Yesterday, the police release more than 70 of the migrants and refugees who had recently arrived on the island and who were detained under inhuman conditions inside the port area for a few days. Some of them had been already transferred to different police stations on the island for further detention. The release was a consequence of further arrests on the island and overcrowded cells. Families from Afghanistan, Syria and men and women from Somalia took the ship to Athens.
Meanwhile another 44 refugees arrived yesterday on Samos island. The detention centre on Samos has a capacity of 300.
30 degrees celsius 75 arrivals today; 95 the two days before
26 degrees celsius
Despite the positive experience of PIKPA open welcome centre that was opened by the end of last year by the local activist network “Village of all together”, which provided for the first time a real reception solution for refugees, the authorities on Lesvos keep refugees locked up in degrading and inhuman conditions ignoring the given alternative.
With the increase in arrivals in the beginning of May 2013, detention facilities started to get overcrowded once more on the island. The authorities didn’t know where to put the refugees anymore.
Some of the recent arriving refugees are trying to survive since three days in the sun while being “locked up” in the port of Lesvos without any protection or infrastructure. There is no food supply by the responsible authorities but only through volunteer citizens on the island. Nevertheless it remains insufficient. Yesterday one young man fainted due to heat, thirst and hunger.
Among the refugees of the last three days, who come in their majority from war torn areas such as Afghanistan, Syria and Somalia, are several pregnant women, elderly and sick persons, small children and even a five-mmonth-old baby with severe health issues. Basic medical aid is provided by the Doctors of the World. The coast guard and the police keep even vulnerable persons such as families, children, pregnant women for days imprisoned. Additionally Syrian nationals who according to a decision of the Ministry of Citizen Protection are not to be imprisoned anymore remain at least some days behind the bars.
Even a 5-month-old baby
On Lesvos since two months the coast guard arrests the refugees on land and on sea, detains them for a few days in the fenced open area inside the port, makes a first registration and then transfers them either to the local police station or to a detention camp in Chios or elsewhere in Greece. The police then issues after an uncertain period of time between some hours and up to months a detention and a deportation decision against each refugee.
more than two women advanced in pregnancy
Not knowing where to put the refugees other than inside the fenced port area or in the filthy cells of the police station, the arriving refugees are pushed around from one detention place to the other, from one island to the other or even to the mainland. Currently the detention centre of Chios where many of the in Lesvos arrested had been transferred to has also passed its capacity (of 100). No one can tell who will stay for how much time in detention. At the same time there are unaccompanied minors imprisoned in different police stations of the island who will soon reach one month behind the bars because they wait for a place in a specialised reception centre. Such a place exists in Agiasos, a mountain village on the island, but instead of offering refuge to the children in prison, the government has cut the funding, the centre is since two months without staff and the 60 hosted minors are trying to survive now without any food.
Meanwhile tourists arrive from Aivalik in Turkey and look at the destitute refugees
Meanwhile BBC published yesterday an article according to which the Greek authorities push-back illegally refugees and migrants to the Turkish side in Evros but also seemingly in the Aegean denying them thereby the right to access to the territory
and as such to asylum in Europe. Even more, the alleged push-backs put the lives of the refugees in risk of death.
Yesterday while the coast guard was repairing a rubber boat just next to the refugees who were sitting in the sun some boys from Afghanistan asked with fear in their eyes:
“They are not going to return us back with that boat to Turkey, are they?”
Despite the great efforts of the local activists in welcoming the new arriving refugees with all possible means in PIKPA and outside of it, the government obviously has not the intention to invest in this project and to create hospital and open welcoming centres. On the contrary it is creating a constantly growing detention and deportation regime with new and bigger prisons, growing repression, higher fences and hidden deportations on the border.
Everyone asks: When will we be free?
P.S. A remark towards the Frontex boat and staff that is currently in operation on Lesvos: How exactly is Frontex with its fundamental rights approach reacting to the obvious degrading detention conditions and the alleged push-backs? As proudly presented the high technology and expertise assumingly allows the “experts” from the European Agency to see everything that is going on on the border. Doesn’t it? IF not actively part of the system isn’t there at least a responsibility of cognisance and thus a complicity?
