Tag Archive for 'deportation'

Commissioner Muižnieks calls on the Greek Parliament to reject the amendment to Article 19 of the draft immigration code

Published on March 26, 2014 in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , , .

“I am seriously concerned about the introduction by the government of the amendment to Article 19 of the draft immigration code which would allow deportation following the rejection of any migrant’s complaint that they have been victim of racist or other unlawful violence by law enforcement officers.

This amendment is ill-advised and should not be adopted. In effect, it shifts the burden of proof onto the migrant complainants and introduces one more ground for deporting migrants who may have been subjected to unlawful violence but have been unable to substantiate their claims.
Continue reading ‘Commissioner Muižnieks calls on the Greek Parliament to reject the amendment to Article 19 of the draft immigration code’

Greece wants to deport the ones who report racist violence once they loose their case

Published on March 23, 2014 in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , .

While impunity of racist violence remains a persistent problem in Greece, the Greek government not only refrains from addressing it, but is proceeding to institutionalize it, and furthermore to penalize its victims! Last week it submitted to parliament an amendment to the country’s Immigration Code that mandates the deportation of immigrants who accuse state employees of using violence against them, in case their claims are officially rejected. It is hair-raising: this provision is a deterrent, punishing not the aggressors but the victims.

The Minister of Interior has temporarily redrawn from the amendment but announced it will be back next week. At the same time the whole article 19 of the code is gone, which concerns the possibility to receive a residence permit on humanitarian grounds also for victims of racist violence.

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Migrants tortured with electroshock in their genitals at athens airport

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

I a recent visit of Elliniko detention centre Javed Aslam form the Pakistani community together representatives of KEERFA spoke with migrants who had been tortured in the Athens airport police. They had been first detained in Amigdaleza, then transferred for forced deportation to the airport. 0039

Now they are detained in Elliniko. The three detainees reported that they had been beaten and electroshocked. One of them reportedly had been boxed in the face, nine times electroshocked and kicked in the stomache. Another detainee had bruises on his back and sholder. The third one reported that he had been hurt with the Teaser’s electricity on his genital organs. He also showed injuries on his arm.

Furthermore, they reportedly were insulted and sexually harassed by police officers who asked them for oral sex.

roz karta (in greek)

Detention conditions in Greece inhuman and life-threatening – IOM enforces “voluntary return”

Published on June 26, 2013 in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .

In Lesvos island dozens of refugees are detained in the port being exposed to the burning sun while lacking water and food supply. Among them are children and even a 2-month-old baby. +++ In Amigdaleza detention conditions have even worsened since November 2012, said Rebecca Harms from the Green Party after a second visit in June 2013. +++ Meanwhile a young migrant (20-year-old) from Cote d’Ivoire committed suicide in Grevena police station because he didn’t want to be deported to his country.

Meanwhile, KEERFA (ΚΕΕΡΦΑ), the Movement “United against racism and the fascist threat” denounces that Greek authorities and IOM use “Gestapo like torture methods” to force refugees and migrants detained in Amigdaleza to “voluntarily” return.

First they are detained for many months without knowing when they might be released, then they are being pulled by force to the airport. A woman employee from IOM escorts them who threatens that if they don’t accept to sign the voluntary return they will wear them head covering masks and bring them by force to the airport. IOM employees enter detention centers to collect signatures for voluntary return in co-operation with some embassies such as the one from Pakistan.
Continue reading ‘Detention conditions in Greece inhuman and life-threatening – IOM enforces “voluntary return”’

The tortured activist whose fate tells Turkish protesters: don’t seek refuge in Greece

Published on June 8, 2013 in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , , .

Bulut Yayla, a Turkish archaeology student and left-wing activist, says he travelled to Greece in April this year to escape imprisonment and torture he endured under the government of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Once in Athens he tried to seek asylum as a political refugee to escape an international arrest warrant issued against him after being accused of having links with an outlawed Marxist organisation.

On 30 May, Bulut, 26, left the restaurant where he worked, in the central Athens neighbourhood of Exarhia, to meet some friends He never made it. At around 9pm, witnesses say they saw five men beating him near the restaurant, forcing him into a car and driving off. Two days later, his family got a call from Turkish authorities, informing them he was in their custody, in a high-security prison. The head of Greek police later confirmed the car’s licence plates showed it was a police vehicle.

“He was seized, handcuffed and shoved by force in a car where they closed his eyes, nose and mouth, and tortured him,”

Continue reading ‘The tortured activist whose fate tells Turkish protesters: don’t seek refuge in Greece’

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’

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)

815 Returns (deportations and “voluntary”) in March

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

From August 2012 until beginning of April 2013 a total of 8.689 migrants from different countries returned to their home countries. Only in March the number reached 815 persons among which 379 were deported (Albanian 99, Pakistani 81, Iraqi 40, Algerian 34, Rumanian 16 and 13 from Bangladesh) and 436 returned “voluntarily” with the support of IOM. These returns are funded by the European Return Fund and the Greek government.

April 2nd, 2013 / press release greek police (in greek)

Deportations of the last 20 years

Published on December 5, 2012 in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , .

Within the last 20 years 269.193 persons were deported from Greece according to the Ministry of Citizen Protection and Public Order. In the period 2001-2012 most of the deportees were Albanians. From 1993-2000 most were Rumanian and 1991-1992 most were Bulgarian.
Continue reading ‘Deportations of the last 20 years’