Sonntag, 29. November 2009

Turkish police denies right to seek asylum and proceeds with deportation preparations.

Meanwhile at the border or on the way: daily refoulement and deportations.
This is maybe one story of so many, but we still want to share it with you.


Turkish police denies right to seek asylum and proceeds with deportation preparations.

Afghan refugee J. disappears at the beginning of November. His fiancé living in Germany, worried sick after not having had contact for three days, tries everything to find out what happened. She calls all kinds of organisations, including the Helsinki Citizens Assembly in Istanbul, which supports refugees in Turkey. Together they finally find out that J. and 19 other refugees from Iran and Afghanistan were arrested in Muş around 7th November. Although he wants to seek asylum, he is detained, while the police prepare his deportation.

His fiancé knows J. wants to seek asylum. 24 year old J. whose mother died, when he was born, is the only one left of his family. In 2000, he fled to Iran after his father was killed by the Taliban for refusing to collaborate. After 9 years in Iran, where he was constantly discriminated, he decided to move on to Turkey, his home country still being too dangerous for him. Even if the dangerous area J. originally comes from, well-known for drug production, is controlled by the new government today, the people who are responsible for his father's death and threatened him personally are still very powerful there.

Smugglers take him and 19 other refugees into Turkey. Only short time after crossing the border they are arrested by the police in Muş. The police don't take their applications for asylum seriously. They tell them that people from Iran don't have any chances to seek asylum anyway. J. emphasises that he is from Afghanistan. Two days after being taken into custody, he is taken into court. J. tells the court that he wants to seek asylum. The judge says his chances are 50-50%. He signs a paper thinking this is for his asylum application.

The detainees are nervous. The police tell them they will deport them. They take blood samples and threaten to cut their hair. They tell the refugees stories: they could fight for the Turkish military in Iraq for 2 years, get 100 000 Euros and a living permit for Turkey afterwards. Some accept. J. doesn't, he is determined to seek asylum. Meanwhile the UNHCR has found him. They call Muş police department. The police officer confirms that J. has been their detainee for a week, but says they were not aware of the fact that J. wanted to seek asylum. The UNHCR kindly requests them to check the information. And while the UNHCR waits, J. is beaten; his mobile phone is taken off him. He obviously had contact to the outside.

The police continue to deny his right to apply for asylum and proceed with their preparations for deportation. Although J. is not an Iranian citizen and has no papers at all, they take him and some of the other detainees to the border, without success. On the third day they have to return. The UNHCR calls again, they have started all administrative procedures, but the police say J. has signed a paper in which he accepts his deportation. There is nothing more for the UNHCR to do. The UNHCR has to trust its national partners. There is no way to check the existence or the authenticity of such a document, let alone under which conditions it was signed.

This was written on 25.11.2009 at 12.00. J. was deported to Kabul with other people from Afghanistan only 13 hours later. One day before Eid.

According to the UNHCR over 12.900 people officially applied for asylum in Turkey 2008.

The prisons and detention centres are full and it is impossible to know how many people were legally and illegally deported.

No refoulement! Stop deportation! No detention centres anywhere!

Freitag, 27. November 2009

saturday 7 november 6 palestinian children aged 2-12 found drawn in the Turkish coast

Hopes wash up on Aegean coast as dead bodies

Nothing has changed in the Aegean Sea. The journey of hope(lessness) for those searching for a future at the brink of despair ends in sorrow.

The lifeless bodies of six Palestinian children aged between 2 and 12 wash up on the shore.

Over a week ago 19 Palestinians, of which more than half were children, were crammed into a small boat in the town of Turgutreis in Bodrum to head to the Greek Island of Kos.

They brought nothing along with them except their dreams. But death interfered in the hopes of six children after the boat overturned 500 meters from the coast.

The tragedy was mentioned as a disaster that had occurred between the two Aegean coasts, while the deaths of immigrants, which has come to be perceived as commonplace, were simply just another number for statistics.

http://www.clandestina.org/indexa_e.html

-----------------------------------------------------------

since 1994 , 492 refugees have drawn in the aegean sea and 823 are missing ,

1.315 human beings that died because of the european border policies.

In the mines of Evros 82 persons have been killed , during the same period of time.

http://www.clandestina.org/KEIMENA/KEIMENA_OCTOBER_2009_04.html

Montag, 23. November 2009

Infopoint for refugees in berlin at the european komission


Ladies and Gentlemen!

I bid you all welcome on behalf of the Agency for Freedom of Movement! We are very pleased to greet you here today on the occasion of this festive and forward-looking action.

