A citizen of Athens reported today (December 26) in the internet of an incident of police violence in the centre of Athens, when a municipality officer beat up a migrant street vendor.
The citizen reported the sudden appearance of a couple of municipality officers wearing helmets and hiding their faces nearby Syndagma square. Some of them were carrying black plastic bags, others were running. One of them tried with the help of a police officer to arrest a migrant street vendor. The street vendor resisted and suddenly one municipality officer wearing a helmet started punching the vendor in his stomach. On his grey helmet was written “Molon Lave” (a famous phrase from King Leonidas of Sparta, meaning: “come and take them” – a phrase that fascists like to quote). Both citizens who became a witness of the police repression and the vendor were shouting.
Police and municipality police were hunting down migrant street vendors in the centre during all of the day.
Tag Archive for 'greece'
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On the night of December 23, 2011 Safar Haydary, vice-president of the Afghan Community (Noor) in Greece and another three Afghans were attacked by a group of 15 members of the extreme right group Golden Dawn. They had been near by St. Panteleimon Church, an area where many refugees and migrants live and where racist attacks have become the sad picture of daily life. Mr. Haydary was severely injured. For one more time the police while being close to the incident did not do anything.
The vice-president of the Afghan Community Noor after the beating
news in Farsi
The corpse of a man, probably 25-30 years old, was found near to Peplos, Evros. He was trying to cross the border by swimming through the river Evros/ Maritza.
People from Afghanistan, Sudan, Eritrea, Morocco, Algeria, Greece and many other countries demonstrate today against the police repression in Patras. Reason for the protest is the recent accident of a 16-year-old Afghan who while trying to escape the police fell of a building. He is still severely injured in the hospital.
Stop police assaulting us, we have to live in security, we need human rights!
Such kind of “accidents” are no exception in Patras the main transit port city for sans-papiers who try to leave Greece. Sans-papiers have to confront daily police and coast guard brutality, police raids and traffic accidents while trying to escape the police forces who chase them down, arrest, beat and arrest them.
read a recent article about the situation in Patras (in french)
Dans l’enfer des immigrants clandestins, by Jean-Simon Gagné
In the early morning of December 20, 2011 the police stormed the building of a former fabric where a couple of Afghans have set up their provisory shelter. Most of them are underage. In this atmosphere of panic one of the minors while trying to escape the police raid fell of the second floor of the building. He was severely injured.
The other Afghan sans-papiers later told to the Solidarity Movement for Migrants and Refugees of Patras, that the police saw the young boy falling but did not call an ambulance or react in any other supportive manner.
One of the Afghans called the ambulance. The hospital denied to send an ambulance in the beginning. In a second call he told the hospital that the boy was severely injured and might have even died. Then an ambulance came and brought him to St. Andreas Hospital of Patras.
Later in the evening the Solidarity group visited the boy in the hospital and talked to the doctors. The boy had been operated in order to remove blood from the inner of his head. The boy was in intensive care and in coma being held alive with machines.
Nobody knows if things would have been better if he would have been transferred sooner to the hospital. Anyway, both police who did not help while witnessing the accident, and the hospital who only reacted in a second stance are unacceptable. Lets hope that the young Afghan will pay with his life.
Press Release of the Solidarity Group of Patras
Salata TV (news in greek)
Press Release
Athens, 20/12/2011
The trial of the police officers from St. Panteleimonas about the case of torture ended
Today the Mixed Jury Criminal Court of Athens, which hears felonies in the first degree, sentenced two policemen (one of them already left the police force), for the sensational torture case of Afghan refugees by officers of the St. Panteleimon police station (in December 2004) to 5 years and 5 years plus 5 months respectively. The trial had started on 21.10.2011 and ended on December 20, 2011.
HIV infected migrant women should be deported, said Andreas Loverdos the Greek Health Minister in a conference about the public health.
“The infection goes from the illegal migrant women to the Greek client, into the Greek family.”
Mr. Loverdos, Greek Minister of Health
According to Health Minister Andreas Loverdos, drug addiction and illegal prostitution, especially when combined with illegal migration, were the main culprits for the rise in the rate of HIV infection.
From about 620 brothels and “studios” only seven are legal and from around 20.000 brothels workers only 1.200 are registered according to the Minister. As he continued, the Ministry of Health has handed information about the illegal prostitution to the Citizen Protection Ministry for the reasons of protecting the “public health”. His speech ended: “The infected women should leave Greece!”
As reported by different antiracist groups, the around 140 Afghans and Pakistanis living and working in Timbaki, Crete, experience for a long period repeated racist assaults by a group of 10-15 fascists. The fascists threaten them telling them to not only leave Crete but also Greece.
Meanwhile, during the court case of the 16th December against the marines who were shouting racist slogans last year another group of 10 fascists was attacking migrants who were simply passing by in the area close to the court in Piraeus.
More immigrants deported by EU-funded flights
Posted by clandestina on 16 December 2011
A charter plane carrying 42 Pakistani and 41 Afghani nationals left Athens for Islamabad and Kabul on Thursday (December 15, 2011). The same day 24 Egyptians, 1 Sudanese, 1 Ukrainian and 1 Rumanian were deported by cargo planes and 7 Albanians were deported by police vans. All deportation were funded by EU.
A similar deportation took place on December 1, 2011, one more on November, 10, 2011 and another one on October 19, 2011. Since March 2011, when Greece deported some 73 Dominicans, expulsion flights are taking place on a monthly basis.
Caught up in the sea between Turkey and Greece for some days Afghan refugees suffer from hunger and thirst.