Tag Archive for 'assassini'

The bigger picture

With the revolts going on in Pagani, what is the bigger picture? A friend wrote to let us know:

The minister of “citizen’s protection” (sic!, former ministry of public order) of the new socialist party government announced the liberation of 1.200 migrants from detention centers and police departments (from the total of 5.500 migrants who are kept in detention for illegal entry).

He presented this as a humanitarian move, but for sure this was necessary for the whole detention system, which was completely stuck after a summer with large police operations and arrests and the new arrivals. The released migrants will get the famous white paper (deportation decision with 30 days of tollerance to leave the country).

He also announced large scale repatriation with IOM’s help and with european funding and once again declared “zero tolerance to illegal migrants”.

You can also read an article in Kathimerini. So much for the new government (war is peace, citizen’s protection is repression, George is Orwell, etc). There was one incident in Athens were the police torture-killed a migrant. Occupied London has a report, and there was a demonstration afterwards which got attacked by the police. Another friend from Greece summarises the situation as follows:

Continue reading ‘The bigger picture’

Two new Videos

They just went live: two new videos, one about the action day against Pagani prison, the other about the Frontex action day. They were actually supposed to come online earlier (apologies, esp. to the cutters), but there were problems with the video format. In the end, ffmpeg and ogg/theora saved us.

Noborder Pagani Action Day

Noborder Harbour Action

Greek Coastguard forces refugees to swim to Turkey

According to a german article from turkishpress.de from August 7 2009 (our translation):

Close to Izmir, 47 illegalised refugees were arrested by the turkish gendarmerie. After their identities were checked, the 37 Palestinians, 3 Afghanis and 7 refugees from Burma said that they had been brought to a strip of coast unknown to them from Istanbul by bus. They were then brought, by two turkish men, to Lesvos with a boat. Afterwards, greek security forces apprehended them. They were robbed of their passports and money, said the refugees.

Afterwards, a Palestinian told under tears, they were brought on two ships of the coastguard. They drove into the sea. Shortly before reaching the waters of Turkey, as the turkish authorities found out, they were told to swim the rest of the distance to the turkish coast.

Prologue to the Lesvos Noborder camp

Released Pagani migrants and No Borders activists together drive Frontex away Today in the port of Mitilini, Lesvos a demonstration was held concerning the refugees recently released from the detention centre in Pagani with no means to support themselves. A symbolic blockade took place to show that while holidaymakers come and go freely, many migrants are trapped on Lesvos in a situation of complete destitution. Leaflets (pdf: gr, en) were distributed to hundreds of passing tourists and locals in several languages explaining the situation the migrants are facing.

This action was a reaction to the dismissive release of a group of 38 migrants from the Pagani detention centre on Thurday. The plenary of the Noborder camp decided not only to attempt to meet the basic needs of the migrants by inviting them to come to the noborder camp but also to make their situation visible to the local population and to increase pressure on the local authorities to provide a real solution.

Continue reading ‘Prologue to the Lesvos Noborder camp’

About w2eu

This is the blog of the antiracist network Welcome to Europe. It was formerly known as lesvos09.antira.info.

 

The name Welcome to Europe expresses the discontent and anger we feel when looking at the fatal realities of the European external border: the long documented deaths and suffering have continued for years, and no end is in sight. We stand for a grassroots movement that embraces migration and wants to create a Europe of hospitality.

 

We maintain our focus on the European external border in Greece, but will not limit ourselves to that geographical area. The right of freely roaming the globe has to be fought for everywhere. Join us!

 

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Voices from the Inside of Pagani (2009)

Watch the video