The exploitation and violence of agricultural farmers in Manolada against their migrant workers continues. On May 12, 2012 the workers of the strawberry harvest started a strike demanding higher wages now. The police supports the farmers with sweep operations arresting migrants in the area. On May 16, 2012, the third day of the workers strike the protests resulted again in the arrest of about 10 workers – mainly migrants.
information with, about and for refugees in Greece
Tag Archive for 'workers rights'
On Thursday 15th of March a group of 40 workers from Pakistan and other countries protested against the exploitation they suffer from in the orange harvest. Since two years the workers of Koutroufini Orange production are unpaid and without health insurance.
The company owes us a total of 60.000 Euro!
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.
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!”
Around the 8th of September unknown people set fire on a barack where asylum seekers were temporarily living in the transit-port of Patras.
As A., an Eritrean refugee reported:
I have been homeless in Athens. I have been homeless in Patras. I have been homeless in Igoumenitsa. I applied for asylum. Now I am again homeless in Patras. I live on the beach and in ruins. Police is hunting us every day.
A few days ago somebody lit fire on the ruin we were living in. I think it was the racists. Everything burned. All our belongings. My AFM (tax number), my work permit, my clothes. Everything. I am left now only with my Pink Card (asylum seekers temporary residence permit) but what is it worth? What can it do for me? I am still homeless and unprotected.
Transit in Patras
Following a number of police raids in the last months, currently, there are very few sans-papiers and asylum seekers left in Patras. The ones who have remained suffer, as K. from Somalia tells us:
“I only stay here because I don’t have any other place to go! There is no chance to leave from here for Italy. Very very few manage. The new port is very dangerous. Police is hunting and beating us, they even have dogs. My Pink Card got tear up by my former employer who didn’t want to pay me for the work I did. Now it is almost one month that I am only with a copy of my Pink Card. They say, I cannot get a new one if I don’t have an address in Patras, but where should I get it from? Two days ago a police control arrested me. I asked them to go and catch the copy of my Pink Card, but they didn’t let me go. I was in prison for two days. I am understanding more and more about this country. Nothing good to tell!”
Press Release of the Antiracist Group Thessaloniki concerning the police raids of the last weeks in the centre of Thessaloniki
Street vendors from a variety of countries face since years severe repressive measures in the urban centres of Greece, since they have no opportunity to get work permits for their trade. At the same time informal street vending is one of very few ways to economically survive in Greece. The street vendors from Bangladesh denounced the situation at the 11th of April in the municipal council of Thessaloniki.
Antiracist Group Thessaloniki – Public Release about Street Vendors (in Greek)
14.09.2010: Pakistani workers go on strike after police raid
Today, hundreds of Pakistani immigrants living and working in Skala, Laconia took the decision to go on strike after the pogrom that was unleashed against them earlier.
Continue reading ’14.09.2010: Pakistani workers go on strike after police raid’
Clandestina
- First migrant detention center opens despite protestsA detention center for undocumented immigrants in Amygdaleza, northwest of Athens, started operating on Sunday, despite vehement protests by local residents and rights groups, with the transfer of dozens of migrants detained over the past few days in police sweeps in central Athens. Police said they transfered a group of 56 migrants in the […]
Group of Lawyers – Athens
- Joint call to protest on Friday 30 March 2012For the sixth consecutive week, the undersigning entities and organisations hereby issue an open invitation to attend our solidarity protest outside the Attica Aliens Directorate at Petrou Ralli, from Friday evening, 30 March 2012 until dawn Saturday, 31 March 2012 (05:00- 06:00 am). The police authorities in Attica- following their usual practice of the pas […]
the border is the problem
- “Walls of Shame”Accounts from the Inside: The Detention Centres of Evros new report by Pro Asyl Obviously, Europe’s main concern is the creation of »walls« in order to hinder or to prevent the access to its territory. Physical walls like the fence, the moat and border controls in Evros but also invisible walls that are constituted by […]