In September 2012, while hundreds of refugees are held in inhuman conditions at the police stations of Lesbos or they are left out in the open vulnerable to any racist attacks; the “Village of all together” requests the municipality of Mitilini to allow the use of the abandoned summer camps in Neapoli to be used as a hospitality center for the refugees. With this act, the “Village of all together” defends the right of the refugees to a fair
treatment and simultaneously, it promotes the creation of open hospitality centers in support of local community.

PIKPA is a self-managed-autonomous space and has no access to any state or European funds. This self-managed space has hosted during this time more than 6.000 refugees, some for few days and others up to a year. The refugees include asylum and family unification applicants and/or vulnerable groups of newly arrived refugees e.g. people with disabilities, sick, pregnant etc. There, we offer food, clothes, medicines, hygiene, legal counseling, and medical help as well as we organize activities for children and classes of Greek and English and occasionally, we provide them transport expenses and social support.

Due to the growing number of refugees arriving in Lesbos on a daily basis, the “Village of all together” is in constant need of resources and funds to cover the increasing needs of these people as well as to maintain the human living conditions in the camp. Although the core of our activities are centred in the PIKPA summer camp, we are in continuous communication with other groups of our network to better assess the situation and the needs,
offering help where is needed, on the streets, at the port and other self-created camps.

Our main objective is to stand in solidarity with the refugees and fight against the illegal arrests and any practice of humiliation or atrocities conducted in the sea or at the borders e.g. In June 2015 and while the law was still criminalizing any altruistic acts, we, the “Village of all together” organized a convoy with over forty cars that traveled from Molivo to Mitilini in order to transport refugees to the hospitality center. Moreover, we participated
in trials against citizens who transported refugees to the cities when the respective authorities pointing the law, were leaving thousands of people walking long distances all over the island.

Currently, we act as the focal point among medical centres, social pharmacies and other medical groups all over the country in order to provide sufficient medical services to the refugees. Our aim is to create proper reception and hospitality centres for every refugee as well any Greek national who has been a victim of the economic crisis, racism and any xenophobic propaganda.

If you want to support the volunteers in Lesvos, here are the details, received from Efi Latsoudi

Village of all together

IBAN: GR7901107620000076271413353

SWIFT (BIC) ETHNGRAA

Michalis Aivaliotis

Milou 10

Pirgrelia

Mytilene / Greece

Greece’s supreme court has upheld a decision by a jury court of appeals in the city of Patras to acquit the farmers who opened fire, last year, on 28 unpaid Bangladeshi strawberry pickers, seriously wounding four of them.

Deputy public prosecutor Konstantinos Paraskevaidis ruled there was no legal basis for a retrial of two of the four farmers  implicated in the shooting and that they will not stand trial again. The decision came after Supreme Court prosecutor Efterpi Koutzamani had requested a review of the original decision.

The incident in question took place in the farm town of Manolada, Southern Greece in 2013, when the Bangladeshi strawberry pickers refused to keep working unless they were paid salaries they were owed. Instead of receiving their money, they came under a hail of fire.

The trial took place in the summer of 2014 in Patras where a panel of judges and jurors unanimously decided that the farm owner and one of his superintendents should be cleared of all charges. The other two farmers were found guilty of grievous bodily harm and complicity and were handed suspended sentences of  14 and 7 years respectively. They will stand another trial after both lodged an appeal.

The ruling had sparked outrage in Greece and abroad, and human right groups dubbed the decision a ‘racist scandal’. The victims lawyer Moisis Karabeyidis, who felt ‘ashamed as a Greek’, said at the time that he would take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

Source: http://www.thepressproject.net/article/68567/Supreme-court-upholds-disgraceful-ruling-clearing-farmers-who-shot-unpaid-Bangladeshi-strawberry-pickers

Met zijn plan meent Teeven tegemoet te komen aan de langlopende kritiek op het opsluiten van kinderen in het grenshospitium en in detentie- en uitzetcentra. Een coalitie van ngo’s, gecoördineerd door Defence for Childeren, voert al jaren de campagne ‘Geen Kind in de Cel’, die ook op steun van een aantal politieke partijen kan rekenen.

