Tag Archive for 'fylakio'

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Letter of prisoners in Fylakio

We prisoners in Filakio need your help from the outside. We do not have access to other cells, we don’t get fresh air, the water is dirty, food is just enough to survive, we cannot go outside.

When someone is sick, we cannot reach the doctor for help. Again and again, people fall sick since the toilets are dirty. We want to leave this prison. The police is beating us again and again, on our hands, on our feet, they insult us endlessly. Nobody answers our question to what our future will be. There are even people that have gone crazy, and still we cannot leave. We are a lot of people, with different nationalities, in one cell.
We have not committed any crime, and we have not chosen this fate.
We have fled war, oppression and poverty to reach European democratic countries.

Somebody tell us what is awaiting us, what will happen to us.

We prisons from Filakio, we are thankful that people are listening to us now.

Recently one of the prisoners went on hungerstrike. He fainted after 12 days of hungerstrike. After two days in hospital he was brought back to the prison cell. Nobody took note of his protest.

Press Release by the open Plenum in Orestiada against the repression in detention (in Greek)

See also: http://infomobile.w2eu.net/2011/09/12/situation-in-fylakio-in-september-2011/

Fylakio in September 2011

Yesterday we received a phone-call from relatives of Syrian refugees, who have been prisoners in Fylakio (Northern Greece) since a few days:

Today I talked with somebody who was released a few days ago from Fylakio prison about his experiences there. He didn’t want to talk about it first. He said he didn’t want me to feel sorry for something that happened to him, and make me suffer, me and my family. But I said to him: “Tell me the whole truth. The people have to know what happens in there!” Continue reading ‘Fylakio in September 2011’

Revolt in Fylakio detention centre: 3rd September 2011

On Saturday afternoon immigrants held in the detention center of Fylakio, Evros, set fire to mattresses.
Border police forced the inmates out of the building, where they were guarded by riot police units, while fire brigade that arrived from the city of Orestiada managed to put out the fire.
One immigrant was transferred by ambulance to the Medical Center of Orestiada.
This revolt is only one of many. Immigrants detained in Fylakio and other detention centres and prisons have been struggling for their freedom and access to their basic rights ever since.
greek article in Preza TV 6th of September 2011

Only recently the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) denounced that for almost a month, there has been no medical care to immigrants and asylum seekers in detention in Evros region.

Meanwhile, greek navy and coast police keep searching for survivors from early Saturday shipwreck near the island of Kefalonia. Unfortunately the number of dead will probably rise to 19.

see also:
http://clandestinenglish.wordpress.com/

“The police tried to frighten us!”, M. from Afghanistan (13)

The 13 year old unaccompanied minors M. from Afghanistan spent more than 80 days in the detention centre of Fylakio / Evros upon arrival in Greece. He was arrested in the end of 2010 and released in January 2011. We meet shortly before his departure to Patras.

I want to go to Sweden,

he says. The shy boy is horrified by his experiences in Greece.

We were more than 90 children in one cell. It was so crowded that we were sleeping two persons in one bed and we were constantly falling out of the loft beds because there wasn’t enough space. We could not understand why they did not let us go. For 30 days they did not release any of us, so we started to protest. I think the police did not like that. They took 7 of us into the room with the telephones. From outside they threw petrol onto the floor of the room and lit fire. They wanted us to be afraid so that we stop protesting but we were not afraid! They also beat us with brooms.

I am from Bamyan state in Afghanistan but I grew up in Qum, Iran. I was working in a manufactory where we were producing slippers.

Where is your family?

“I don’t have so much family,” he says in a silent voice so I don’t ask any further questions.