Irregular migration in Greece must be addressed by European Union – UN expert

A mother and her children at a detention centre in Greece. Photo: UNHCR/J.Björgvinsson

3 December 2012 – A United Nations independent expert today called on Greece to boost measures to protect the rights of migrants, while stressing that it is also the European Union’s (EU) responsibility to address the plight of a growing number of irregular migrants trapped in the Mediterranean country on their way to European destinations.

“As the large number of irregular migrants stuck in Greece is mainly a result of EU policies and practices, there is a strong need for solidarity and responsibility-sharing within the EU in order to ensure full respect of the human rights of all these migrants,” the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, François Crépeau, said at the end of a nine-day visit to Greece.

Movement for Human Rights of Samos: criminalization of demonstrated solidarity towards imprisoned refugees

MOVEMENT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS SOLIDARITY TO REFUGEES

Briefing report

Samos, 20 November 2012

In 2010 members of the Movement continued to visit the detention centre of Samos on a weekly basis. Following serious allegations we received by detained refugees and given their inability to address the competent authorities by themselves, we gathered all acquired information and wrote a letter to the Ministry of Citizen Protection requesting to be informed about the manner in which deportations are carried out.

The letter was communicated to other humanitarian organizations as well as the Police Headquarters of Vathi town in Samos. The authorities not only refused to answer our questions concerning the treatment of the detained refugees, but they also forwarded our letter to the prosecutor, asking him to press charges against the member of our movement who had sent the letter in question for alleged defamation and false statements.

Announcement about the victims of racist violence

Last weekend was marked by a series of new incidents of racist violence which has by now taken on dramatic dimensions.

In one of these incidents, in the area of Agios Panteleimonas, where racist violence threatens to turn into a pogrom, organised groups indiscriminately attacked migrants, their stores and their houses.

In another incident in Palaio Faliro, an unidentified group stabbed a passerby migrant sending him to hospital.

In the third and most chilling incident, a bakery owner in Salamina, together with his son and two more accomplices, tortured a migrant working in their bakery and abandoned him after chaining him to a tree.

What was the reaction of the State to these incidents? 

For the untimely loss of our member Sarantis Theodosiou

On the evening of Sunday 21 October we lost our colleague and friend Sarantis Theodosiou. Sarantis had been fighting for his life for 13 days at the Intensive Care Unit after a car accident, losing ultimately the battle.

We now have to cope with his absence. Even more, however, we have to come to terms with the absurdity of the arbitrary loss of a person so young.

In the face of such a difficult yet primordial and overpowering human condition, words cannot convey our feelings and thoughts. Perhaps our silent sorrow or tears are of richer content than any consoling narrative could be.

Nonetheless we do wish to speak - even briefly- about the comrade who left us. We have to talk about Sarantis, a young lawyer who was quirky enough to enjoy teaching Greek to migrants in the Sunday School of Migrants; who decided to learn Albanian, the language of yesterday's scapegoats, of the inferiors of this country, in order to better understand them or maybe to even imagine himself as this 'Other'. Sarantis also supported from the outset our venture, the Group of Lawyers for the Rights of Migrants and Refugees. He supported our collective effort to form a separate existence, different from the mainstream exemplar in our field, and to denounce the exploitation of the “weakest of the weak”, of migrants and refugees. He shared with us 6 adventurous years of collective effort, of a struggle to save our “basic principles” within an environment of multifaceted decay. His path was joined with ours, the bonds we created are and will remain strong.

ANNOUNCEMENT

of the Group of Lawyers for the rights of migrants and refugees


The Group of lawyers for the rights of Migrants and Refugees moves to a new place in Exarcheia, at the corner of Ioulianou and 11 Rethymnou street, across the Hotel PARK.

The members of our Group will be available for legal and advisory service or information at the above address from Monday 10 September and every Monday and Wednesday from 17.00 to 19.00 hours.

NJOFTIM
I GRUPIT TË AVOKATËVE PËR MBROJTJEN E TË DREJTAVE TË EMIGRANTËVE DHE TË REFUGJATËVE.

NE, GRUPI I AVOKATËVE, JEMI TRANSFERUAR NË NJË AMBIENT TË RI NË EKSARQIA, MIDIS RRUGËS IULIANU DHE RETHIMNU 11, PRANË HOTELIT PARK. ANËTARËT E GRUPIT TONË JANË TË PREDISPOZUAR TË JAPIN KËSHILLA DHE SHËRBIME MBI LEGALIZIMIN NË ADRESËN E LARTPËRMENDUR, ÇDO TË HËNË DHE TË MËRKURË NGA 

ORA 17.00 DERI NË ORËN 19.00.

Press release of the United African Women Organization

Press release of the United African Women Organization, Greece.

We women, involved in United African Women Organization, Greece, express our deep concern, protest and anger for any type of clean – up actions that are in progress in the centre of Athens and other Greek regions.

Manny of us, years ago, have taken the road of exile, had in mind a distant country, Greece, where people honoured and respected the "stranger” as a holy person. Than, we became this "stranger" and during our evening classes, after work, we learned that there is an old god, to assist us in the difficult struggle for survival: the "Xenios Zeus."