‘Humane’ gevangenis?

Teeven geeft in zijn brief aan de Kamer op hoofdlijnen aan waaruit de maatregelen bestaan om de nieuwe gevangenis geschikt te maken voor kinderen en gezinnen. Hij rept over “[h]et bieden van zoveel mogelijk bewegingsvrijheid binnen de locatie en het verschaffen van adequate voorzieningen voor gezinnen en kinderen.” De gedetineerde vluchtelingen worden ondergebracht in woonpaviljoens, met “separate wooneenheden voor de gezinnen en een apart paviljoen voor de amv’s.” Ze kunnen zelf hun maaltijden bereiden en gezinnen kunnen hun paviljoens van binnen afsluiten.

Op het terrein komt ook een “een voorzieningencentrum met onder meer een recreatieruimte, buitenspeelruimte, een winkelvoorziening en internetfaciliteiten.” Bij sommigen zal dit beelden van een vakantiepark oproepen, maar al snel komt de aap uit de mouw: het gaat hier wel degelijk om een gevangenis, eufemistisch betiteld als ‘afgesloten locatie’. Om dit gevoel wat te dempen, zullen bewakers echter geen uniformen dragen en zal de omheining “door het groen goeddeels worden onttrokken aan het zicht van de bewoners.”

De nieuwe gevangenis komt onder verantwoordelijkheid van de Dienst Justitiële Inrichtingen (DJI) te vallen. De Immigratie- en Naturalisatiedienst (IND) en de Dienst Terugkeer & Vertrek (DT&V) zullen op locatie aanwezig zijn in het kader van het doorlopen van asielprocedures en het “borgen van terugkeer”. Immers: “Het verblijf zal gericht zijn op werken aan terugkeer, dan wel nader onderzoek voor diegenen die een asielvraag hebben ingediend”, zo stelt DJI in een persbericht.
Eerder dit jaar liet Teeven zich in een debat met de Kamer ontvallen: “Ik begrijp ook dat je geen kinderen in de cel moet hebben. Dit is buitengewoon onmenselijk.” Dit zeldzame moment van zelfinzicht en menselijkheid blijkt een zeer beperkte reikwijdte te hebben. Teeven blijft van plan kinderen op te sluiten, maar omdat op de locatie geen tralies en zware celdeuren met het karakteristieke luikje zullen verschijnen, is er in zijn ogen sprake van een humaan alternatief.

Source: https://no-border.nl/gezinsgevangenis-voor-vluchtelingen-op-kamp-zeist-is-geen-humaan-alternatief/

“For the 18th of June prisoners in all of the prisons have begun abstaining from mealtimes in an act of protest against the fascist draft legislation forming ‘Type C’ prisons and to defend the right of furlough and sentence suspensions.

From the 23rd of June we are beginning a MASS HUNGER STRIKE in all prisons. We are fighting for our rights and in order to remain HUMAN and not human shadows locked away and forgotten in despair.”

So read the statement issued on behalf of the prisoners who launched the hunger strike to demand, “The withdrawal of the fascist legislation for Type C prisons. We say no to a Greek Guantanamo, to a prison within a prison, without furlough, without visitation rights, with no tomorrow. “

Critics have called the creation of maximum security ‘Type C’ prisons and wings provided for by the bill, a gross violation of prisoner rights. It is also seen as an attempt by the Justice Minister Haralambos Athanasiou to give himself sweeping new powers over prisoners and the prison system under a heavy handed ‘zero tolerance’ approach.

New maximum security ‘Type C’ prisons provided for by the legislation are scheduled to be built, while wings of existing prisons will also be modified to Type C maximum security areas. Prisoners sent to these facilities will be imprisoned under far more restrictive conditions than are currently in place. Aside from having no right to furlough, prisoners will also have severely curtailed visitation rights and little or no access to paid work, education programs, exercise etc. They will effectively be kept in isolation and subject to intolerable living conditions for up to ten years.

