Tag Archive for 'syrian'

Page 3 of 4

REUTERS: Fleeing war, Syrians face new misery in Greece

Published on March 14, 2013 in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , .

(Reuters) – Syrian shopkeeper Osama fled the fighting in Aleppo convinced he would be welcomed in Europe. Five months later, he is stuck in near-bankrupt Greece, where money and sympathy are scarce.

Beaten up and robbed by traffickers when they arrived in Athens, Osama, his wife and two children were arrested as illegal immigrants and thrown into detention when they recounted their ordeal to Greek police. Ordered out of Greece but without any place to go, he rues the day he set foot in the country.

“All our hope is now in God. There is a war in Syria and the country has been destroyed,” said the 35-year-old as he sat in a dingy Athens basement apartment with a Syrian flag on the wall.

“In Greece, we have had the most bitter experiences and we cannot go to another country. We have no money, no IDs or passports to travel. We are trapped here.”

Greek authorities say police are obliged to arrest people who enter the country illegally.
Continue reading ‘REUTERS: Fleeing war, Syrians face new misery in Greece’

Ill-treatment of detained Syrian refugee in Corinth Detention Centre

Published on March 10, 2013 in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , , , , .

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. __________-3-thumb-medium__________ 1
efimerida ton sindakton (in greek)
roz karta (in greek)

Syrian refugees detained in Petrou Ralli (Athens) and Aspropirgos in hunger strike!

Published on January 29, 2013 in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

They demand freedom and political asylum. Some of the hunger strikers are more than 15 months in detention!

roz karta (in greek)

Syrian refugees arriving on Lesvos and in Athens in 2012 / Al Jazeera

Published on December 30, 2012 in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , , , .

HRW 2012: EU: Provide Protection for Syrian Refugees

Published on December 23, 2012 in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , .

(Brussels) – The European Union and its member states should do more to help the thousands of Syrian asylum seekers trying to reach Europe as the Syrian crisis worsens and winter sets in, Human Rights Watch said today.

Between March 2011 and September 2012, 21,000 Syrians claimed asylum in the European Union. While some EU countries offer Syrians safety, in others, including Greece, they face detention, significant obstacles in getting protection, and even forced return, Human Rights Watch said.

“Syrians seeking asylum in the European Union face a protection lottery depending on which country they reach,” said Judith Sunderland, senior Western Europe researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The EU should make sure that Syrian refugees and others who need protection can find a safe haven in all EU member states just as they have in countries bordering Syria.”
Continue reading ‘HRW 2012: EU: Provide Protection for Syrian Refugees’

Eleven Syrians dumped off southern Crete coast

Published on December 17, 2012 in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , , .

Eleven young men of Syrian origin were being provided with first aid, food and clothing in southern Crete on Monday after being dumped off the coast of the southeastern Aegean island by human traffickers and forced to swim to shore.

All 11 of the would-be migrants told investigating coast guard officers in Rethymno that they had been taken off a larger boat that brought them near Crete and then rowed closer to shore in a dingy from which they were told to jump in the water and swim to safety. Continue reading ‘Eleven Syrians dumped off southern Crete coast’

Syrians report push-backs in Evros

Published on December 8, 2012 in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , , , .

Syrian refugees ‘turned back from Greek border by police’
Asylum seekers crossing from Turkey say they have been illegally deported by Greek police or blocked from entering

by Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi in Edirne and Athens – Friday 7 December 2012

On the edge of Europe, where the river Evros meanders towards the Aegean sea, a new tragedy involving two of the world’s most troubled peoples is unfolding. On one side of the river border are gathered clusters of Syrian refugees, desperate to escape the misery of war and put the Turkish camps behind them. But beyond the perilous currents lies Greece, a nation so economically bereft it has little time or resources for them.

The Evros has always been a barrier to those seeking asylum in the European Union, but now the surging tide of migrants fleeing Syria faces something new. Refugees, non-governmental organisation (NGO) workers and lawyers have told the Guardian that border forces have been pushing asylum seekers back into their boats and escorting them back back across to the Turkish side.
Continue reading ‘Syrians report push-backs in Evros’

Call for Solidarity from Mytilini, Lesvos: New arrivals of refugees / PIKPA opened

Published on November 29, 2012 in Syndicated and Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , , .

CALL FOR SOLIDARITY

Since yesterday (28.11.12) the civil society has managed to temporarily win the struggle for an open first reception centre with the authorities agreeing to transfer all the unregistered to PIKPA – a place also used once before during noborder Lesvos 2009 for the same purpose. About 70 refugees – among them pregnant women, small children and even a 10-day-old baby. Immediately both police and citizens started bringing even a few more freshly arrived. PIKPA is a summer camp construction, which is now not in a condition to be inhabited, thus, the local population together with the refugees try to make it more comfortable, to re-store the water connections etc. and to bring food for the persons hosted there. This ad hoc solution still needs a lot of support in order to become an official open reception centre, now still being a temporary solution.
There is a great need of support of any kind!

Foto: K. Koukoulis


Continue reading ‘Call for Solidarity from Mytilini, Lesvos: New arrivals of refugees / PIKPA opened’

more arrivals in the Aegean – more Syrian refugees

Published on September 22, 2012 in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , , , .

Following a police crackdown in Evros region since August 2012 the influx of undocumented immigrants into the country from the land border with Turkey has virtually stopped. Meanwhile the number of refugees and migrants entering the country via the Aegean has skyrocketed, with some 60 percent of total arrivals coming from strife-torn Syria.
In the Aegean dozens of refugees and migrants are arriving on the islands every day. Local authorities there are complaining of a lack of personnel, infrastructure and funding to deal with the people.

Meanwhile statistics released by the Greek police show that 60 percent of immigrants detained in the Aegean and in the northeastern port of Alexandroupoli, in Evros, since the beginning of September are from Syria. In the same period last year, only 1.5 percent of detained migrants were Syrian.

ekathimerini (in english)

Samos – detained Syrian refugees on hunger strike since yesterday

Published on September 2, 2012 in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

35 Syrians who are detained since 9 days on the roof of Samos Port authorities began yesterday a hunger strike including the 6 children among them. until today they were not given any access to the asylum procedure in Greece although some of them are even are already recognized as Palestinian refugees in Syria.
At the same time two Afghan families with 4 children where discovered by chance at the police station of Karlovasi.

Read the Press Release of the Solidarity Group of Samos (in Greek)
press release 1
press release 2