In the last thirty minutes we have heard and seen with what defensive measures people who enter the European Union in search of a better life are confronted.

The International Organization for Migration, IOM, attempts to prevent people from leaving when they are still in their native country.


The European border patrol agency Frontex and the border guard agencies stop people even before they reach the external borders of Europe and force them to return to where they came from.

In the countries of the EU people are held in detention camps and deportation centers. We want these conditions to become a thing of the past as soon as possible!

It will take some time for the European refugee policy in its present form to be abolished, but we do not want to wait, we want to take action today. That is why today, at the Pariser Platz in the very center of Berlin and thus easy to find for everyone, we open the first Infopoint for Refugees in Germany!!!

The Infopoint will serve to welcome all those persons who until now were denied access, all those who – irrespective of their reasons – want to settle down in Europe for a while or forever.

We from the Agency for Freedom of Movement have gained our first experiences this summer on the Greek island of Lesbos, where a spontaneously set-up and improvised Infopoint has more than lived up to our expectations. We now import these experiences into Berlin and will build on them.

For this reason the European Commission (and the European Parliament) will have to vacate their offices in the Europahaus (“House of Europe”). After all, they are responsible for regulations such as the Dublin II Convention and for institutions such as Frontex and thus for the distress of tens of thousands of people and the death of thousands of travelers.


Those who do not have the right color of skin or the right nationality and who do not have enough money and therefore have to enter the EU without papers, have generally lived through much sorrow: the painful separation from family and friends, the uncertainties about the further course of their journey, having to improvise rapidly in unforeseen situations, suffering from hunger and not having a safe shelter, sometimes being confronted with a hostile local population and of course with hostile border guards.

These people nevertheless go their way and arrive here. We want to support them. The Infopoint offers the new arrivals a first shelter on the upper floors of the Europahaus. It furthermore provides accommodation for people’s further stay, or possibilities to travel in case the final destination has not been reached yet. It offers food and drink and first financial support, so as to allow people to move around freely and get acquainted with the city. The Infopoint offers medical care and psychological treatment where needed. It offers the complete spectrum of communication media to allow the new arrivals to contact their dear ones at home and their acquaintances and communities here or in other countries. Help with translation in all languages is offered as well.


The Infopoint offers legal advice and the support of lawyers to allow the arrivals to find their way in the labyrinth of asylum and migration law; it also provides mediation for getting a job.

And – this is essential ladies and gentlemen – it offers all conceivable papers people may need in order to live, move and work here in peace, or to safely continue their journey. This means passports for all, work permits, visa, etc.!!! Papers for all and for everything!

Voluntaries – often people who have had their own experiences with migration – give introductory workshops into the social structure of this country and share their experiences.

The café on the ground floor is a place where travelers can network; and fellow travelers can meet again here. It is open to all interested people who which to make contacts.

In a word: as of today the Infopoint for Refugees offers a place where people who have arrived in Europe are heartily welcomed!!! We therefore would have liked to call our Infopoint accordingly Welcome Center. But this concept is often cynically used by the authorities of European States to refer to reception and detention centers where new arrivals are held in deterrence. We do not want to have anything to do with this, nor with the unpleasant associations connected to these prisons and methods!


Our Infopoint is one step towards the abolishment of such prisons and towards a society where no-one is excluded due to color of skin, origin, sex, economic status etc. We still have a long way to go. We hope that the next step will be the creation of many Infopoints at the external borders of Europe, for instance on the Greek islands, as well as in the European core countries!

Ladies and gentlemen, we now invite you to join the festive cutting of the red tape and to toast with sekt on this occasion!