Many disparate critics have stated that with the new maximum security facilities, the ministry is rendering the prison system vindictive, as opposed to correctional.

Furthermore the legislation will effectively make the ministry, as opposed to the courts, the ultimate arbiter of what constitutes a ‘dangerous criminal’. According to the bill, individuals will be automatically sent to the Type C prisons if they are accused or convicted of certain classes of crime – eg murder, robbery with grievous bodily harm, terrorism, attacks on workers of the state (which could be a rock through a politician’s window) etc. – irrespective of the circumstances of the crime and of the sentence passed by the court during trial. Prisoners can also be sent to the maximum security facilities if they are deemed to be a ‘danger’ to lower security facilities by prosecutors, with the minister able to make ultimate decisions in difficult cases.

“This draft legislation does not only intend to isolate the ‘dangerous’ inmates… It also targets social protest that is ‘dangerous’ for those in power. For whoever dares resist, a hellhole will await where on entering he/she ‘will abandon all hope.’ We call on all to unite our voices, our forces and solidarity, To give hope a name,” writes the Initiative for Solidarity with the Prisoners about the legislation.

Aside from the inmates and their supporters, the bill has been condemned by a number of political parties. SYRIZA has demanded that the government withdraw the bill which it says provides for the creation of ‘modern hellholes’ where inmates will be denied even basic rights, when according to the law the only right a prisoner should be denied is his or her freedom. Also opposed to the bill are KKE, and the Democratic Left, while right wing opposition party Independent Greeks supports the bill. For its part coalition partner PASOK has expressed reservations with the MP K. Triantafyllos, on introducing the bill, stating that the nature of the crime alone cannot be the basis for holding a prisoner under special restrictive conditions.

It is reminded that parliament is currently in its summer session meaning that bills are voted on by a proportional grouping of 100 MPs as opposed to the full complement of 300. It is expected that this will help the government avoid defections and pass unpopular bills. It is also worth noting that passage of the bill is not one of the country’s pressing Memorandum commitments, leading many to accuse the government of exploiting the current situation in order to pass the draconian new reforms of the prison system.

Those opposed to the bill include those working on the front lines in prisons, with correctional workers critical of the legislation. Antonios Aravantinos, a member of the board of the Confederation of Correctional Workers was quoted as having said (link in Greek), “the crucial issue is the furloughs for prisoners. But together with that, every fundamental principle is being levelled which is at the heart, at least in theory, of correctional legislation and directs it towards the fair and equal treatment of prisoners with the provision of opportunities for social rehabilitation. From now on it will be as if we will be basing our action on vindictiveness and that choice is an unacceptable institutional extreme which will breed only high tensions, combativeness and enmity in prisons.”

Source: http://www.thepressproject.net/article/64612/Hunger-strike-of-4000-prisoners-enters-4th-day-over-fascistic-legislation

Saturday 7th of June, 19.00 MKZ, Amsterdam

Our Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) argues that the new restrictive criteria will undermine the conditions for integration in Greece, undoing most of its major advancements on integration since 2007.

A major change in Greece’s MIPEX score

Between 2007 and 2010, Greece made significant progress on political participation. It opened political opportunities for migrants that were found to be average for most MIPEX countries and following the trends in other new countries of immigration.  If the envisaged provisions come into force, the political participation rights in Greece would become slightly unfavourable for immigrant integration. The abolition of the right to vote and stand for elections would lower Greece’s MIPEX score on political participation from 40 to 31 and give Greece a score on electoral rights of zero.

The new immigration bill will undo most of the Greece’s major achievements in the past few years. The country would fall below the European standards set by the 1992 Council of Europe “Convention on the participation of foreigners in public life at the local level” (ETS No. 144), which inspired the major reform that led to the adoption of  Law 3838/2010.

