NO PAGANI NO ANY OTHER PRISONS
On Friday 30/10 the 'Initiative for the Defence of Refugees and Migrants' organised a demonstration in the town of Mutilene with the main slogan 'Shut down Pagani and all detention centres'. Hundreds of residents of Mutilene participated along with 40 migrants some of them survivors of the shipwreck in Korakas.
These migrants had just been released from Pagani on a day when there was no ferry out of the island. A trick that has been unashamedly used in some form or other so as to prolong the suffering of migrants. So, men women and children are forced to spend a night or longer on the street having no other choice. Despite the millions of euros spent for the repression of migration, for entry deterrence, detention and deportation, there are no resources for cases like these neither from the state nor from the local authorities.
As a direct response to this some of the participants in the demonstration together with the homeless migrants decided to occupy the Paparisva university building so as to provide food and shelter for the night. That is the minimum of all they have been deprived of, making the point at the same time that we need to go that extra length for our dreams to get a bit closer to becoming reality.
This action does not present a real solution to the problem but it does temporarily satisfy a need and is an indication of basic solidarity. It once again lends meaning to the concept of university asylum: asylum for society and its needs and not just for an academic elit alienated from the real social issues that provide the elit with opportunities for research in the name of science and profit.
Pagani, a concentration camp just outside Mutilene has been for years piling in migrants. It is nothing more than a human warehouse in which migrants endure deplorable living conditions, they suffer for, are punished and pay the price of what is for us the self evident right to free movement. From border control to state 'hospitality' and its practice for integration, the main concern of immigration policy is the reproduction of as many depraved, scared, obedient and easily exploitable subjects as possible.
For 2 months now the detained migrants in Pagani have claimed their freedom with continuous revolts, fighting a constant struggle that has broken the silence and set the conditions for the future. The latest rumours are referring to the 'shutting down' of Pagani. Of course this is contradicted from the official statements that refer to a temporary closure and renovation of the ex warehouse. Anyway the issue does not stop at the closure of a prison neither does it change with the construction of 'state of the art' detention centres. Shame is not only found in Pagani, it is also in Mersinidi in Chios, in Fylakio in Evros, in Vena in Rodopi and in all detention centres. The disgrace is not only Pagani, it is also the very essence of the policy of detention, of guards and their threats. The crime is not only Pagani, it is also the repatriations and deportations to war zones and war ridden regions, registering people in european databases, holding migrants hostage in a state of illegality so as to pre-emptively ensure the consent of future workers necessary for non stop development of capitalism. Development that is based and feeds on war, destruction of natural resources and the impoverishment of entire societies in the periphery at the same time promising consumer goods, the facade of prosperity and the false hope of social improvement for all.
SOLIDARITY TO THE MIGRANT FIGHTS
PAPARISVA SQUAT 30.10.2009 MITILINI
