in Corinth will continue to serve as an immigrant detention centre in the foreseen future.

Dendias said that the camp will serve as a detention centre “for as long as the country needs it”. “For this reason, I have no intention of promising something which is not part of the ministry’s immediate or mid-term plans, neither to you nor to the Corinthian society, which I highly regard and respect,” the minister said.

In reply, main opposition Syriza issued a statement saying that “immigrants detained in Mr Dendias’ concentration camps are left without soap due to ‘lack of funds’, yet the ministry has come up with the money to hire private security companies to guard them.”

enet (in english)

Standing up to Golden Dawn in Greece

Published on May 20, 2013 in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , , .

The economic crisis in Greece has led to a rise in support for the far-right Golden Dawn and an increase in racist attacks. Jamal Osman talks to one man who is fighting back.

Michael Chege and his friends patrol their neighbourhood in Athens, Greece, most nights. After many encounters with the neo-Nazi group, Golden Dawn, they set up their own brigade, nicknamed the Black Panthers.They want to protect themselves from the fascists who are targeting people who are not ethnic Greeks.
Continue reading ‘Standing up to Golden Dawn in Greece’

AI: Greek police beat a tortured Turkish woman

Published on May 20, 2013 in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , .

One Turkish woman who fled to Greece last year recently shared her story with Amnesty International.

Deniz*, a 47-year-old Turkish national, settled in the Greek capital Athens after leaving her homeland last year to escape political persecution.

Back in Turkey, she had worked to support political prisoners who were on hunger strike – actions which earned her several arrests by the Turkish police, who subjected her to torture in custody.
Continue reading ‘AI: Greek police beat a tortured Turkish woman’

Manolada: working in the strawberry fields…

Published on May 19, 2013 in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , , .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0CvTw8sQ6o&feature=player_embedded#!

Video about racist police raid in Kipseli, Athens

Published on May 16, 2013 in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , , .

This is a video produced by the Greek Police for today’s “stop and search” campaign in the area of Kypseli. To get a grip of the institutionalised racism of the greek state, one needs to pay attention to the video: in 4mins, there is noone stopped and searched who is not black or Asian. Absolutely none!

enet (in greek)

864 returns of migrants in April 2013 / 9.553 since August 2012

Published on May 2, 2013 in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , , .

Another 864 migrants were returned to their home countries in April 2013. Since August 2012 a total of 9.553 were returned either forced or “voluntarily”.

I April 410 were deported (Albanian 97, Pakistani 92, Algerian 51, Iraqi 23, Egyptian 20, Georgian 18, Chinese 12, Moroccan 9 and 8 from Bangladesh) and 454 returned “voluntarily” with the support of IOM.

May 2nd 2013 / press release by the greek police (in greek)