Moreover, Greece will be the only European country on record to have abolished the right to vote for immigrants. The only such example found by Kees Groenendijk, one of Europe’s preeminent expert on migration law, was the Swiss canton of Neuchatel all the way back in 1875. Today in Europe it is very hard to find any example of a major political party advocating to disenfranchise immigrant voters, except for Denmark’s far-right Danish People’s Party, which has been advocating this position since 1981.

In contrast, according to MIPEX non-EU citizens have the right to local voting in over half the EU Member States as well as many countries of immigration around the world, from Australia and New Zealand to Japan.

Governments granting voting rights to immigrants are committed to provide equal treatment and thus better conditions for social integration of non-nationals. Letting immigrants participate in local elections also encourages naturalisation at law implementation and maintenance costs. In practice, few of the supposedly negative effects often raised in debates play out in practice – e.g. greater foreign influence, creation of ethnic parties, and radical overturn of status quo.

1. Racisme is een veel te alledaags verschijnsel

De ontwikkelingen rond racisme in Nederland geven een dubbel beeld.Enerzijds lijkt het racisme onder de bevolking als geheel af te nemen.Het Sociaal Cultureel Planbureau publiceerde in december een onderzoek dat liet zien hoe steeds minder mensen in Nederland moeite lijken te hebben met het grote aantal verschillende nationaliteiten in Nederland. In 2002 gaf bijna de helft van de ondervraagden aan hiermee een probleem te hebben, terwijl dit nu minder dan een derde is.

Tegelijkertijd zien we dat de racistische minderheid verder verhardt. Uit cijfers van het Verwey-Jonker Instituut blijkt dat het aantal racistische incidenten in 2012 met een kwart is toegenomen ten opzichte van 2011.

Dezelfde verharding zien we ook uit de reacties op Quinsy Gario en Anouk. Vorige maand kwam daar de 17-jarige diabetespatiënt Yosra bij. Zij werd vorige maand aangehouden in een Hema omdat ze voor een junk werd aangezien toen ze in een pashokje insuline spoot.

Onder druk van publieke woede bood de Hema een week later excuses aan voor de arrestatie. Op een onlineforum schreef een collega van de beveiligers over de arrestatie: ‘Echt weer zo een buitenlander streek. Als het aan mij zou liggen komen ze de winkel niet eens meer binnen.’

Maar het probleem gaat verder dan individuele opvattingen van beveiligers. Toen Yosra op het politiebureau haar medicijnen liet zien zei een agent: ‘Dat is vast een truc om eerder weg te mogen uit de cel. Dat doen veel allochtonen.’

De politie zegt dat dit gelogen is, maar hun geschiedenis spreekt tegen hen. Het incident komt maanden na het nieuws van oud-agenten dat de Haagse politie in de Schilderswijk structureel racistisch geweld gebruikt tegenover (al geboeide) arrestanten. Doordat korpsleiding en VVD-burgemeester van Aartsen stil blijven, groeit het zelfvertrouwen van racistische agenten. Zij worden nog eens gesterkt in hun ideeën door de politiek.

2. Gevestigde politiek is onderdeel van het probleem

De PVV is in peilingen even groot als de PvdA en VVD samen. Maar racistische opvattingen worden ondertussen door het hele politieke spectrum omarmd. Een initiatief in Amsterdam om de opkomst tijdens gemeenteraadsverkiezingen te verhogen onder ‘jongeren, internationals en allochtonen’ werd na een mediastorm aangepast. Het argument was dat de campagne vooral de PvdA stemmen zou opleveren. CDA’er Marijke Shahsavari is bang voor een grotere verkiezingsopkomst: ‘Als een etnische groep plotseling massaal gaat stemmen is de verkiezing geen afspiegeling van de samenleving meer.’