Sonntag, 22. November 2009

we don´t forget! 6.12.08

Freitag, 20. November 2009

Iranian refugees in hungerstrike since the 19.10.09 in athens



“Hello! Let me introduce myself. I am Mahmeud, one of the Iranian political refugees
that United Nations High Committee for the Refugees has already recognized as political refugees at 2006.
But, unfortunately, since we entered Greece and applied for asylum from the state, about 2 years ago, we haven’t got any answer yet. That’s why we started hunger strike on 19 October. This is a peaceful protest to show them that we want our rights.
They just gave us a red card but you know that red card is nothing and whenever they want they don’t renew it.
When we go to Petrou Ralli, we are constantly insulted from the police. People from Pakistan and Afghanistan are insulted even more than us. Greece is very different from the other west European countries, especially as far as the way they treat immigrants and refugees is concerned. Most of our friends with same cases who went to Germany, Switzerland, England and France were recognized as refugees and they were put in camps with housing facilities and were paid 300 euro monthly and they could also take classes to learn the country’s language.
In Greece everything is different.
For example, if we enter this country from one island, like Samos, they send us to a camp,
which is in fact a prison, and if you are an Iranian, you have to stay there between 1 to 3 months and if you are an Afghany, you have to stay there between 1 week to 10 days.
It depends on how much money the European Union pays to Greece for refugees from different countries and on the relationship between Greece and the country of the refugee.
Then, after they take our pictures and fingerprints, they give us a paper that writes that we have to leave this country in one month.
But, you know, according to the Dublin agreement, if they take your fingerprints in a country of the E.U., you have to stay in this country and if you are caught in another country of the E.U., they send you back to the first country.
As a result, we cannot stay in Greece, we cannot go legally to another country of the E.U. and we also cannot return to Iran because we are considered national enemies there and we will face the danger of imprisonment or execution.
After that, they give us the red card and that’s all. I know that the Greek government gets a lot of money from the E.U. for the refugees but they never gave them to us.
Also, the UNHCR didn’t send us to a country with the proper facilities and so I had to pay 1000$ to a smuggler to bring me from Iraq to Turkey and 1200$ to another to come from Turkey to Greece. I borrowed this money from my family in Iran.
After I paid so much money and had too much suffer, I was very happy to see the European Union’s flag in the first Greek island I arrived at.

I thought that the suffering was finished and that I could continue my life safe and comfortable. I told the Greek committee for refugees that I need shelter for the coming winter but they ignored me.

So, I stayed in an old building near Omonia square (Efetio), which was in a very bad condition. There wasn’t electricity or water and we used a small window to enter and exit because the main door was locked. The building was very dirty because it was used as a public toilet by the people. And in winter, we got sick because of the cold. Sometimes, other immigrants were mugging us and abusing us.
We took some pictures of the building and we send them to the media and then the police violently evacuated the building. Now, the building is sealed and guarded by the police. After that, we had to live in parks and in the street. The Greek government hasn’t built any facilities where we could learn Greek language, that’s why we couldn’t find a job.
I don’t know how much we have to wait until they give us asylum and live in this country like all the other people…”
HUNGER STRIKE UNTIL WE ARE FREE!

We are political refugees from Iran, protected by the special status from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. We cannot return to Iran because we face the danger of imprisonment or even a sentence to death, nor can we go legally to another country.
Although we are re recognised as political refugees, the Greek state refuses to give us our legal rights and at the same time gets funds from the European Union without using this money to support the refugees.
We demand the international regulations to be implemented and the Greek state give us all the required papers (white card, travel documents).
We request the help and the support of individuals and organisations in Greece and all other european countries.
We go on a hunger strike on Monday 19 October, in Propilaia, Athens protesting peacefully until the satisfaction of our demands.

http://iranianrefugeesfromtipf.blogspot.com/



Donnerstag, 19. November 2009

thank you to the fischerman of skala sikaminias for rescuing the baby marila

the graves of drawned refugees in lesvos are up to now nameless ,having only the date and a number.
but the family members that survived the accident of the 26.10.2009 in lesvos in the aegean sea, had the oportunity to give names to their dead.



and the only child that survived the 8 month old Marila is standing with her mother among the graves and does not know that it was her father and one fischreman who jumped in the sea to rescue her!
but her parents will never forget !
and want again to thank the fischerman from Skala Sikaminias for his courage.
rescue is a human right!

Dienstag, 17. November 2009

2,5 Jahre Haft für Menschenretter

17.11.2009, borderline Sicilia

2,5 Jahre Haft für Menschenretter

Heute hat das Gericht im sizilianischen Agrigento die Menschenretter zwar vom Vorwurf der Beihilfe zur illegalen Einreise freigesprochen, aber die beiden Kapitaene der „Morthada“ und der „Mohamed El Hedi“ wurden vom Gericht zu 2 Jahren und 6 Monaten Haft verurteilt, weil sie angeblich Widerstand gegen die Staatsgewalt und gegen eine Kriegsschiff leisteten. Am 8. August 2007 hatten sie 44 Migranten aus Seenot gerettet, 2 Jahre Prozess wegen Beilhilfe zur illegalen Einreise folgten. Bei aufgewuehlter See versuchte die Marine an jenem 8. August 2007 gefährliche Manoever, um die Fischer aufzuhalten, die die Migranten, unter ihnen zwei schwangere Frauen und ein behindertes Kind in schlechtem gesundheitlichen Zustand nach Lampedusa bringen wollten . Die nötigen Ausweichmanöver seitens der Tunesier wurden ihnen nun als Widerstand gegen die Staatsgewalt und gegen ein Kriegsschiff ausgelegt. Die Verteidiger Leonardo Marino und Giacomo La Russa kündigten an, in Berufung zu gehen. Naechste Gerichtsinstanz ist Palermo.