Europe is not only present with its flag but also with Frontex
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!'”
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.
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.
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.”
“We could die without anyone even learning about it. It is our fifth day on hunger strike in the detention facilities of the Police Station of Moshato. We live like dogs”, says Armen Mourantian: “We sleep in shifts in a room full of dirt. Six people sharing three mattresses. Three full rooms. In the fourth one, which is the largest, they have cornered more than 15 people”.
5th day of hunger strike in the detention facilities for immigrants in Moshato
It was already past midnight when the young Armenian made a phone call to ‘E’ in order to make a plea for help. “This moment we are aloud to make phone calls. We were arrested by men of DIAS group [special police group on motorbikes] in the street. Our papers were expired. None of us has been charged with theft or any felonies. We are held for 7-8 months with a deportation decision”. Continue reading ‘We live like dogs and sleep in shifts’
On Thursday April 18 a Moroccan detainee jumped from second floor of Corinth detention center. He was transferred to hospital after falling on the cement. Authorities claimed he had fallen on a special mattress but his inmates saw him fall on the mere floor. While authorities claimed he had only slight injuries, his ankle is destroyed. The young man had started earlier together with other migrant detainees a hunger strike. Reportedly more and more detainees try to commit suicide. Only that day there have been 6 suicide attempts the hospital of Corinth informed!
The young Moroccan after falling from the second floor.
Just a few days earlier detained migrants had threatened to jump of the roof but were talked off doing it. At the same time large numbers of detainees inCorinth and Amigdaleza had started refusing food. These protests emerged once again due to the anouncement of the authorities to keep them for another 3 months in prison. Many of them are detained since the summer 2012. In October 2012 the detention period for undocumented migrants had been increased from 6 to 18 months.
No concentration camp, never and nowhere! … not even on Mars!
What started with a protest by detainees at the migrant detention camp at Amygdaleza in northern Attica, has reportedly spread nationwide. As many as 2,000 migrants being held at detention centers around the country have reportedly gone on a hunger strike since Saturday April 6, to protest the deplorable conditions, police violence and prolongued detention periods.
Riot police entering Corinth detention centre
On Saturday three detainees in Amigdaleza even had tried to commit suicide: one with a broken glass, another by drinking shampoo and yet another by cutting himself with a sharp object. The hunger strike was encountered by the guards with mere violence: beatings, tear-gas and other forms of cruel treatment as standing outside on one spot for 5 hours or denying visits of relatives and friends. On Monday some hunger strikers had fainted. The guards refused to call for medical help. “If you want to keep on with your hunger strike, then die,” some officers said. Police violence has been a constant issue in Amigdaleza and in other detention centers before. Specifically the violent responses of revolts and other forms of protest seem to be a rule. On April 20, police officers charged of ill-treatment of detained migrants in Amigdaleza will be brought to the court.
Riot police in the detention centre of Corinth. On the roof a migrant detainee threatening to jump.
On Tuesday April 9 at 21 o’clock two migrant detainees climbed up a chimney at Corinth detention center threatening to jump if they were not let free. After long negotiations they were talked into backing off.
The next day ongoing tensions have resulted in 47 arrests. Human rights groups claim the riots were sparked after police beat up a detainee who had refused food to protest the extension of his detention. Specifically, when authorities informed the detainees that their detention periood was extended for another 3 months more 65 migrants declared to start a hunger strike. One of them upon denial of food got beaten by officers. He reacted by threatening to throw himself from the roof of the building. Since the early morning riot police has started throwing tear gas inside the cells. Two cells were on fire. Around 13 o ‘ clock police forcibly entered the cells to repress the protest.
