Immigration detention centres - “Warehouses” of souls and bodies

A year after the start of operation Xenios Zeus, the uprising in Amygdaleza detention centre reminded us of the approximately 4,000 to 5,000 people held in various detention centres – warehouses all over the country we had forgotten about.

In crisis-stricken Greece operation ‘Xenios Zeus’ has been used by the Greek government as a means of rounding up a redundant and unemployed segment of the migrant labour force from the center of Athens under the pretext of controlling the legality of their residence.

These people have been transferred to new detention centers (Amygdaleza, Corinth, Xanthi, Komotini, etc.) set up specifically for this purpose but which hardly differ from extant facilities (police stations, former warehouses, etc.) that were the subject of a Public Statement by the Committee for the Prevention of Torture of the Council of Europe in March 2011 and have given rise to a multitude of convictions by the European Court of Human Rights on grounds of the inhuman and degrading treatment of the detainees.

World Organisation Against Torture: Police harassment of lawyer Electra Koutra

GRE 001 / 0613 / OBS 050
Arbitrary arrest / Police harassment
Greece
June 13, 2013

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Greece.

Brief description of the situation:

The Observatory has been informed by the Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM) about the police harassment of Ms. Electra Koutra, President of the Hellenic Action for Human Rights (HAHUR) and GHM legal counsel, in the framework of police profiling operation against transgender persons in Thessaloniki.

According to the information received, in the night of June 4 to June 5, 2013, around midnight, Ms. Electra Koutra was arbitrarily detained at the Democratias Square police station in Thessaloniki, where she had gone in her capacity of lawyer for the Greek Transgendered Support Association (GTSA) to defend a transgender person who was abusively detained for the third time in four days, following an extensive police operation leading to the arbitrary arrest of many transgender persons on the eve of the Thessaloniki LGBT Pride, on June 14 and 15, 2013.

FOR THE CASE OF THE ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCE OF BULUT YAYLA

URGENT ANNOUNCEMENT CONCERNING THE CASE OF THE ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCE OF BULUT YAYLA*

Athens, 2.6.2013

On Thursday 30.05.2013 at 9.30pm, Bulut Yayla, a 24 years old, Turkish political refugee was detained, beaten and violently abducted by people aboard a private car at the center of Athens - Greece.

Through eyewitness testimonies and research conducted by the victim's comrades and lawyers, it was revealed that the license plate of the car in question belongs to the Greek Police. However, the police still claim they have nothing to do with the incident, despite the persistent and constant allegations of his comrades, lawyers and political actors.

Yesterday 01.06.2013, Bulut Yayla's family announced that he is kept in custody at Istanbul's Antiterrorist Unit. According to the victim’s allegations, a group of people speaking Greek, pushed him inside a car, using extreme violence, shutting his mouth and eyes. Then he was transferred in another car by a second group of people speaking Greek and Turkish and then a third group who spoke Turkish and English.

Par rapport au cas de «disparition forcée» de Bulut Yayla

ANNONCE URGENTE

2.6.2013

Jeudi 30.05.2013, à 21h.30, Bulut Yayla, 24 ans, réfugié politique d’ origine turque, a été immobilisé, violamment battu et enlevé en plein centre d'Athènes, et ce devant une multitude de témoins.

Les plaques d'immatriculation relevées par les témoins correspondent à des véhicules de la police grecque. Pourtant, la police nie tout lien avec l'incident, malgré l'insistance de ses camarades, d'avocats et d'acteurs politiques.

Hier, samedi 1 Juin 2013, à midi, les proches de Bulut Yayla ont annoncé qu’il est détenu au département Anti-Terroriste de la police à Istanbul. Bulut Yayla dénonce que des personnes qui parlaient grec l’ ont mis de force dans une voiture, en couvrant sa bouche et ses yeux. Par la suite, il a été transféré dans une seconde voiture. Cette fois, ses détenteurs parlaient grec et turc. Il est enfin passé aux mains d' un troisième groupe qui parlait turc et anglais.

Pendant toute la durée d’ otage B.Y. a été maltraîté, et a subi des violences extrêmes.

