Samstag, 20. Februar 2010

ANNOUNCEMENT BY 'MOVEMENT FOR THE HUMAN RIGHTS - SOLIDARITY WITH MIGRANTS - SAMOS ISLAND

During the mourning of Thursday 18th February, 50 migrants were transfered from Samos' Detention Center to Athens in order to be deported. Since then we have lost them because they can not contact anybody or reach any legal assistance. This event gets added to the illegal transfers for deportation of 85 migrants on 12.12.2009 and the 24 Afghans and Iranis on 14.01.2010 without complying with either the basic guarantees of their rights as refugees and prisoners. The refugees do not get informed about the reason there should be transferred neither about the destination of the transfer. They get signed by the Greek authorities with the assistance of FRONTEX arbitrarily the Afghans as Iranis without the knowledge of their own refugees and they try to be expelled to Turkey under the Greek-Turkish readmission protocol.

While FRONTEX gets upgraded, and in cooperation with the Coast Guard Authorities of Samos intensify the effort to 'secure' the borders - east of the island - from the influx of refugees, the number of refugee shipwrecks also rises up (two in the first two months of 2010) and we are counting corpses on the beaches of the island (9 drawned refugees). The missing persons are also a lot, but Mass Media and authorities do not report about because people who search for them are invisible with voices not heard.

Additionally to these, reports from refugees come on top that talk about the Coast Guards - not for first time - and say: "...they have beaten us up, they sweared against us, we still have scars on our bodies, some of us have broken bones, they threatened us with guns and fired on the air, they threw our mobile phones in the sea", on a text of their own which they gave us during our visit in the Detention Center on 05.02.2010.

The immunity of the borders and the anti-refugee policy that the government enforces, the chase from the side of FRONTEX - that can not stop the waves of refugees but open war in the region against unarmed and persecuted people who come even from war areas - rise up and feed the illegal human (slave) trading. The only aim of such actions are accorded to the Non Tolerance Fortress Europe idea.

REFUGEES GET DRAWNED, CHASED, IMPRISONED AND FROM NOW ON THEY GET KIDNAPPED BY FRONTEX AND AUTHORITIES.

We continue AND expect:

--> Effective access to political asylum.

--> Translations by people who can translate in the refugees' languages and n

ot by agents of Frontex.

--> Stop the 'War' in our neighborhood that serves the requirements of EU. --> We do not want the refugee hunters of Frontex. They shall remove.


Mittwoch, 17. Februar 2010

Police entering the newly openned Hangar in Calais

at 18 o´clock today , and after refugees enjoyed the hole day being in the noborder hangar ,
talking, dancing,writiing.
while the refugees had gone at 18 o´clock to the food destribution,
police attacked the hangar and took all activists to the police station.

REOUVERTURE DU HANGAR KRONSTADT AUX MIGRANTS A CALAIS

Calais, Solidarité migrants
17/01/2010
POUR DIFFUSION IMMÉDIATE
calaisolidairty@gmail.com
Tel: 0033699746155


REOUVERTURE DU HANGAR KRONSTADT AUX MIGRANTS A CALAIS

A
10h aujourd'hui, le réseau No Borders (1) a officiellement réouvert le
Hangar Kronstadt (2) à Calais à la population migrante. Cela
fait suite à la première ouverture au public le samedi 6 Février,
et à l'expulsion violente de la police le lendemain (3).

Le
maire
de Calais a ordonné l'expulsion du Hangar au motif que celui-ci
n'était pas conforme à un usage public. Maintenant le Hangar
Kronstadt est ouvert comme un espace privé pour les membres
de SOS soutien O Sans Papiers . Tous les migrants et les militants
du Hangar sont membres officiels.

Le Hangar est actuellement ouvert aux migrants de 10:00 jusqu'à
18:00. Le Hangar n'est pas un espace humanitaire, mais un espace
de discussions politiques et de débats, d' échanges
culturels et de divertissement.

Chautempts
Marie
dit: «Alors que les autorités bloquent toutes les propositions
d'hébergementt, les migrants de Calais sont confrontés à l'un des
hivers les
plus froid de l'histoire récente et au harcèlement policier quotidien
Cette situation indigne est contraire aux valeurs communes de
solidarité humaine .
Alors, quelque chose doit être fait, et nous nous battons pour la
création
d'un espace où les migrants puissent venir disposer d'un temps de
répit "

Au moment de la rédaction de ce communiqué nous ignorons si la
réouverture fera l'objet d'une intervention de la police. Toutefois,
sur la nouvelle porte d'entrée du Hangar , l'article 1 de la
Déclaration Universelle des Droits de l'homme (4) a été peint.
Toute intervention violente de la police sera considérée comme une
atteinte à nos droits.