Montag, 16. November 2009

trial of the 7 tunesian fischermen today RESCUE IS A HUMAN RIGHT


everything else is murder!

and to remind of solidarity actions in Hamburg 2007 .

Sonntag, 15. November 2009

a tale of migration to the free world

A tale of migration to the “free world”

This piece describes a generic journey that (mostly) young males from Afghanistan & NW Pakistan experience on their way to claiming asylum in the EU, and invariably Britain.

The details of this blog piece have been taken from second-hand, research,

listening to the stories that migrants in Calais have told me, as well as my own first-hand experience.

**THIS BLOG PIECE IS BEING CONTINUALLY UPDATED FOLLOWING ONGOING DISCUSSIONS WITH MIGRANTS**

http://newleftglobaljustice.wordpress.com/2009/11/14/a-tale-of-migration-to-the-free-world/

Samstag, 14. November 2009

120 times this poster was seen in athens

the true face of migration policy.
the murderous actions go on
during the international migration forum
02-05.november in athens.

in the black poster one can read names of migrants that died in the aegean or in evros or other european borders.
the last insident mentioned is the death of the 8 afghan women and children that drawned
very near to lesvos in oktober.

Freitag, 13. November 2009

proces against 7 tunesian fischermen on the 17.11 in italy

Borderline Sicilia
ASGI Sezione Sicilia
borderline-europe

Agrigent, 12.11.2009

Menschen-Fischer
Der Fall der 7 tunesischen Fischer: am 17. Novembre wird das Urteil erwartet

Am 8. August 2007 wurden 7 tunesische Fischer auf Lampedusa verhaftet.
Ihnen wird von der Staatsanwaltschaft Agrigento Beihilfe zur illegalen Einreise vorgeworfen.
Die Fischer hatten 44 Migranten gerettet, deren Boot havariert war.
Die Flüchtlinge kamen aus dem Sudan, Eritrea, Äthiopien, Marokko, Togo und der Elfenbeinküste.
Die Fischer befanden sich ca. 40 Seemeilen vor Lampedusa.
Nachdem sie ein SOS abgesetzt hatten nahmen sie die Flüchtlinge an Bord -
- unter ihnen 2 schwangere Frauen und ein behindertes Kind,
die sofort mit dem Rettungshubschrauber ins Krankenhaus nach Palermo geflogen werden mussten.
Nach der Ankunft auf Lampedusa wurden die 7 Fischer verhaftet
und saßen wochenlang im Gefängnis von Agrigento.
Nun riskieren sie 3 Jahre Haft und eine Geldstrafe von 440.000 Euro!

Wer Leben rettet gehört nicht auf die Anklagebank!

Montag, 9. November 2009

demand of a proper investigation to the cause of death of 77 asylum seekers, why they were not rescued and who is accountable for their death?

Council of Europe Commissioner
for Human Rights council of Europe
F-67075 Strasbourg Cedex, FRANCE

Dear Sir/ Madam

We are the family members and friends of the refugees who perished in the Mediterranean sea in August 2009. We request an investigative into the failure of the EU member countries Italy and Malta to rescue the 77 Africans who perished in the coastal waters of Europe.

As you are well aware of that the 77 asylum seekers were part of 82 African asylum seekers
who sailed from Libya on July 28, 2009 on board of a crowded rubber dinghy. Among the 77 refugees who died in the sea, includes 25 women of whom the two where pregnant. Most of the victims were Eritreans, but there were also Ethiopians and Nigerians amog them. The poor immigrants instead of rescue and protection they were accorded with cruel death sentence in the European sea.

The refugees after one day departing from Libya, their boat ran of out fuel, leaving the helpless asylum seekers in distress at sea for three weeks. The families alerted many NGOs. On August 14, 2009 one of the NGOs, Flüchtlingsrat Cologne, Germany, alerted the Honorable Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici Minister for Justice and Home Affairs of Malta by email regarding the situation of the refugees. However, no one came to their rescue, not from passing ships or from Malta authorities which has an obligation under the law of sea nor from the FRONTEX which heavily monitors European borders and seas.