Annuncio urgente sulla sparizione forzata di Bulut Yayla

Annuncio urgente sulla sparizione forzata di Bulut Yayla*

Αtene, 2.6.2013

Alle 21:30 di Giovedì 30.5.2013, Bulut Yayla, un rifugiato politico turco di 24 anni, è stato arrestato, picchiato e brutalmente rapito da persone a bordo di una macchina privata nel centro di Atene – Grecia.

Dai testimoni oculari e dalle ricerche svolte dai compagni della vittima e da alcuni avvocati, è stato scoperto che la targa della macchina in questione appartiene alla polizia greca. La polizia, però, continua a sostenere di non aver niente a che fare con l’incidente, nonostante le accuse persistenti e costanti da parte dei suoi compagni, degli avvocati e di esponenti politici.

Ieri, 1.6.2013, la famiglia di Bulut Yayla ha annunciato che il ragazzo è detenuto presso l’Unità Antiterrorismo di Istanbul. Secondo le accuse della vittima, un gruppo di persone che parlavano greco lo ha trascinato su una macchina, usando una violenza estrema, chiudendogli la bocca e gli occhi. È stato poi trasferito su un’altra macchina con un secondo gruppo di persone che parlavano greco e turco, e poi con un terzo gruppo di persone che parlava turco e inglese.

Durante la sua detenzione, Bulut Yayla ha subito violenze, abusi e maltrattamenti. La sera di venerdì, Bulut Yayla è stato consegnato al Dipartimento di Polizia di Edirne, da dove poi è stato trasferito all’Unità Antiterrorismo di Istanbul.

Press Release - No Political Refugee must be extradited to Turkey

SOLIDARITY WITH THE TURKISH AND KURDISH POLITICAL REFUGEES AND ACTIVISTS THAT ARE AT IMMINENT RISK OF EXTRADITION TO TURKEY


NO POLITICAL REFUGEE MUST BE EXTRADITED TO TURKEY

19 APRIL 2013 AT AREIOS PAGOS (09:30 am) – SUPREME COURT ON THE APPLICATIONS FOR THE EXTRADITION OF ZEKI GORBUZ AND COMERT BULENT AYTUNC

The deterioration in the protection of civil, political and social rights and freedoms has been continuing under the current Greek Government, partially due to the economic crisis. Against this background, and following Prime Minister Samaras' visit to Ankara and the announcement of closer co-operation between the Greek and the Turkish Government, the Greek authorities, which in the past only reluctantly enacted international arrest warrants against Turkish refugees, have over the past two months engaged in a real witch hunt against all those wanted for their political actions in Turkey.

Pursuant to this governmental agreement, the Greek authorities have so far arrested five refugees with a view to extradite them. Their detention continues until today. At least one of them has been deprived of his liberty since 12 February, more than two months.

Parallel to these arrests of Turkish and Kurdish activists, an alarming number of publications in the Turkish press have referred to agreements between the two governments on the extradition of the wanted people and to secret bilateral anti-terrorist agreements with financial rewards, while portraying specific refugees in Greece, publishing their names and predicting their arrests by the Greek authorities.

Greece Becomes Outpost in Turkey’s “Anti-Terror” Campaign

ATHENS, Apr 13 2013 (IPS) - Zeki Gorbuz, a Turkish asylum seeker in Greece, who was arrested on Feb. 12, remains detained today due to an international warrant that was transmitted by Turkish authorities to Greece just one day before his asylum interview. Turkish media were quick to report the arrest, describing Gorbuz as a radical leftist and regional leader of the Marxist Leninist Communist Party (MLCP), which has been designated as a terrorist organisation by the Turkish government.

On the same day that Gorbuz was detained, Bulent Aytunc Comert, who arrived in Greece as an asylum seeker in 2002, was also arrested. His request for asylum was approved in 2003 but was never cleared by the ministry of police.

Branded by Turkish authorities as a member of the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), Comert is a fugitive. He was imprisoned in the notorious solitary confinement units known as the “White Cells” on what he says was a fabricated murder charge.