Tim
Wallace dit "une autre expulsion violente ne nous découragera pas,
nous n'allons pas rester là à regarder des êtres humains être
traités comme
des animaux. 8 années de violence et les migrants sont toujours à
Calais, car nos
gouvernements ne veulent pas reconnaître la légitimité de vouloir
quitter des zones telles que l'Afghanistan, le Darfour, l'Iran

FIN

Notes aux éditeurs

(1) Le réseau No Border est un mouvement mondial d'individus et de
groupes luttant pour le droit à la liberté de circulation des
personnes, et non uniquement pour les marchandises de l'Europe
ultraconsommatrice . Depuis
le camp No Border à Calais en juin , les militants noborders ont eu
une présence constante à Calais sous
la bannière de Calais migrants Solidarité. ,
Nous avons été témoins d'actes de violences policières et avons
collectivement résisté à des expulsions. Nous avons organisé la distribution
d'aide humanitaire, et agit concrètement en faveur des
droits des migrants.

(2) Acte de résistance et de solidarité avec les
sans-papiers de Calais, No Borders a loué le hangar Kronstad pour les
mois de février et mars, en collaboration avec SOS Soutien O Sans
Papiers. Le hangar est situé entre le port et le centre de Calais.

(3) Le samedi soir, environ 100 migrants sont venus au Hangar, avec
l'intention d'entrer. Ils ont été accueillis par deux rangées de CRS
bloquant l'accés à la rue. Criant "Liberté! liberté! ", les migrants et
des militants ont forcé le barrage policier et ont réussi à pénétrer
dans le hangar. Des couvertures, des vêtements de rechange, du thé
chaud... ont été fournis aux migrants.

Toutefois,
après
une nuit en sécurité, 75 CRS ont forcé l'entrée du hangar en cassant au
passage les portes d'entrée et le comptoir d'accueil. 12 militants
ont été arrêtés, mais relâchés par la suite, tandis qu'un autre était
transporté à l'hôpital.

(4)
L'article 1 stipule: "Tous les êtres humains naissent libres et égaux
en Dignité et en droits. ILS SONT doués de raison et de conscience et
DOIVENT agir les uns envers les autres» Dans un esprit de fraternité. "



Freitag, 12. Februar 2010

Testimony from the hell of Petrou Ralli

Translation from the blog of the Anarchist Initiative of Aigaleo (west Athens) on the situation in the women division of the Petrou Ralli prison for migrants – very close to downtown Athens. (http://www.occupiedlondon.org/blog/2010/02/11/187-welcome-to-hell/)

http://anarxikoiaigaleo.squat.gr

(Testimony from the hell of Petrou Ralli by comrades that were detained in the prison wing for migrant women on P. Ralli St. after the occupation of the Keratsini Town Hall in solidarity to the 22 persecuted in the “Resalto” social space on 5th December 2009).

The scene is the same as if it were a high security prison; the difference is that no one has committed any “crime” here. The cameras that are everywhere in the cells, apart from the toilets, are an example of how human dignity is violated in here. The detainees are under 24/7 surveillance, they can’t get a moment of privacy and no personal data protection policy is in effect. Even the cell doors are made of iron bars, from top to bottom, and in order to create a somehow private space the detainees have hung bed sheets. “I cannot bear it that everyone walking up and down the corridor can see me”, an immigrant woman told us. The wings made of cement have electric doors of latest technology, windows (some without pane) that look out on… the rest of the cells and are at a height that you cannot reach in order to see what is happening outside. The cells are equipped with “post-modern” beds made of cement (square ones that remind of benches) with worn-out foam rubber on top, a “soft” blanket that resembles emery cloth (exclusively sponsored by the Greek army) and no pillow whatsoever.

Hygiene conditions are non-existent, which explicitly shows the intention to “decompose” the body and to eliminate any characteristic that reminds detainees that they are human. The medieval-style toilets – which often host cute insects such as cockroaches– are only four and superdirty. The idea in the Petrou Ralli St hell is that cleanness is a fallacy [trans: play on words on a popular Greek saying]… Soaps, shampoo, toothpaste, toilet paper and sanitary towels are considered “small bourgeois residues” and consequently are unnecessary. Instead of a mirror, they use a piece of plastic that reflects like tinfoil the faces of those who live there for up to 6 months (according to the new law): distorted and partial reflections of persons that eventually forget who they are. All adds up in order to forget your very own existence.

