Tag Archive for 'repression'

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URGENT ANNOUNCEMENT CONCERNING THE CASE OF THE ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCE OF BULUT YAYLA

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

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’

AI: Greek police beat a tortured Turkish woman

One Turkish woman who fled to Greece last year recently shared her story with Amnesty International.

Deniz*, a 47-year-old Turkish national, settled in the Greek capital Athens after leaving her homeland last year to escape political persecution.

Back in Turkey, she had worked to support political prisoners who were on hunger strike – actions which earned her several arrests by the Turkish police, who subjected her to torture in custody.
Continue reading ‘AI: Greek police beat a tortured Turkish woman’

Manolada: Migrant workers shot because they demanded their salaries

Manolada strawberry farmers shoot immigrants who demanded 6 months salaries. More than 20 wounded in hospital.
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The immigrant workers had reportedly gathered to demand six-months’ worth of unpaid wages when one of three work supervisors whom they were negotiating with shot them. About 20-30 of the 200 strawberry pickers from Bangladesh got injured. Local media reported that four of them are in a serious health condition. The employer has been arrested and investigations are going on.

Only one day later some of the in Patras hospitalised migrants instead of left to go home were arrested for lacking valid residence permits and transferred to detention for deportation.

Several thousand migrant workers (many of them reportedly undocumented) are empoyed as strawberry pickers in the area.

This is not the first time that immigrants in Nea Manolada have protested against harsh working conditions.

In 2008, immigrant farm workers staged a two-day strike (delaying the shipments of strawberries by at least a few days) to protest against harsh working conditions. Their strike exposed slave wage exploitation, shocking living conditions and prejudice.

The government at the time responded to the strike by ordering labour inspectors to crack the whip on farmers exploiting migrant workers in Nea Manolada.

Despite the country’s soaring rate of unemployment, agriculture is heavily reliant on immigrant labour.

In 2009, two farmers in Manolada, alleged to have tied two Bangladeshi immigrants to a motorcycle and reportedly dragged them through a central square.


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the press project (in greek)
left.gr (in greek)
tvxs (in greek)
ekathimerini (in english)
enet (in english)
keeptalkinggreece (in english)
press project (in greek)

older article (2012) on the exploitative working conditions of the Manolada strawberry farms (in greek with videos)

Senegalese street vendor died during police operation in Athens, by demotix

An immigrant from Senegal died falling from a height, on the rails of the subway in Thiseio station in central Athens, during an operation of Municipal Police to remove peddlers from tourist area.

A big operation of Municipal Police started on Friday afternoon on the touristic area of Thiseio, in central Athens, to remove immigrants from the streets, who work as peddlers to live. During this operation Cheikh Babacar Ndiaye a 37 years old immigrant from Senegal, was chased and he died falling from a height, on the rails of the subway in Thiseio station.1359782980-immigrant-dies-during-police-operation-in-athens_1765433 From the blood seen on the pictures possibly his death resulted from the fall.
Subway metro services were disrupted for at least two hours. First aid assistants removed the body of the immigrant from the rails. Meanwhile his friends gathered at the station, together with other people from Senegal.
Some of them mourned, but when they saw the stretcher with the dead body they began to shout and protest. Some of them they shouted that Police is racists. Riot police arrived immediately and attacked the gathered people, and cleared the area around the station. At the same moment of the attack the dead body of immigrant was moved to an ambulance and left the area, for an unknown and undeclared direction, in spite of the questions made ​​on this.

Source with foto reportage: demotix (in english)

The tourists held by Greek police as illegal migrants, By Chloe Hadjimatheou / BBC

Greek police have stepped up efforts to catch illegal immigrants in recent months, launching a new operation to check the papers of people who look foreign. But tourists have also been picked up in the sweeps – and at least two have been badly beaten.

When Korean backpacker Hyun Young Jung was stopped by a tall scruffy looking man speaking Greek on the street in central Athens he thought it might be some kind of scam, so he dismissed the man politely and continued on his way.
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A few moments later he was stopped again, this time by a man in uniform who asked for his documents. But as a hardened traveller he was cautious.
Continue reading ‘The tourists held by Greek police as illegal migrants, By Chloe Hadjimatheou / BBC’

Athens: The faculty of ASOEE raided, immigrant street vendors beaten and arrested, and 98FM equipment confiscated by cops

Police raid and search at the Athens University of Economics and Business (ASOEE) on Patission street, 28.12.2012

found at: contra info

From the outset, this police operation was used to repress the political hangouts in the faculty of ASOEE. After the raid on Villa Amalias squat on December 20th, the State chose to strike another ‘den of lawlessness’, namely one of the studios as well as the rooftop antenna of the Athens free radio station 98FM downtown. Please spread the word far and wide…
Continue reading ‘Athens: The faculty of ASOEE raided, immigrant street vendors beaten and arrested, and 98FM equipment confiscated by cops’

Statistics on Xenios Zeus police raid for the period 4.8.12.-4.12.12 – Attica and Evros

In Attica 58.293 migrants were temporarily arrested and finally 4.092 were arrested because they lacked documentation.

478 houses were raided and searched.

4.971 migrants were either deported or returned “voluntarily” with IOM programs.

In Evros the arrests of new arriving migrants decreased 95%. Within this period in 2012 1.501 migrants were arrested compared to 28.656 in the same period of 2011.
Continue reading ‘Statistics on Xenios Zeus police raid for the period 4.8.12.-4.12.12 – Attica and Evros’

Racist attack in Kalithea, Athens – hospital reports migrant victim to the police

On Friday 30 of November fascists of Golden Dawn attacked in the market of Kalithea (Aristeidou / Xarokopou street) two migrant street vendors (from Egypt and Pakistan). They were attacked and robbed. The man from Egypt is hospitalised with severe injuries on his head. The man was hospitalised in Tzanio hospital with injuries in the face and on his back. Suddenly, the police appeared in the hospital. Shortly after having his wounds stitched the injured man φελτ threatened by arrest ανδ before the medical examinations had even finished disappeared in order to go home where he felt secure.

This happens only two days after the incident in Agioi Anargiroi Hospital where an undocumented woman with cancer had been reported by the director of the hospital himself to the police for being undocumented.

Only one month ago fascists together with the police had attacked again migrants in the area of Kalithea, the officer using his gun to beat migrants on their heads.

indymedia athens (in greek)
tvxs (in greek)
the insider (in greek)

Undocumented migrant woman with cancer under custody in hospital

An undocumented migrant woman – bedridden due to cancer – is currently hospitalized in a public hospital while under custody. The hospital director reported her to the police although her family had already paid the costs of the hospital for her.

The woman had been transferred from Metaxa hospital to Agioi Anargiroi hospital for an urgent operation. Following the operation her relatives paid the hospital bill since she is undocumented and thus also not insured. Then the director of the hospital Mr. Bartzokas reported the woman to the police because she was undocumented – resulting in the woman being under custody in the hospital while bedridden.
Continue reading ‘Undocumented migrant woman with cancer under custody in hospital’