Tag Archive for 'transit'

Page 2 of 5

Fascist pogrom follows death of 30-year-old local in Patras

During the past few days the murder of a 30-year-old Greek in Patras on Saturday morning (May 19) was assigned in local mainstream media of Patras to “afghan” perpetrators. The increasing discourse on the violent death rose on MAy 20, the day of the burial ceremony. A group of approx. 150 indignant locals but also fascists members of “golden dawn” party started to move in the evening towards the industrial area of Peiraiki Patraiki where currently some sans-papiers live in transit. The fascists among the protestors planned to revenge the death of the 30-year-old some of them holding rods and other truncheons. Indignant locals argued with golden dawn members who wanted to use the tragic death of the 30-year-old for their own purposes. The police forces arrived just in time to prevent the fascists from entering the industrial area. The mob outside the industrial area was shouting: “Foreigners out of Greece!” After a while of struggle between police and fascists, the latter left only to meet again the next day as they announced. Small groups of migrants and refugees spread in the city were chased by fascists. There are yet no news about injuries.

video showing the protest of the indignant locals and the fascist mob

On May 22 the atmosphere in Patras is remains heated. Police forces arrived in the early morning in the industrial area and arrested some sans-papiers in order to transfer them to Athens (about three busses) – as they said in order to protect them. Anyway, for the authorities the incidents of the last days might be seen as an opportunity to empty the buildings from the sans-papiers as they are trying already since some months by daily sweep operations. In the afternoon of May 22 the sans-papiers who had been transferred earlier that day to Athens were all released. During the arrest there was no possibility for the sans-papiers to collect their few personal belongings. Some of their items were allegedly burned by the police forces.
In the afternoon members of the neonazi GD gathered from other Greek cities and marched to the abandoned factory space (Peiraiki Patraiki, opposite the new port). The approx. 350 nazis tried to storm the factory, brandishing crowbars and pelting rocks to the migrants inside the building. During the night eight police officers were injured and five fascists arrested.

21:55 GMT+2 Meanwhile, the situation at the southern front of Patras, by the new port, is escalating in a nazi riot, as allegedly a couple of hundred Golden Dawn supporters try to break through the police lines to reach the abandoned factory building of Peiraiki Patraiki used by undocumented migrants for shelter.
22:00 GMT+2 People attacked Golden Dawn MP Michalis Arvanitis, who was scheduled to speak at a local TV station. The nazi was attacked inside the station building.
22:05 GMT+2 An antifascist gathering has been called for this Thursday, 24/05, at Olgas Square in Patras.

On May 23 the police entered again the industrial area which is a provisory shelter for migrants and refugees, arrested and transferred the last 50-60 to Athens. Meanwhile the municipality is holding an emergency meeting concerning the escalation of violence in the area of the new port and the “problem of illegal migration in the city”. The plan of the local government is to increase police patrols. In a telephone conference with the Minister of Citizen Protection the prefect of Western Greece demanded an increase of the police forces in Patras to face the militias of the neo-nazis but also and mainly to force refugees and migrants out of town.
In the night of May 23 again fascists started attacking the riot police next to the port and the industrial area of Peiraiki Patraiki.

press release of the solidarity movement in patras / May 23, 2012
indymedia athens
call for antifascist meeting May 23, 2012 in Patras (in greek)
red notebook (in greek)
zougla (in greek)
peloponisos news (in greek)
best news (in greek)
the insider (in greek)
in french
the telegraph (in english)
the guardian (in English)
attack tv (in greek)
best news (in greek)
deutsche welle (in farsi)
deutsche welle (in German)
tvxs (in greek)

Frontex patrols in the Ioanian Sea detected two boats with sans-papiers on their way to Italy

On May 21, 2012 an inflatable boat with 17 undocumented refugees was found during a FRONTEX aircraft-patrol on the west of Paleokastritsa in Corfu. The boat was driven to Paleokastritsa accompanied by a floating vessel of the coast guard.