Food is transported daily from GADA [trans: police headquarters] and of course it does not contain milk because there is fear that it will go bad during transportation. Everybody is given an instant coffee, a juice and a chocolate croissant. Even children are given the same (from 12-month babies to 10 year-old boys); age and personal needs do not matter. For lunch we were given bean soup, olives and one loaf of bread per cell to be shared by all the detainees, as well as oranges from Arta [trans: Greek city] at preference. The detainees serve themselves in plastic yoghurt-pots. There is no refectory or special room for food to be served, and they are obliged to place their bread on dirty, miserable blankets. Special needs are not taken into consideration, and diseases like diabetes, intestinal dysfunctions, cardiopathies etc do not receive any special alimentary treatment. We heard the detainees complain that they and their children suffered from itching. Cases of dermatological problems, such as mycoses, scabies, allergies and other kinds of dermatitis are frequent; they are mainly due to the sordid mattresses and the horrendous hygiene conditions in the cells and the toilets. They even face serious problems with their teeth, as they are not given enough bottled water and are forced to drink tap water from the toilets.

The women also talked to us about the aggressive behaviour of their underage children. And what is more reasonable for a child that grows up in prison than to develop an “antisocial” and aggressive behaviour. How can it not hate the world, as it is experiencing it from this hell? It has been marked for life by this experience and we better not dare to ask it in puberty why it’s throwing stones. Surely, in any case, the prisons on P.R. St. are an ideal environment for panic crises and psychosomatic conditions. The human being is a part of nature itself, and therefore it cannot survive in an environment made of cement.

Some prisoners have made artistic interventions to their cells in order to make them feel cosier. A Russian detainee has drawn huge cartoons on the walls. My soul is in pain… she misses her baby. She has transformed the cell into a child’s room. Love graven in hearts, and around the beds graven lines that mark days and months that have gone by. Engraved poems, promises, memoirs, names. In other cells the detainees have made an iconostasis; they have hung pictures of Saints everywhere in an effort to keep their hopes and dreams alive. Above their heads Angelina Jolie and Helen Menegaki [trans: Greek television star] next to shampoo labels, anything that can fill the empty walls.

Communication with the outside world is difficult and only those who have the money to buy a phone card have the possibility to make calls. Even the communication between the detainees is difficult as many of them do not speak nor understand Greek. There are no interpreters whatsoever and communication takes place through eye contact and gestures in an effort to exchange information on daily survival. Of course, this means they are deprived of their right to claim their rights or to be informed on their detention status and the date of their release. Complete isolation and loneliness.

Contact with the air, the rain and the sun is simply zero, as there is no yard to go out to. Detainees can only walk in the corridor (1 meter width and 20 meters length) that is outside the cells. They are deprived of a room where they could sit or do physical exercise; as a consequence they can only walk or lie down, in other words they carry around their pestered body. In this decorative background we saw small kids holding dolls, climbing up the iron bars and walking barefoot on filthy water and liquids of unknown origin. Their shoe laces had been taken away from them, thus they cannot even run. Some older children have understood what’s going on and every spark of life in their eyes has disappeared. Who can explain to them how one day they were returning home after school with their mum and suddenly they found themselves behind prison walls?

Donnerstag, 11. Februar 2010

Court decides deportation of revolting refugees in VENNA

9th February 2010

  • 36 migrants from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan were judged with 8 months of imprisoning with suspension and judicial deportation, while another 6 were judged with 4 months with suspension and judical deportation because they revolted before some days in the "welcoming" migrants' center of VENNA in Rodopi . They revolted because of the conditions in the prison , no medical health, no laywers, no clothes not getting in the yard.
  • The court instead of giving them right and force the responsibles that the conditions improve, decided to expel them immediatly from Greece back to their countries where their life is in danger.
  • A solidarity group" initiative against detention centers in rodopi and evros"
    is meeting in Xanthi to react to this decision and make the refugee situation in the greek detention centers known.
  • all detention centers schould close immediatly
  • no one is illegal
  • immediate freedom for all imprisonned refugees
  • the fight for life respect und freedom is not illegal.


Mittwoch, 10. Februar 2010

global pass stories


http://www.globalpass.de/

refugees tell their stories and we print them in a globalpass.
for people having so much trouble because of not being registered and not having papers to identify themselfs, is a global pass a small strength, a possibility to say : here i am ! read my story, i do exist! even if for the moment, i do not have papers.

the first globalpass action took place during the antiracamp08 in hamburg .

at the actionday against deportations and frontex at the hamburg airport a group of people ,
was distributing to the passengers but also to the people working at the airport, global passes .
since some of the people whos stories were in the global pass where distributing themself
the direct confrontation with the reality of people in danger to be deported, made wonders.

more global passes are produced now and will be on the homepage soon.

but we dream of a world where
no passports at all are needed and everyone enjoys
freedom of movement

no one is illegal

Montag, 8. Februar 2010

CALAIS-what happened this weekend?