According to accounts given by survivors, while the asylum seekers were in distress and fighting to stay alive, from a distance, they saw many ships passing by them without rendering help. Three refugees in desperate attempt to call for help jumped to sea and swam towards the ship to call for help. However, the ship kept running way from the refugees playing cat and mice game to the life of the refugees. The three brave refugees disappeared swallowed by the wave of the sea. In addition one refugee swam and climbs to a ship to alert the crew, but later he was mercilessly thrown back to sea. As a result of extreme temperatures, thirst, hunger and intentional negligence the 77 asylum seekers including 25 women two of them pregnant died agonizing death in the sea of Europe.

On August 20, 2009 after three weeks in distress at the sea, in desperate and extreme determination to stay alive, emaciated five asylum where rescued by the Italians. The five survivors give the shocking news to the world. Although, survived the horrifying ordeal, they will carry psychological trauma for the rest of their lives.

Why was the immigrant boat stranded for more than 20 days in the European waters not detected and rescued? In this age where countries are in high alert because of fear of terrorist attack and sea pirates, it is more likely that the boat where monitored by radar systems and satellites. The surveillance system was particularly designed to detect small boats used by migrants attempting to cross from Africa. And we find it impossible to believe that the military bases and coast guards were unaware of the immigarant boat in distress. Therefore, we request access to the surveillance data.

In light of the increasingly restrictive asylum policies of the EU in general Malta and Italy in particular, we strongly believe that the 77 asylum seekers lost their lives due to intentional negligence. Their lives could have been saved if the refugees where seen as human beings not as ‘illegal African immigrants”. The sad thing is that to sit and watch while your fellow human beings are in distress at sea fighting to save their lives is not only a violation of right to life and violation of the law of sea, but also an uncivilized act belonging to the dark ages.

We therefore, demand a proper investigation to the cause of death of these 77 asylum seekers, why they were not rescued and who is accountable for their death?

Sincerely yours
Family and friends of the Refugees in question
from Africa, Australia, Europe, Canada and USA

(boatpmalital@rocketmail.com)

memory of the last revolts in pagani

for all those who now are out of pagani and ask to see what happend when they were inside,with the eyes from outside

for all those who did not see the revolts
here some videodokumentend moments:

this two short videos are from the very last revolt after the visit of the vice minister
and the disapointment that pagani did not get closed immediately.

Sonntag, 8. November 2009

stencil seen in mitilini


Nightingales are put in cages because their songs give pleasure.

Whoever heard of keeping a crow?


First issue of No Borders Newsletter ;MOVEMENT


The first issue of the re-named and re-launched No Borders Newsletter

"MOVEMENT" is now available for download:

http://noborderswales.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/movement_one.pdf

Samstag, 7. November 2009

Meerjans wish and the walls can video in pagani

merjan sitting with us in the taverna limanaki oposite PIKPA and looking at the sea dreams loud:

"i whish i would be greek!
then i could live here and study!"

but merjaan has bad luck being born in afghanistan he is a refugee in greece and has to go on travelling to find finnaly a country that accepts his right to live in peace and study.

GLOBAL RIGHTS and BORDERS WRONG!




inside the "open" pagani from DIY- the walls can video!




Donnerstag, 5. November 2009

while in skala loutron the winds make it difficult to arive... in pagani another 40 newcomers

the refugees ariving on the other side of the island , are brought in Pagani to spend the night.
women men and children all in one cell ,
the only cell that survived the revolts.
the closure of pagani was a fata morgana that lasted only two days .

silently the refugees are brought there and given "shelter".
thats how the prefecture excuses the fast reopening of pagani.

and today mr venizelos anounced that a military base , close to the town of mitilini
will be given to make an newcomers center that will be "modern" and only guarded from police outside.

everone can imagine how welcoming a military base can become.
for people fleeing from war and needing badly shelter peace and asylum.

no military bases for refugees .
open welcome centers and the right to stay!

no one is illegal





Dienstag, 3. November 2009

pagani -pieces of cloth giving hope


today some people had the chance to make a site seeing tour inside pagani.
it was possible to have a look in the inside . different kinds of pieces of cloth
are still hanging on the walls reminding what was that that gave maybe the strenght and courage to the inprisoned persons to go on.
mostly prayers but also some antiracist greetings.



Montag, 2. November 2009

refugees still waiting in the boat in mitilini

due to very bad weather conditions.it is now the 2 day that the last 190 refugees that came out of pagani are waiting in the ship that the weather gets better so the ship can travel .
after 24 hours without food,the prefecture took last night over the reponsability and their is food delivered.

Sonntag, 1. November 2009

declaration of the squated PAPARISVA UNIVERSITY MITILINI

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