Tag Archives: 2013

Greece, Media, Mytilini, Press Realease

Press Release: Lesvos/ Greece the new European cage for migrants

Lesvos/ Greece the new European cage for migrants

The recent tragedies in Lampedusa have highlighted, once again, the prevailing indifference of the EU toward the fate of migrants. At the gates of Europe, in Italy as well as on the Greek islands, migrants are subjected to arbitrary and dangerous border controls and security measures that put their lives at risk.

In the last days more than 80 migrants succeeded in reaching the island of Lesvos despite the numerous illegal push backs that take place in the Aegean Sea. These women, children, and men, fleeing war-torn countries, dictatorial regimes or unsustainable socio-economic conditions, are subjected to violence and the indifference of the Greek and European authorities. In absence of any clear regulation, police and coast guard authorities keep the migrants who survive the dangerous sea crossing in a legal limbo, without any form of protection, care, and information.

Migrants who arrive on the island of Lesvos have to be registered in order to be able to leave the island. However, this registration is currently only happening after having been arrested and detained in a newly constructed detention facility near the village of Moria. Opened on the 25th of September 2013, the detention centre is officially described as a “first reception centre” but is de facto a closed camp, surrounded by fences and barbed wire. In the end it shall provide also about 600 places for longterm detention. The local police, assisted by the European agency Frontex, is responsible for identifying migrants, trying to obtain information concerning migration patterns. These procedures are not meant to offer protection for migrants but instead constitute strategies for further control, surveillance and deterrence. Applying for asylum is currently impossible. Continue reading Press Release: Lesvos/ Greece the new European cage for migrants →

Greece, Journey back to the borders, Mytilini, Part I

Goodbye Mytilene!

For many of the young people the past two weeks have been special:

For the ones who had arrived in Lesvos some years ago and have reached other EU-countries and built their lives there.
For the ones who are fighting for their rights and the rights of all others in Germany and elsewhere.
For the ones who have newly arrived on Lesvos and are currently trying to find a way out from Greece.

We wish all of them a safe and good journey!

Kalo taksidi!
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Greece, Journey back to the borders, Memorials, Part I

Oktober 2013: Memorial in Thermi

12th of October 2013

We came together today. Here in the harbour of Thermi we gathered for remembering the dead of the European border regime.

In the last years about 20.000 people have been killed by these murderous borders – here in the Aegean, at the street of Gibraltar and many have been lost in the Mediterranean between Lybia and Italy. The numbers of deaths at the European borders have increased tremendously.

Since the Lampedusa tragedy with more than 300 dead a few days ago and yesterday another tragedy happend in front of the Italian island. All over Europe there is an outcry: this senseless death at the border has to be stopped! There should be safe ways for refugees to reach Europe!
Continue reading Oktober 2013: Memorial in Thermi →

Greece, Mytilini

Moria: Day 2

Moria: Reception or detention? What does it look like? Moria: Reception or detention? What does it look like?[/caption]
One Palestinian family and 8 Afghans – among them unaccompanied minors – are being hold for he second day in the new “first reception centre” – prison in Moria, Mytilene.

According to Oxford Dictionnries a “reception centre” is:

a hostel providing temporary accommodation for distressed people such as refugees, the homeless, and those with psychiatric difficulties.

while a “detention centre” is:

an institution for the short-term detention of illegal immigrants, refugees, people awaiting trial or sentence, or (formerly in the UK) young offenders.

Free all detained refugees!
No prisons but open welcome centres!