No borders and SoS sans papiers announced last week that they had legally rented an empty hangar in Calais for the purpose of creating an activist and migrant space.

The major of Calais was said to be fuming at this intervention. In their PR obsessed immigration politics, the French ordered the immediate closure of the space through an illegal eviction, as they believed it would go against their gain of repression and driving sans papiers out of town.

Up until Saturday migrants had not been informed of the space and the police had kept a closely guarded watch on the hangar saying that no migrants were allowed into the space and would be arrested if they did so.

On Saturday evening we told migrants about the new space and invited them to come if they wish to do so.

Following food distribution about 100 migrants from Afghanistan, Iran, Kurdistan, Eretrea, and Ethiopia went to the hangar. The police sealed off all the roads leading to the hangar with cars and men. Shouting “freedom! Freedom! Freedom!” migrants and activists confronted the police blockade and managed to push through lines on both sides of the hangar allowing all the migrants to run inside the hangar.

The elite Robocop crs police re-inforcements immediately arrived and surrounding the hangar.

The sous-prefecture also arrived and ordered all migrants to leave immediately. They said no.

Although it looked likely, no immediate forced raid came although the blockade remained throughout the night.

Tea, blankets, sleeping bags, basic mattresses were provided and a safe, secure, although chilly night was had by all.

In the morning the police played it cool with a strategy to starve the migrants out. Throughout the morning a slow trickle of migrants left the hangar, crossed the police lines to go and collect food donations from Salam. They were then blocked from returning.

As the numbers began to dwindle, more and more police arrived. The remaining migrants were told to leave or be arrested. All left. Some activists and members of the associations went with them to make sure they were not assaulted again.

After the migrants had left, riot police threatened to smash their way in to the building after completely surrounding it, and blocking the view of the media by using two large vehicles.

The activists agreed to negotiate with the police, but when they began negotiations they were immediately assaulted and the riot police smashed the door to the hangar. All the activists who were inside the building were then arrested and the building was illegally evicted.

One British activist received 10 stitches in hospital. Many of the migrants including children received bruises from batons.

Most migrants went into hiding as things calmed down, although activists witnessed more arrests later that day on their way to the food distribution.

Since there is now no place for the migrants to sleep, they are once again suffering from the effects of the cold and wet conditions of living on the streets.

The centre has now been welded shut.

A legal challenge is now in the pipe line.

Calais Migrant Solidarity are today regrouping and deciding what to do next.

THINGS TO DO:

Go to the demonstration in London tomorrow held by No Borders London and Brighton

9th Februrary, 12:30pm French Consulate, Cromwell, SW7 2EN

Stock pile donations of clothes, blankets, sleeping bags, tents etc

Donate money (details on CMS website)

http://lille.indymedia.org/article19073.html

http://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com/#update


Press release of Sunday 7th February:

MIGRANT CENTRE EVICTED BY FRENCH RIOT POLICE IN CALAIS

Under instruction from the town authorities, the elite French CRS riot
police today forcibly evicted the new Calais migrant centre – called
Kronstadt Hangar - by smashing down the front doors, less than 24
hours after migrants and No Borders activists pushed through police
lines to occupy the building, which has been legally rented by No
Borders and SoS Soutien aux Sans Papiers.

Marie Chautemps said: “The Kronstadt Hangar was opened as a
direct intervention into a winter of repression that the migrants in
Calais have faced since their ‘jungle’ communities were destroyed in a
cruel PR stunt, back in September.”

She continued that: “With the authorities blocking any attempts to
create a place for migrants to shelter from constant police harassment
or from the bitterly cold winter, the Kronstadt Hangar intervention was
made in the name of common human respect as well as resistance to an
increasingly fascist EU border policy.”

On Saturday evening, about 100 migrants came to the warehouse with the
intention of entering. They were met by two separate lines of French
police on either side of the hangar. Shouting “freedom! freedom!”, the
migrants and No Borders activists pushed through the police lines and
successfully occupied the hangar. Donations of blankets,
extra-clothes, basic mattresses and hot tea were provided for the
migrants.