A police statement says officers fired tear gas at detainees alleged to have thrown roof-tiles at them and set fire to buildings in the complex outside the town of Corinth. Ultimately, a group of 47 Afghan migrants were arrested and taken to a nearby police station. They await criminal prosecution for offenses of – amongst others – resistance, disobedience, revolt of prisoners, criminal association, arson, attempt of causing dangerous and unprovoked bodily harm, aggravated damages, abuse and violation of the arms legislation. These are common charges for detainees who protest. In other protests in Corinth, Komotini, Fylakio and elsewhere, migrants have been charged the same offenses to frighten them off protesting.
The protest in Corinth detention center:
The general demand of all these protests is: freedom!
It is not the first protest since the opening of the new mass detention centers for sans papiers in Greece during the police operation “Xenios Dias” – a raid that started on August 4 nationwide.*
Repeatedly migrants in new and old detention centers but also in police stations that are being used also to close up sans papiers have protested with hunger strikes, through self-injuries and revolts. Hundreds were beaten when riot police was send to end the protests by force. Tear gas was thrown into closed cells almost as a rule. Dozens of detainees have been criminalised in the following when they stood up for their rights and brought to the court with different charges following the different revolts.
While hundreds of detained migrants in Greece are on hunger strike protesting prolongued detention and inhuman detention conditions the Greek government announces the creation of further detention centres. Six are existing at the moment in Xanthi (currently 440), Komotini (427), Drama (320), Aimgdaleza (1.665), Fylakio (2.034) and Corinth (1.022) with a total capacity of 5.000. With the new detention centres planned in Ipeiros and at least four islands in the Aegean, capacities are planned to rise to 10.000! In the centre of Athens police raids continue and many sans papiers as well as migrants with residence permits find themselves in one of the many busses carrying them to the Aliens police for further control and later – some of them – to the above described detention centres.
* During half a year since the beginning of Xenios Dias, approx. 80.000 migrants have been temporarily arrested, 5.000 finally detained for “lacking legal residence permits”. At the land-border to Turkey in Evros, where most sans-papiers would enter the country until the beginning of 2012, Xenios Dias included the massive influx of additional police forces to prevent border crossings. Since August border crossings at the land border consequently decreased by 95%, police reports. migration routes since then shifted back to the sea border in the Aegean.
On March 14th, 70 refugees started to protest in Drapetsona detention centre of the police station with a hunger strike against the extended detention periods. Two of the detainees had received another extension of their detention period for two months more. They were already nine months in prison at that point. the reason: lack of papers.
Only a few days later detainees who had been on hunger strike in the police station of Nikaia but had been split up and some of them transferred to Drapetsona police station were beaten by inmates on order of the guards. The hunger strike of 12 detainees in Nikaia had started following the beating of a inmate by the police. The detainee got beaten up when he requested to be transferred to a cell that could fit the 12 persons in a way that they would not need to sleep in shifts due to overcrowding.
K.M. (21, Syria) reported to the “Movement United against Racism Athens” being ill-treated by the police guards in Corinth Detention centre on March 10th. In the afternoon around 18 / 19 o’clock during a struggle between guards and refugees when the first did not bring the cigarettes and telephone guards to purchase. The Riot Police started beating the detained refugees until they returned into their cells. there again they were beaten. K.M. was documenting the ill-treatment with his mobile phone. When the Riot Police noticed that they took him to his cell and beat him all over his body. K.M. has a chronicle respiratory problem and found himself lying on the floor with difficulties to breath. His phone was broken. efimerida ton sindakton (in greek) roz karta (in greek)
47 Syrians and 4 Palestinian refugees who had newly arrived in end Fbebruary 2013 in Greece – among them 14 children and two pregnant women – were detained in a container like buiding next to the coast guard for more than six days.
As the local solidarity group for refugees and migrants “Lathra” denounced on February 28, the cage like detention building has only two rooms of 35 square metres in total which doesn’t even fit them to sleep, is lacking beds, chairs, tables. The building is situated on a parking area next to the coast guard. Since Chios has currently no detention centre, this cage is being used the last months for all new arriving refugees.
Only a few days after the publicity around the cage-detention again the coast guard detained 6o refugees in the same place.
