Sorry, this entry is only available in Greek.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Greek.

THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA HAS BECOME A HUGE GRAVEYARD OF DROWNED MIGRANTS

More than 1.200 drowned migrants in one week in the Mediterranean sea. Since the beginning of 2015 it is estimated that 1750 migrants were drowned in shipwrecks pursuing a better future. The devaluation of human life continues and the dead migrants are treated solely like numbers.

Europe-Fortress kills migrants.

Silence is complicity…

STOP THE WAR AGAINST MIGRANTS

DEMONSTRATION 28/4_18.00 KAMARA

Assembly No Lager in Thessaloniki

Sorry, this entry is only available in Greek and Français.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Greek.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Greek.

About the hunger strike of the migrants in Paranesti camp (Drama)

On Wednesday, April 8 the last of the 23 migrants stopped the hunger strike (except for one who still continues), that they had started 18 days ago, on Monday, 23 of March and that had chosen this ultimate means of struggle to demand their freedom and the demolish of the detention camps.

The hunger strikers stopped since, already suffering from their months-long detention, they had reached the limits of their strength, while the jailers wore the mask of “humanity”, assuring the hunger strikers that they will be immediately released as soon as the 6 months pass or as soon as they apply for asylum. Six hunger strikers have already been released.

At the beginning of the hunger strike, the cops had resorted to terror and intimidation, by refusing to give the hunger strikers tea and coffee and threatening to disperse them in detention camps throughout the country. This was averted thanks to the determination of the strikers but also thanks to the solidarity people who were found from the early days by the side of the hunger strikers (unlike the tragic deficit of the movement in major hunger strikes of the imprisoned migrants in the summer / autumn 2013).

The authorities, in an attempt to prevent the spread of the hunger strike, they isolated the strikers in separate wings and then proceeded to “improve” the conditions of the detention and released about a dozen migrants who faced physical and psychological problems and who had not even visited a doctor before the hunger strike. Then they released about ten more migrants detained well over 6 months and about 40 minors, when the latters threatened to begin hunger strike.

We should note that several of the minors had held a hunger strike (which had not been known then) on 19 and 20 March 2015 when they were imprisoned in the ‘Section of Prosecution of Illegal Immigration “in Liti Thessaloníki. This hell is one of the worst detention centers and the juveniles were transferred there from Amygdaleza camp, in the context of the media “evacuation” of the latter. After a two-day hunger strike in Liti the minors were transferred to Paranesti, from where they were finally released. According to the assurances of the cops, in Easter 20 more minors will be released. It is noteworthy that the liberation of the minors means the transport of them in open spaces of “hospitality” when there is enough room in them, because the existing ones are overcrowded. That is when minors are allowed to go away from there for some reason or they run away, and there are cases where child migrants disappeared having fallen victims of trafficking or organ trafficking circuits. This report is not of course to show that their imprisonment in concentration camps is a protective measure, as every government proclaims. The imprisonment in the detention centers is contrariwise a part in the vicious cycle of the multifaceted exploitation of migrant minors, ranging from concentration camps to the various NGOs and other organizations that undertake to “protect” them.

All the while a key concern of the authorities was the hunger strike to remain invisible, invisible just like the migrants prisoners. However, comrades from various assemblies in Thessaloniki, Drama, Patra, Athens, etc. supported and publicized the hunger strike of the migrants in Paranesti. We should note the deafening silence of the left (governing or not)  for the hunger strike, but also of a big part of the greek society which “hopes”, tolerates but also applauds the choices of the Government of “national salvation”.

The ties of solidarity that were made through the hunger strike in Paranesti, as well as the constant communication with the imprisoned migrants that has been established, bind us to continue the struggle until the liberation of the last migrant.

Along with the imprisoned migrants to demolish detention camps!

Papers to migrants – kicks to the racists!

Assembly No Lager in Thessaloniki

April 2015

Hello everybody,
I am on behalf of other prisoner in pranesti Drama Camp express our deep appreciation to the people who came to pranesti Camp and start demonstration and describe their supporting to us today afternoon at 4/4/2015. I can dare say that with the supporting of you people we can continue our strikes against imprisonment or detention . as a young teenager I cannot tolerate being in jail for this long time. we want the supporting of you and our demand is to be free . and as human being this is the right of each persons to freely live in every community. once again thanks alot for your supporting . we are with you and we hope that you send our demand to the high ranking officials . about closing of the Pranesti Drama Camp as soon as possible. because we have lots of problems here in the Camp like: food , health and other facility .

best regard : […………]* from [….]* ……

* Για ευνόητους λόγους δεν δημοσιεύουμε το όνομα και τη χώρα από την οποία είναι ο μετανάστης

** Κατά τη διάρκεια της δράσης μας έξω από το στρατόπεδο συγκέντρωσης μεταναστών στο Παρανέστι ανταλλάσσαμε συνεχώς μηνύματα με τους έγκλειστους μετανάστες με μπουκάλια με μηνύματα που πετούσαμε μέσα στο στρατόπεδο και τα οποία μας τα επέστρεφαν με δικά τους μηνύματα. Σε κάποια από αυτά ανταλλάξαμε μέιλ και τηλέφωνα για να μπορέσουμε να επικοινωνούμε. Θα υπάρξει σύντομα αναλυτική ενημέρωση. Κάποιες φωτογραφίες από τη δράση: εδώ

Sorry, this entry is only available in Greek.

