A young sans-papiers collapsed when the people were trying to enter the aliens police
Mr. Chrysohoidis, Minister of Citizen Protection, announced today the creation of thirty new type detention centres for immigrants in cooperation with the Ministry of Defense. They are called “reception centres” or “centres of hospitality” in the dominant discourse although they are clearly to become huge prisons.
The minister had a meeting with the governors of 10 Greek prefectures to ask them if they agree to build detention centers in their areas and if they have specific facilities to offer for this purpose. Anyway, as he said, these prisons will be build even without the agreement of the prefectures. Throughout the last days and since the announcement of the creation of such a prison in Kozani the local politicians and the society had protested against these plans.
He also assured that the EU funding for these centers will be 250 million euros for the three following years.
For each detention centre a new independent police department will be created with personnel of 150 new police officers and also 70 private security men for every 250 immigrants detained.
According to the plan, each new detention center will be divided into four sectors with a capacity for 250 detained immigrants, if there are 1,000 immigrants in each of the 30 prisons announced it makes up a total of 30,000!
The new detention centres have become one of the main issues of concern today in Greek news which was dominated by a racist propaganda on “the problem of illegal immigration” constructing immigrants as a threat to security, public health etc.
by Enri Canaj and Γιάννης Παπαδόπουλος
On March 23 31 migrants were deported from Greece to Dakar, Tiflis and Lahore. Among them were 25 from Bangladesh, 5 from Georgia and one from Nigeria.
Press release of the Transborder Conference that took place in Istanbul 14-18.3.12 at the detention center of Edirne close to the Turkish/Greek border
The border is the problem!
The new Edirne Detention Centre
On March 19, the Minister of Citizen Protection Michalis Chrisochoidis announced in the Greek Cabinet that a new immigrants’ detention camp will be created in Kozani (Neapoli).
The camp will be under the authority of Greek police and will be located in a former military base. The camp’s capacity will be 1,000 inmates.
It is planned to be ready by the end of April.
This will be the first official detention camp according to the new law of 2011 in Greece. The responsibility for guarding the perimeter of the detention camp will be given to the Greek police, but according to the Greek newspaper Vima Online, a private security company will be contracted for the guarding of the interior.
The local population reacted immediately by protesting against the “transfer of the problem” from the urban centres to other cities.
As the Vice-Minister of Citizen Protection Mr. Oikonomou said about the creation of 14 new detention centres in the very near future:
There will be no other solution to illegal migration than detention centres!
Three other detention centres are planned to be in Thessaloniki and at least two in Attika region. According to Minister of Citizen Protection Mr. Chrisochidis old military camps will be used and also former buildings of the Ministry of Education and other Ministries. The Minister while trying to convince the local population of its benefits said:
The aim is to support the local work force with new jobs. Soon enough the mayors who are now protesting against the construction of detention centres in their cities will be asking us to build also one in their region.
Vima Online (news in Greek)
Epikaira (news in Greek)
Kathimerini (news in english)
On Thursday 15th of March a group of 40 workers from Pakistan and other countries protested against the exploitation they suffer from in the orange harvest. Since two years the workers of Koutroufini Orange production are unpaid and without health insurance.
The company owes us a total of 60.000 Euro!
Watch the short documentary “Hellas-Hell” about Patras and Igoumenitsa (Spanish subs)
The young African man died a tragic death when a truck rolled over him today in the new port of Patras. The young Eritrean was trying to find a way out of Greece.
On February 24 37 persons were forcibly returned from Athens airport to their home countries. Among the deported were 16 Chinese, 10 Albanians, 7 Pakistani, 3 Rumanians and one Bulgarian.