State violence against migrants must be investigated and stamped out, say PACE committee heads

Strasbourg, 06.07.2012 – The Chairs of the Migration and Equality Committees of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Giacomo Santini (Italy, EPP/CD) and Tina Acketoft (Sweden, ALDE), have expressed grave concern at an increasing number of incidents of state violence against migrants and refugees.

In a joint statement, they said: “The recent alleged beating to death of an asylum seeker in Malta while being detained by two soldiers last Saturday is an extremely serious incident. Attacks against migrants and refugees are of increasing concern, including in Greece, where there are a worrying number of allegations of police brutality, and failures by them to investigate racist attacks on migrants and refugees.”

Fact Finding Report of the Campaign for the Access to Asylum in Greece

THE CAMPAIGN FOR THE ACCESS TO ASYLUM IN ATTICA AREA

1. The associations, entities, groups and NGOs[1] co-signing the present report carried out from 17 February 2012 until 7 April 2012 a campaign against the unacceptable situation of denial of access to the asylum system in Greece, focusing on the Attica area, where the vast majority of asylum seekers try to apply for international protection. The longstanding practice followed by the Asylum Department of the Attica Aliens Directorate, the competent authority to receive, register and examine asylum applications in Attica, is to allow submission of a small number of asylum applications and only in the early hours of every Saturday morning.

Joint call to protest on Friday 30 March 2012

For the sixth consecutive week, the undersigning entities and organisations hereby issue an open invitation to attend our solidarity protest outside the Attica Aliens Directorate at Petrou Ralli, from Friday evening, 30 March 2012 until dawn Saturday, 31 March 2012 (05:00- 06:00 am).

The police authorities in Attica- following their usual practice of the past years- refuse to accept asylum applications and agree to register only an exceptionally low number of asylum claims, only on Saturday dawn, following arbitrary procedures and under deplorable waiting conditions. The culminating point of this unacceptable policy was the absolute refusal of the police to register any asylum applications last Saturday, 24 March 2012. As a result, persons who are entitled to international protection have been deprived thereof and are at imminent risk of arrest during random document checks or in the course of "group arrest", of lengthy detention under conditions which often constitute inhuman and degrading treatment and deportation to countries where they are not safe.

NO TO RACISM – NO TO XENOPHOBIA

On March 12th, a trial which concerns all of us will take place at the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Athens. The three members of the illegal organization, who racially attacked a group of Afghan refugees at Agios Panteleimonas, are being judged. The victims of the accused were injured, while one of them has been stabbed close to his heart and stomach.

Similar incidents occur frequently at the city center and the suburbs. However, every racially motivated attack against a refugee and a migrant who arrived in Greece, seeking political asylum or a better life in Europe equals an attack against each and every one of us. Every victim is one of us.

One Month at Petrou Ralli - Press Release

ONE MONTH AT PETROU RALLI

THE UNACCEPTABLE SITUATION CONCERNING THE REGISTRATION OF ASYLUM APPLICATIONS CONTINUES

The Group of Lawyers for the Rights of Migrants and Refugees together with AITIMA, the Greek Council for Refugees, the Ecumenical Refugee Program and the Greek Section of Amnesty International co-signing the present press release, and in co-operation with other entities, groups and NGOs, have been carrying out over the last month repeated protests, by giving their presence every Friday to Saturday morning (on 17 February, 24 February, 2 March and 9 March 2012) outside the building of the Attica Aliens Directorate.

Press Release

On access to asylum procedure in Greece
(Attica Aliens Directorate, Petrou Ralli)

The Group of Lawyers for the Rights of Migrants and Refugees together with AITIMA, the Greek Council for Refugees and the Ecumenical Refugee Program, co-signing the present press release, and in co-operation with other entities, groups and NGOs, carried out a protest outside the building of the Attica Aliens Directorate (Petrou Ralli) from Friday 17 February 2012, 21:00 until 07:00 am on Saturday, 18 February 2012. (See below the invitation for the protest as well as the text of the organisations which responded positively to the invitation) 

Press Release for the illegal arrest of Greek lawyers outside the Turkish Embassy

PRESS RELEASE

In the early afternoon hours of the 24th of January 2012, members of the "Alternative Intervention of Athens Lawyers" and the "Group of Lawyers for the Rights of Migrants and Refugees" gathered outside the Turkish Embassy in Athens, in order to protest against the continuing imprisonment of 39 Turkish and Kurdish human rights defenders, who were arrested in our neighboring country, simply because of their work as lawyers. Similar protests were organised by colleagues of ours in most European capitals within the framework of a pan-European day of solidarity towards our imprisoned colleagues in Turkey.

The Athens Bar Association expresses its strong protest against the illegal and arbitrary detention for questioning of lawyers

ATHENS BAR ASSOCIATION
Academias 60, 10679 Athens
Tel 210-33.98.270, 71
Athens, 24.1.2012

ANNOUNCEMENT

The Athens Bar Association expresses its strong protest against the illegal and arbitrary detention for questioning of lawyers, who protested outside the Turkish Embassy against the arrests of 39 Kurdish lawyers, human rights defenders, in the framework of a respective EU-wide day of protest.

The ABA will proceed to a relevant objection demarche to the Minister of Citizens’ Protection, the Minister of Justice and the General Police Directorate.

The President
John D. Adamopoulos

See the official announcement in Greek here