Solidarity with the migrants hunger strikers in Paranesti camp

A few weeks have passed since greek society has been shuddered by the repugnant images of concentration camps shown by the media. Thereafter hordes of reporters and humanitarian organizations have rushed to condemn the inhumane conditions that prevail behind the detention centers’ bars, while the new minister of the cops, Panousis, states all around his intention to close them down… or to fix them up anyhow.

It goes without saying that all this sentimentality is pretended, especially given the fact that the left government was broadcasting that “there is indeed a problem with the migrants”, winking at the greek racist sewer that was heading towards the ballot boxes. Judging the “humanitarian” proposals on the supposed problem by what they really are, they obviously continue to agree on the administration of the underrated/redundant lives of the immigrants and do not oppose to the essence of anti-migratory policy. And they go on to demonstrate that fact even more, as the international slander and the fines for not holding up to the functioning specifications consist one of the main arguments of those promoting the beautification of the camps.

Apart from the denunciations made from the safe side, the condition of the confinement remains torturous and agonizing all the same for those experiencing it. Cops and prison guards inside the camps and the detention centers keep reminding to the imprisoned migrants the audacious claims of the head of syriza that “the state has continuity”. Continuity in the assassinations… Because each and every suicide in the face of confinement and its despair, each and every death caused by the deliberate indifference of the cops towards those suffering from diseases are assassinations with the full meaning of the word.

Faced with the maneuvers and promises of syriza, the immigrants do not care about “changes” and “hopes that are on their way”. They do not compromise neither with a “humanitarian” 6month detention nor with its equally “humanitarian” 6month suspension of their deportation.

Since the 23^rd of March, 23 migrants prisoners in the concentration camp of Paranesti in Drama, are on hunger strike. They demand their immediate release and legalization. Considering the condition of their detention as irrational and unjust, they do not accept to remain imprisoned, waiting for any process of getting papers. At this moment there are 210 imprisoned migrants and about 80 underaged in Paranesti, while among them there are people with serious health problems that are only given painkillers.

The migrants claim their freedom and their dignity and they start their struggle relying on their forces as well as on the solidarity of the movement that has to stand decisively by their side. It is them that are calling us to build a community of struggle with them, against anything that divides and represses us.

All these days the migrants hunger strikers are being threatened continuously by their guards. Threatened to be dispersed into distinct camps, threatened to stop the hunger strike if they want to receive things or money sent by their friends outside the camp, and facing the indifference of the camp doctor to their broken health due to the hunger strike are only just a few examples. Meanwhile, inflictions of self-harm by migrants that can no longer stand the condition of being detained are a daily phenomenon.

Of course, it is not just in this specific camp that migrants are revolting. On the 16^th of March more than 300 migrants started a hunger strike in the camp of Korinthos, while since the 9^th of March there have been massive hunger strikes in 7 camps in Great Britain.

The function of migrant concentration camps in the greek territory dates back to the former decade, contributing, in a different way depending on the era, to the ambitions and purposes of the anti-migratory policy of the greek state. Regardless of the fancy names given to camps, hundreds of migrants are getting packed in there due to the “crime” that they committed, that of pursuing a better future. A future far from their native lands (Middle East, Africa, Asia) that are being plagued by the imperialism of the western nations.

During the times of the financial prosperity, it was the exploitation and the devalued labor of the migrants that helped Greece build a powerful state. However, nowadays the formerly useful slaves/forbidden workers along with a big part of the local proletariat have become redundant as a cheap labor force. That is why they have been given another role, that of the advertised victims of the state of exception, of human-trashes, prey to the hatred of every kinds of racist and fascist.

There are many ways in which the “industry” of recording, stigmatization, extended war inside and outside Europe, entrapment and even extermination could turn out as a profitable channelization for a certain part of the capital. However, the specific part of that process, the construction and maintenance of the camps, does not come without its firsthand financial profits. It is already known that lots of money is flowing from the eu to supply the camps with alimentation, blankets, cleaning, custodianship, etc. This is how local bosses (security companies, cleaners, caterings and many more) are trying to make money using the lives of the forbidden migrants as their “raw material”.

We have no reason to believe that the new managers of the greek state have something better in store for those ab initio excluded from all attempts for social consensus. Like any other capitalistically organized state, regardless of which its talking head is, its one and only strategic dealing of the migrants is confined to maintaining a regime of constant manhunt and loss of freedom. A regime that neither starts nor ends inside the concentration camps, structured diligently around the borders and the police departments and realized by the cops and the mafia. What if camps are beautified and the beatings along with the manhunt take place tactfully. The only thing that we can be sure of is the continuation of incidents of people getting exterminated in the borders, or getting trapped in almost unpaid labor, or having to live under the constant tone of gunfire.

We neither can nor are we allowed to back off believing in futile parliamentary hopes, encouraging our own self-destruction. Against any kind of intermediation, we feel obliged to support the struggles of the migrants that are our own struggles as well. All together, locals and foreigners, parts of the same class, to fight until the demolition of each and every detention center. Until the end of the discriminations that are imposed on us by the capital and the state.

assembly no lager in Thessaloniki