news in Greek

On the same day another boat with 53 sans-papiers was found by the Frontex patrol in the Ioanian Sea at the coast of Preveza. The boat sailed with an escort of the coast patrol to the port of Preveza. The sans-papiers were arrested. A preliminary investigation was conducted by the Port Authority.

news in Greek

Boat with 60 migrants found near Paxoi Island

A big sailing boat with 60 migrants on board was discovered on May 13 at 4am by an airplane of Frontex flying over the Ioanian. The sailing boat was heading towards Italy. The coast guard of Kerkyra arrested 58 Afghans and two Iranians, as well as two Russian citizens. The boat had collected the migrants from different points near Parga.
Frontex is since months patrolling the Ioanian Sea.

ethnos (in Greek)

Refugees in distress at sea in Kerkyra

On March 30th, 2012 17 sans-papiers from Afghanistan and Pakistan were found at distress at sea and transferred to Kerkyra. They had tried to cross from Albania to Italy as they said.

news in Greek

New video-reportage on the situation of the sans-papiers in Patras

by Enri Canaj and Γιάννης Παπαδόπουλος

Small video-documentary about Patras and Igoumenitsa 2011 – by Gabriel Pecot

Watch the short documentary “Hellas-Hell” about Patras and Igoumenitsa (Spanish subs)

http://www.hellas-hell.eu/

28-old Eritrean Refugee died today in the new port of Patras

The young African man died a tragic death when a truck rolled over him today in the new port of Patras. The young Eritrean was trying to find a way out of Greece.

news in Greek

UPDATE on racist attack in Corinth: Suspect detained

link: noticia desde grecia

TEXT: ANDRÉS MOURENZA // PHOTO: ALESSANDRO PENSO
Finally, on Monday morning (2 days after the incident) the suspect of the racist attack to migrants in Corinth was arrested by the police. Also one of the two hospitalized migrants was able to leave the medical premises and return to the train station, with the other migrants. Nabi is still in hospital, well treated, and although with difficulties, he is recovering as photographers Alessandro Penso and Giorgos Moutafis were able to confirm this Monday after visiting him. Also journalist Antonio Cuesta visited the migrants at the train station this Monday.
Continue reading ‘UPDATE on racist attack in Corinth: Suspect detained’

Homeless refugees and migrants in Patras are being daily chased down by the police

They come every day in the early morning hours when we are sleeping. They hunt us through the buildings of the fabric. It is dark and there are wholes in the floor, cables and other things lying around. It is very dangerous to run. Some of us have fallen down from upper floors, others fall into the wholes. There are many people hurt. Broken legs and arms and worse. We don’t know where to go for sleeping without fear. There is no place without fear here.

M.A. broke his leg while being chased through the fabric by the police

M.A. from Sudan broke his leg on one of the daily chases by the police. He continues to live in the fabric under highly deplorable conditions and without any medicine. As for all the others there is no other place to go for him. It has become almost impossible to leave Patras towards Italy. In his condition he will not be able to try anymore from Patras. His friends help him to come out of the darkness of his room. Slowly he is moving forward. His leg has become infected. He has pain. But most of all he seems to be hopeless.

Every day I tried. I go to the “stop” (where the trucks stop) for many hours and I come back. Every day. It is very difficult here. Not human. We have no water, no electricity, no food… no nothing. We have to find food in the garbage to survive. I am very tired.

Once the police caught me in port and they threw me into the sea. Just like this! Without any reason. You know how cold it is? It was just to get me sick.

Life here is just about trying to leave and trying to live – not to die. Go to the trucks. Find food. Escape from police. Being beaten by police. Hospital. Prison. Walking back to Patras from the prisons – one day, two days… Deportation from Italy. It is a great misery but we have to try. This Greece is not a place to stay.

The homeless sans-papiers of Patras need support. Food, medication, sleeping-bags, clothes and most of all our solidarity – in practice and not only in words!