However, after a safe and secure night, 75 CRS police arrived on
Sunday afternoon and forcibly evicted the new space by smashing down
the front glass doors. 12 activists were arrested, but later released,
while one was taken to hospital.

The police proceeded to trash the hangar and all the possessions
inside, and have welded the entrance shut, so that it is now currently
impossible for anyone to re-enter the warehouse.

In a press release issued earlier today, SoS Soutien aux Sans Papiers
highlighted the joint agency between the French and UK governements,
in operations such as these. Just as there is increased
collaboration between the governments on both sides of the channel, so there
is an increase in resistance to the repressive policies of Szarkozy, implemented
with the approval of the British government. Alex Parks said “The
authorities in
Calais have been trying to remove migrants from Calais for years
without success, because they are
in denial about the terminal reality of the un-equal world we live in.
This is not over, solidarity and resistance for the right to freedom
of movement will continue in Calais.”

Sonntag, 7. Februar 2010

CALAIS noborder hangar surrounded by police

http://twitter.com/calaisolidarity
http://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com/#update
http://london.noborders.org.uk/
*Sunday 7th February

About 12.30 French time today everyone was in the No Borders/Kronstadt warehouse, chilling out, when police came to surround the building. People were told they can leave the building, but couldn’t return for lunch. Police say this is an ‘Order from the council’.

The response from the 100 or so people in the building was ‘fine, then we won’t leave’. A phone call to someone in the building described the situation as “everyone seemed to understand our political stance. Eventually some people tried to leave, and discovered that all the surrounding roads had been blocked by police. Then riots cops charged us several times, hitting out with batons. A friend got whacked on the mouth while lying on the floor – we managed to find a way out and are on our way to hospital now. One of the undercover cops, calling himself Msr Buzin, said that anyone can leave, but can’t return for to eat. They are effectively starving people out of the building”

There are still about 100 people inside, mainly Pashtun. Local French journalists are around, but no British press.

*Saturday 6th February

Police have surrounded the new No Borders centre in Calais and are demanding that no migrants are allowed to sleep overnight.

A warehouse in Calais, rented by No Borders, opened today to offer to migrants a dry, partially heated space with cooking, toilet and washing facilities.

At approximately 5pm, a small police presence attempted to block access by the migrants. This was not successful and a large number broke through shouting “Freedom, No Borders, No Nations”.

At 6pm, most of the migrants left to attend the twice daily NGO food distribution. During this period, the police took the opportunity to blockade all three access roads to the No Borders centre.

At 7pm, a large number of migrants and other activists collected outside the blockades on two fronts. Aided by people from within the police lines, both groups successfully breached the blockades and entered the centre. A large contingent of CRS police has arrived but currently remain in their vans on a nearby street.

The police are demanding that no migrant, excepting children, are allowed to sleep in the centre overnight. No Borders is very clear, Noone is illegal, Freedom to move, Freedom to stay. The No Borders centre welcomes migrants to stay overnight if they choose..

“It’s great here. Around 75-100 people in here. Everyone helping out running the place.”



Samstag, 6. Februar 2010

Search for Missing Family : Refugees United

Refugees United is a platform to register and search for family you have lost contact with.

No third party is involved.

http://www.refunite.org/

Freitag, 5. Februar 2010

Migrants in the Venna “detention centre” (prison) revolt


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

on 5 February 2010


Migrants in the Venna “detention centre” (prison) revolt – the truth behind the government’s migrant-friendly mask!

While tension is building up in Athens, due to the upcoming fascist demonstration at Propylea (main University of Athens building) this Saturday, migrants face repression and inhuman treatment at all levels. Needless to say that the government’s new migration bill focuses on legal migrants and their children, who have no right to Greek citizenship or nationality and thus have no civil rights, although they might be born and have lived in the country all their life. The grey zone of “illegal” migration is swept under the rug, and no solution whatsoever has been given to the disgraceful welcome/hospitality/and all other euphemistic-adjective centres for migrants.

In the early hours of Tuesday (2.1.2010) the approximately 130 detainees held in the Venna “detention centre” for migrants, in the prefecture of Rodopi (very close to the North-Eastern borders of the country) revolted. They protested against their continuous and illegal detention, plus the horrendous living conditions in their prison. Some of them have been imprisoned for over 3 months. The uprising went on the following day. They set fire and some injured themselves as a sign of protest. The prefect of Rodopi, the head of the local police and the fire brigade went on site. The media reported that approximately 30 were released. However, a post on indymedia reads that 43 migrants were taken yesterday to the prosecutor, facing charges of mutiny and public property damage. An open assembly has been called for today in Komotini, in order to take action.