Tag Archive for 'detention'

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Cells of police stations in Greece overcrowded

Published on April 16, 2012 in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , .

In a recent article the conservative newspaper Kathimerini wrote that the temporary detention cells of police stations have turned to overcrowded prisons. An estimated 700 detainees over capacity are detained per day.
The police uses this fact in order to request for “new solutions”, obviously demanding new prisons as propagated in the past month from the government in it’s discourse of constructing “new hospitality centres”, meaning deportation prisons for the undocumented.
Nevertheless, the fact that the cells of the police and borderguard stations are overcrowded is a sign of a dysfunctional and repressive migration policy and once more mirrors the devastating, inhumane and degrading detention conditions of all detainees in Greece.
kathimerini in Greek

At the same time the motor cycled police team “DIAS” has been enforced in Attika area with another 1.000 officers patrolling now more often and in more districts of Greater Athens.
Kathimerini in Greek

“Walls of Shame”

Published on April 12, 2012 in Syndicated. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Accounts from the Inside: The Detention Centres of Evros
new report by Pro Asyl

Obviously, Europe’s main concern is the creation of »walls« in order to hinder or to prevent the access to its territory. Physical walls like the fence, the moat and border controls in Evros but also invisible walls that are constituted by the lack of protection to those in need, rights denials, systematic detention, detention and living conditions violating human dignity, Readmission Agreements and the Dublin II Regulation. The effects of these heightening walls have their most tragic face in the many lost and dead at border. This is why we chose to speak about walls of shame in this report.

Walls of Shame (download report in English)

Amendment for the creation of detention centres for “illegal immigrants with infectious diseases” approved

Published on April 11, 2012 in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , .

The government continues its plans for the creation of new detention centres and its racist propaganda of the last week.
With 117 votes in a total of 154 voting members the amendment by Ministry of Citizen Protection, which envisages the creation of centres “hosting illegal immigrants with infectious diseases”, was approved on April 10th. The Minister of Citizen Protection had warned dramatically before the vote that Greece is still in danger of being excluded of the Schengen Area.
The Minister said that the so called “hospitality centres” (κέντρο φιλοξενίας) are guarded places and went on further asking:

Is it better if the migrant wanders through the streets as a vagrant spreading infectious diseases, or is it better if he stays closed up there?

The migrants in Greece from his point of view constitute a “hygiene bomb”.

news in Greek / Ethnos

New Detention centres to arrive before elections, says Citizen Protection Minister

Published on April 10, 2012 in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , , , , .

Civil Protection Minister Michalis Chrysohoidis said detention centres for undocumented immigrants will begin to operate before the general election.

Chrysohoidis, who met on Monday, with the heads of immigrant organizations in Greece and IOM, said the first of some 30 centres would open in greater Athens, scrapping earlier plans to start the campaign near the northern city Kozani. The meeting with some representatives of migrant communities, government officials and IOM was organised in order to motivate the migrant communities representatives to spread the idea of voluntary return among their co-nationals and to talk about the governments plans of the new detention centres.

“We have a commitment to start operating these closed-hospitality centres, and we will keep to that commitment,” the minister said. “The first centre will operate before the general election in greater Athens, and it will act as a model to show Greek citizens that these facilities are safe for the public and will operate to high standards of health and hygiene.”

The government has met strong resistance from regional authorities around the country to scrap or delay plans to open detention centres, and switch plans to concentrate on sites near Athens as a priority.

Residents at Menidi, north of the capital, however, are also protesting against a proposed site at nearby Amygdaleza and set up roadblocks in the area last week to try and stop construction work.

athens news in english

Dublin’s Trap: Another Side of the Greek Crisis (2012)

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

Watch: “Dublin’s Trap: Another Side of the Greek Crisis” (2012)
by Bryan Carter

Greek “Hospitality”: 30 new huge detention centres and massive police raids

Published on March 28, 2012 in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , , , .

The Minister of Citizen Protection is planning to “clean” the city centre of the Greek capital from the immigrants and “host” them in the new detention centres he has announced to create in all over Greece in the near future.

Today he had a meeting with the Greek Police and announced massive sweep operations starting tomorrow. We already see a massive police presence in public space and daily arrest all over Athens. The question is, how can the police raids we already observe every day become more huge and worse?

see in Greek

Sweep operations on the rise and creation of 30 new mass detention centres announced

Published on March 26, 2012 in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , , , .

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.

see press release of minister in Greek

Protest at the Detention Center in Edirne, Turkey: The border is the problem!

Published on March 21, 2012 in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , .

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


We are standing outside a new, luxurious building. But this building is not built for a social purpose.
On the contrary, it is a detention center, a prison for people who have committed no crime;
people who were arrested while crossing the borders. Migrants are all the more criminalized,
described and treated as a menace by the Governments and the authorities.
Continue reading ‘Protest at the Detention Center in Edirne, Turkey: The border is the problem!’

Immigrants detention camp to be created in Kozani

Published on March 20, 2012 in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , , .

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)

Kurdish documentary producer 5th month in detention in Evros and 26th day on hunger strike!

Published on January 9, 2012 in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , , , , .

A kurdish filmmaker from Iran is now the 5th month imprisoned in Evros – currently in Soufli. He has applied for asylum in Greece. With his hunger strike he is protesting against the inhuman detention conditions and he demands his freedom.