Maar de PvdA gebruikt evengoed rechtse retoriek om stemmen te winnen. In een interview met de NRC zei voorzitter van de deelraad van Amsterdam Nieuw-West, Baâdoud, dat de oorsprong van criminaliteit ‘bij de opvoeding ligt’. Hij heeft aan minister Hennis-Plasschaert voorgesteld een legerkazerne in zijn wijk neer te zetten om Turks-Nederlandse jongeren ‘discipline’ bij te brengen. Bij Baâdoud geen woord over de werkloosheid die bij dezelfde jongeren in Nieuw-West boven de veertig procent ligt. Zo gebruiken politici racisme om mensen te verdelen en de aandacht af te leiden van werkelijke problemen.

3. Om het momentum rond racisme te vertalen naar de straat

Door het moedige werk van zwarte activisten is racisme weer onderwerp van discussie geworden. Dit is een positieve ontwikkeling, maar om verandering af te dwingen moeten we de druk op politici opvoeren. Op zaterdag 22 maart wordt er in Amsterdam gedemonstreerd in het kader van de internationale dag tegen racisme de dag ervoor. Die dag werd uitgeroepen door de Verenigde Naties in reactie op de protesten tegen de pasjeswetten in Sharpeville, Zuid-Afrika, waarbij 69 mensen werden gedood door politiekogels.

Vorig jaar op 23 maart gingen meer dan 3000 mensen de straat op tegen het Nederlandse vluchtelingenbeleid. De coalitie die dit organiseerde bestond naast vluchtelingen zelf uit meer dan tachtig organisaties: linkse partijen en organisaties, vakbonden, kerken, moskeeën en vluchtelingenorganisaties. De doelen van groepen liepen hierbij uiteen van het opheffen van elke vorm van migratiebeperking tot het eisen van een ‘humaner’ asielbeleid.

Met een grote en brede demonstratie op 22 maart tegen racisme zetten we niet alleen de politiek onder druk, maar komen we ook in contact met veel meer mensen die in actie willen komen tegen racisme. De oproep van het 21 maart Comité combineert een brede analyse over de opkomst van extreemrechts in Europa aan concrete eisen uit campagnes rond bijvoorbeeld etnisch profileren en Zwarte Piet.

In de aanloop naar de gemeenteraadsverkiezingen legt dit protest de vinger op de zere plek: Nederland heeft een racismeprobleem en het wordt hoog tijd de strijd ertegen weer serieus te nemen. – See more at: http://socialisme.nu/blog/nieuws/39903/geen-ruimte-voor-racisme/#sthash.ibswAgOF.dpuf

The deaths come as Morocco, under pressure from Spain, struggles to limit the rising tide of sub-Saharan Africans heading to its northern shores in a desperate quest to reach mainland Europe.

Hundreds of migrants headed out to sea from the Moroccan town of Fnideq at 6 am (0600 GMT) in a mass attempt to circumvent the six-metre (20-foot) barriers that mark the land border with the Ceuta enclave, Spanish and Moroccan officials said.

Moroccan police pulled the bodies of nine migrants, including a woman, from the waters near the Spanish border post, the photographer said.

Authorities in Fnideq said around 200 migrants attempted the crossing, while the authorities in Ceuta said around 400 had taken part in the desperate bid to reach EU territory, braving the strong currents of the Strait of Gibraltar.

Moroccan coastguard vessels picked up 150 of the migrants, while the rest turned back to shore, the official MAP news agency reported.

The head of a rights group in the region, Mohamed Benaissa, said many of the migrants were from Cameroon.

Officials in Ceuta said that before heading to the beach, they clashed with police as they tried to enter the Spanish territory via a bridge used to transport goods.

“The immigrants adopted a very aggressive violent attitude, throwing rocks and other objects at the Moroccan and Spanish security forces,” said a spokesman for the authorities in Ceuta.

The Spanish police managed to drive them away using anti-riot gear, including rubber bullets.

“This drama shows once again the risks taken by illegal migrants, who put their lives in danger,” the authorities in Fnideq said.

Storming the barriers

Ceuta is the northernmost point on the coast of northwest Africa and lies just 15 kilometres (9 miles) across the strait from the Spanish mainland.