Racist attack in Korinthos/ Greece: 3 wounded, 2 disappeared

Posted on febrero 19, 2012 in noticias de grecia
TEXT: ANDRÉS MOURENZA // PHOTO: ALESSANDRO PENSO

Nabi, a 20-years old Moroccan, is lying on the ground. He looks dead.
Twenty minutes earlier we were sitting in the recovered-from-garbage chairs and furniture, smoking cigarettes and chatting in one of the abandoned wagons of the old train station of Corinth (Greece). Nabi lives there with about other 50 migrants from Afghanistan, Iraq, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Yemen. Nasir—a polyglot, art lover Afghan interpreter—asks Nabi, another art lover, to draw something. The young Moroccan sketches the boat of the Hellenic Seaways moored just 200 meters down in the bay. They all are waiting the lucky day in which they will be able to catch the ferry; climbing to it, or hidden in the load of the trucks that the boat carries to Italy. And then… go further North in search for a job, a future, a safe and normal life. Crisis-hit Greece has become a nightmare for them. There is not the slightest possibility for work in a country with rocketing unemployment figures. Greeks don’t want them, neither they want to stay in Greece, but they are stuck here because European Union treaties allow third countries to return them to the state where they first entered the EU. And Greece has been the gate to Europe in the last years for 90 % of migrants.
Now, Nabi is lying on the ground.
Everything happened so quickly: a group of 4 or 5 locals drive their two cars to the old train station claiming that a migrant has stolen some money at the open air market this Saturday morning. They hit the first migrant they find, an old man cooking in an improvised fireplace. The locals try to do the same with other migrants, but the cries raise the alarm and more migrants appear from the old wagons with sticks and stones to expel the assailants. The locals go back to their cars, although one stops and punches another migrant in the face, just before getting in his black Renault Megane. The migrants try to stop the black Renault but the driver makes a U-turn knocking down a migrant, a 35-years old Algerian. He stops the car, its back aiming at us, and hits the gas at full speed in reverse gear. I jump on a small wall, as does the photographer Alessandro Penso and some migrants, to avoid being knocked down by the black car. Others run, but Nabi cannot beat the speed of the vehicle and gets hit. His body flies some meters away in front of our astonished eyes. The insane driver hits the gas and escapes leaving Nabi lying on the ground.
We all run to check his health. He has been badly hit, bleeding his face, but he is alive (later we will know that he got some bones broken). The police arrive and later the ambulance, considerably late since there is no ambulance driver working that day in Corinth (because of the austerity measures cuts) and has to come from a neighboring town
The migrants are in anger and despair. Some cry and claim that two of their Algerian friends –one about 50-years old named Ibrahim and the other a 20 years-old named Hassan- have been kidnapped and put into the first car. They call them on their cell phones, but nobody answers.
“This people come every now and then, with truncheons and sticks. If they find someone alone they beat him till he is almost dying,” denounces a 30-years old Tunisian, too afraid to give his name. “We don’t do anything wrong, we even eat from what we find in between the rubbish not to mess with the local people,” says Abduljalil: “We are only waiting here for the good weather to be able to escape from this country.” “Ten days ago –explains Ahmed, an Algerian- they came and fired me with a plastic-bullet gun. They were driving a white four-wheel drive Toyota”. However, these migrants cannot go to the police station.
“If they come to report something, I have to arrest them as they are living here illegally. I am sorry, but that is the law”, excuses himself a police inspectors of Corinth. Even now when a group of journalists –Italian photographer Alessandro Penso, Greek photographer Giorgos Moutafis, Spanish journalist Antonio Cuesta and myself- have witnessed the attack, the police officers try to downplay the incident.
-“You know… the car owner has some psychiatric problems. We have got him before. He has been at the hospital”, says the police inspector.
-“Maybe… but do his friends also have mental problems?”–we ask him.
-“This morning, the migrants robbed some money in the market…”- justifies the inspector.
-“But even if that happened, this does not give them the right to go and try to kill the migrants” –I complain.
-“Yes, that is your opinion”- says the inspector.
-“No, officer, that is not my opinion. That is the law.”
This happened today, February 18th 2012 in Corinth, Greece at about 3.45 p.m.
UPDATE: At 10.00 pm of Saturday, we had news about any suspect arrest had been made