a flyer from the noborder week:
Do you know… [some truths about refugees – migrants]
…what a secure repatriation operation is?
> It means scuttling of refugee boats, circling them to create waves, destruction of the engine and stealing of the paddles. The disabled boats are then pushed out of Greek waters by waves and currents.
…how the Greek coastguard and Frontex are treating the refugees they find?
> They steal their money, hit them and shoot in their direction so as to scare them.
…how many refugees drowned in the Aegean Sea during the last 20 years?
> There are 1.100 verified deaths and an unknown number of missing persons.
…how many refugees died trying to cross the European borders since 1988?
> Official numbers refer to 6.000 persons.
…what exactly is the well-known "reception centre" (jail of) Pagani?
> It is an old warehouse built to store goods, ΝΟΤ people.
…what the authorities claim to be the hosting capacity of Pagani?
> The authorities claim they can "host" up to 300 persons, but many times, there are more than a thousand people being kept inside.
…that there are unaccompanied children kept in this prison?
Even according to the law this is illegal. 150 minors were on hunger strike last days demanding their freedom.
…what are the living conditions of those detained in Pagani?
> Without access to medical treatment, kept in rooms for days without being able to get out to the fresh air, with insufficient legal aid, insufficient access to information about their rights and insufficient sanitary facilities.
…who is responsible for the management of the detention centre?
> the Prefecture of Lesvos is being funded for that by the Greek State and the EU.
…what is the Prefecture supposed to do with this money?
> Apart from providing decent living conditions for the refugees, they are supposed to provide them with tickets to leave the island and take them to the port to reach the ferry.
…what really happens after they are released from the detention centre?
> They are usually released at times and days when they cannot leave on a ferry, ending up walking all the way from the dentention centre and staying homeless and hungry in the city centre and at the port.
Three days ago, 38 refugees were released from the detention centre, with children and a pregnant woman being among them. They were forced to spend the night at the port of Mytilene, without having the opportunity to leave the island since there were no free places in the ferries. Although there are millions of euros spent in the prevention of their entrance in the country, for their detention and their deportation, no one has showed any interest for the situation of these people, neither the official state, nor the local authorities. Finally these people have been invited by the participants of the No Border Camp Lesvos 2009, to join them in the camp's processes and actions.
Actions like these cannot offer real solutions to the problem, they can only be temporary solutions and movements of solidarity. The real matter is not the management of immigration but to overcome the world that creates it and the borders it invents. A world of violence, injustice and exploitation.
Under the current circumstances, our starting point is not negotiable:
Freedom of movement for all, beyond national borders. We do not accept the hostage situation in which large parts of the world's populations find themselves. We refuse to accept the fictional separation between the oppressed, between people with and without papers. Against these modern concentration camps and all nationalist ideologies, we organize our answers and our resistance for a world without borders, without nations and without papers.
As long as there are refugees they will be welcome
No one is illegal
NoBorder Lesvos 2009