Along with Spain’s other north African enclave Melilla, it has the European Union’s only land borders in Africa.

They are both seen as stepping stones to a better life in Europe for sub-Saharan migrants, who often risk their lives attempting to enter the tiny Spanish enclaves, either by sea or by storming the barriers separating them from Morocco.

On Sunday, the bodies of five presumed migrants thought to have been trying to reach Spain in an inflatable boat were found in the Nador area of Morocco’s Mediterranean coast, near Melilla.

According to the Rif Human Rights Association, more than 40 migrants died trying to reach Ceuta or Melilla from Morocco over the past two years.

Many more attempt the perilous journey across the Strait of Gibraltar, often in overloaded makeshift boats.

Spain is just one of the southern European countries facing a mounting influx of African migrants and asylum-seekers.

Earlier this week, Italy said the number of asylum-seekers landing on its shores rose tenfold in January, compared with the same month last year.

Rome launched a military and humanitarian response last October, after hundreds of migrants drowned in two shipwreck tragedies near the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Faced with the same problem, Spain last year began to put barbed wire along Melilla’s 11-kilometre (seven-mile) border fence in a bid to deter the migrants, drawing criticism from rights groups.

The authorities in Tangiers, Morocco’s main northern city, also said they were beefing up surveillance along the coast, where they claim to intercept scores of migrants trying to reach Europe each week.

Morocco estimates there are around 30,000 illegal immigrants on its soil, most of them from sub-Saharan Africa.

In early January, the government launched an operation to regularise their situation and grant them residency permits, in the face of allegations that several migrants had died at the hands of police in 2013.

Source: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/140206/9-migrants-drown-trying-reach-spanish-enclave-morocco

And the cries: “help me, help me, help me,” the only words the Afghan and Syrian migrants knew how to say as the vessel went down. “We were so afraid,” said Abdul Sabur Azizi, recalling the moments before he lost his wife and 10-year-old son to the sea.

“At some point we took the babies and held them up high, above our heads, to show that there were children on board,” the 30-year-old murmured, his eyes fixed firmly on the floor. “The Greek coastguard didn’t care. They had guns, they were shooting in the air. We told them the boat had broken down, its engine didn’t work but all they wanted was to take us back to Turkey.”

And that, he says, is when the Greek officials got the rope, tied it to the bow of the ship and began towing it “so fast that the boat began bouncing this way and that, like a snake, across the water.”

It didn’t last long – maybe 10 minutes at most. “The waters were very calm but we were going so fast, we were flying high,” said Ehsanula Safi, his Afghan compatriot still too visibly distressed to make mention of his dead wife and four children. “When the rope snapped the first time it made a hole in the side of the boat. The hole got bigger and bigger, and as the water gushed in we tried to get it out, first with a bucket and then with our hands.”

Eleven are believed to have died when the boat capsized. Only two bodies have been found. Of those missing, eight were under the age of 12. Of the 16 who survived all were men, with the single exception of one woman and a baby.

The events surrounding the sinking of the ship in the Aegean last week have not only triggered outrage, both in and outside Greece, but highlighted the increasingly controversial methods being used to stop immigrants from entering the EU.

While Athens has denied allegations that the boat was being towed to Turkey – arguing that radar records show it was being tugged to the Greek island of Farmakonisi when the tragedy occurred – refugees insist they were the victims of an illegal “push-back” operation of the kind frequently indulged in by authorities to keep human cargo at bay.

More than 150 migrants, the majority of them asylum seekers from Syria, have perished in “push backs” – a policy pursued since traffickers began taking the treacherous sea route from the Turkish coast to the Greek isles following the construction of a metal barrier along the land border that divides the two neighbours.

“There was a lot of pushing, a lot of kicking,” said Azizi with a wince. “Most of those who died were in the hold. Those of us who fell in the sea tried to hang on to the coastguard vessel for dear life but they didn’t want us to. They were stomping on our hands with their shoes.”

