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.”