you maybe remember our experiance in PIKPA in September with the Syrian
families that have been kicked out of their rooms in PIKPA from 2
Frontex officers and our (w2eu) reacting to it.
since Frontex immediatly after statewatch published our press release,
answered saying this never happened, we send a mail to statewatch
explaining the hole story in details .
so this is published and i just wanted to remind us all that reacting is
important.
greets
marily
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2013/sep/frontex-mytilene-operations.htm
FRONTEX activities on Mytilene, Greece:
Attempt to take over "open" PIPKA migrant centre, "closed" detention
centre set up
- FRONTEX claim that families were not expelled from their rooms refuted
30.9.13
Earlier this month the EU’s border agency FRONTEX was accused by migrant
support groups on the Greek island of Mytilene of expelling migrant
families from rooms that they were occupying, in order to set up their
own offices at the PIPKA "open" migrant centre. FRONTEX subsequently
disputed these claims, saying that the events described never took
place. Now groups on the island have issued a statement disputing
FRONTEX’s statements and describing in detail their version of events.
1. "Village of All together" and w2eu contacted Statewatch with the
following information:
GREECE: FRONTEX: Mytilene/Greece: European Border Agency FRONTEX invades
place of solidarity (9 September 2013, pdf):
"The people of the Greek island Lesvos (Mytilene) are famous for their
solidarity to the refugees arriving on the island. In December 2012 the
solidarity organized by the network "Village of Alltogether" was in the
focus of international media as a seldom example of good practice
showing that human rights in reality are a matter of the people and not
of politicians and their empty words...European Border Agency FRONTEX,
has prepared themselves to occupy two rooms in the main building with
the aim to open an office for their so called “screening”. ... On the
6th of September 2013 two FRONTEX-officers from Italy and Sweden
expulsed a family with small children and a pregnant woman from the
rooms they were hosted in order to occupy and re-use these rooms as
their offices introducing themselves as European Border Police."
2. FRONTEX Press Office contacted Statewatch to dispute the claim made
in the final paragraph of the press release. A FRONTEX Press Officer,
said the statement is factually incorrect and FRONTEX staff and seconded
national officials on Mytilene have said that the expulsion of people
from rooms in which they were staying never took place. They did not
contest that FRONTEX officers had visited the Pikpa Centre or that it
was planned to set up a "closed" camp on the island - as they they have
done: Press release: village of all together: Morias’ prison in Lesvos
has opened (posted 26 September, link) and see: Moria: Day 2 (link):
"Moria: Reception or detention? What does it look like? 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."
3. Statewatch contacted "Village of all-Together" and Welcome to Europe
(w2eu) who issued a statement refuting FRONTEX's claim: Concerning the
statement of Frontex's Press Officer, disputing the claims made in the
final paragraph of our press release and its denial by Frontex staff and
seconded national officials on Mytilene (pdf)
"The incident happened Friday [6 September]...Two Frontex officers
[thought to be Swedish and Italian] entered the building and went up to
the first floor where the two [Syrian] families were hosted. (The main
building has two extra rooms, where the most vulnerable refugees are
hosted due to better housing conditions i.e. extra bathrooms). They told
the families to move out of their rooms and go out, since they wanted to
open their offices there. They had to move to the wooden houses that
have no extra bathrooms, they are more exposed to the weather and they
are shared by more persons. At night to go to the toilets you have to
walk in the dark. The refugees were afraid and followed the "orders" of
the Frontex officers."
On Saturday 7 September w2eu members went to the centre and:
"We decided to speak with the responsible Frontex officers as soon as
they would appear. They came in Monday morning. A female Frontex officer
came to PIKPA with her translator. When she was about to go up to the
first floor to claim the rooms that had been emptied by the families
already on Friday we stopped her and asked where she was going. We asked
them who had given them the permit to use these rooms but they couldn't
answer. Only 30 minutes later another Frontex officer came accompanied
by a Greek police officer, the latter remained outside of the area
belonging to PIKPA. The second officer told us the Greek police had
given them the permit to use the rooms. The place though does not belong
to the Greek police but to the municipality. So he left saying he had to
clear this up with the Greek police.
When he left we asked the Syrian families to return to the rooms in the
first floor where they stayed until they left Mytilene. The families
were very grateful. Before leaving they held a very touching speech to
the civil society supporting them."
For the latest information see: http://lesvos.w2eu.net/
Background: See also: Statewatch visit to the Pikpa Centre for
asylum-seekers in Mytilene Tony Bunyan (Statewatch Director) and Ann
Singleton (Co-Chair of Statewatch) visited the Pikpa Centre in early
April 2013, an open facility run by volunteers in a building provided by
the municipality. A significant number of the people in Pikpa today have
been there for 17 or 18 days, not knowing if they will ever see a
lawyer, be able to claim asylum, or move out of the Centre.
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» Statewatch about Frontex answer and our answer, on their througing out Syrian migrants from their rooms to make offices, in PIKPA September 13r, in Mytilene, Greece.