The conservative-dominated coalition of the Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras, has ordered an investigation. But as the controversy has intensified so has the language. Last week, the EU commissioner for human rights, Nils Muižnieks, said the incident bore all the hallmarks of a failed collective expulsion. “The Greek government has pledged to put an end to the illegal practice,” he railed. “I urge them to implement their promise.”

As anti-racist groups took to the streets, Athens’ shipping minister, Miltiades Varvitsiotis, countered that Muižnieks was trying to create a political issue out of the tragedy. Moreover, he claimed, survivors had changed their accounts of the incident.

“A father who lost his companion and their four children states clearly that the coastguard ‘saved us,’” said the politician, adding that the sudden change was “striking and curious”.

Seated in the migrant centre where he has agreed to speak, Safi, the man in question, shakes his head in disbelief. At 39, he has lost everything. “Nothing makes sense,” he sobbed. “All I had wanted to do was get to Europe. Now we don’t want anything: asylum, protection, bread, a home. All we want is the bodies of those we love. And justice for those who did this to us.”

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/27/greek-boat-tragedy-migrant-survivors-mourn-lost-relatives?CMP=twt_gu

This is an email sent by one of Reinform’s members who is at the moment in Athens, Greece. Yesterday she participated in the protest against the Greek Coast Guard which is allegedly accused of the drowning of 12 migrants (3 women and 9 children) off the coast of Farmakonisi island.

Hello everybody,

Yesterday I attended the interview that 3 of the 16 survivors gave to several political organizations for the rights of immigrants and Greek journalists at Sintagma Square.

I was shocked to hear what the 3 men, Abdel Sabur Azizi, EHsanula and Fada Mohumad Ahmadi, experienced during the night of 21st January . They were exhausted and shocked by the loss of their own family members but they had summoned the courage to be able to answer all the questions.

I heard one of them saying that his wife and his child jumped into the water after they got panicked when their boat was towed by the Greek Coast Guard which was heading at high speed for the Turkish coast. When the man saw his wife and his child sinking into the water, he started screaming and asking for life-jackets but the Coast Guards were just swearing at him and ignored him. “Other Coast Guards were shooting in the air with their guns trying to intimidate us and they shouted back to us: Fuck you, we will kill you all”, said the same man.

One journalist asked the 3 migrants, how it is possible that only men managed to survive. The answer was that they managed to climb on the vessel of the Greek Coast Guard which could not move because its engine was stopped. While they struggling to climb on the vessel, the Guards were trying to kick them back but in the meantime Turkish boats approached and the Greek Coat Guards were panicked.

Afterwards the survivors were brought to a posh restaurant on the nearby island of Leros. Later on they were transferred to the Police Station of Leros where they spent the night with their wet clothes still on and also without any food and water. At the Police Station they were asked to sign several papers with the help of a translator who spoke Farsi but not their language. When members of the UNHCR showed up at the Police Station, then the Police officers changed their attitude and they were pretending that they following the process in order to help the migrants.

“They only thing we want now is to find the bodies of our family members and bury them”, said another migrant.

After the interview was finished, several representatives of the political organizations talked about the responsibility of the Greek Government to this crime and asked the Greek authorities to take under consideration the testimonies of the survivors during the judicial process in order the perpetrators of this crime to be punished. Afterwards all demonstrators walked to the Police Station of Omonia where official declarations were submitted by the organizations demanding the immediate judicial process for those ones who are behind this crime as well as the application of the law for the rights of migrants .

I am wondering now who is really responsible for this crime? Who is allowing Coast Guards to behave like that? Isn’t Prime Minister Antonis Samaras who is blaming the migrants for the hunger of the Greek people and at the same time he is boosting for the fact that EU has now accepted officially the term “illegal migrant” ? Isn’t Merchant Marine Minister Militadis Varvitsiotis who is trying to deny that a crime has been committed by saying that all these testimonies is an exaggerated and made up story to stain the honour of Greece?

Best regards,

V.I.

26 January 2014, Athens