Solidarity structures in Greece confronted with criminalization, control and diverse obstacles‏

Source:
http://infomobile.w2eu.net/2016/04/03/solidarity-structures-in-greece-confronted-with-criminalization-control-and-diverse-obstacles/


Solidarity structures in Greece confronted with criminalization, control
and diverse obstacles


Since the dirty deal between the EU and Turkey was made on 18th of March
the situation in Greece worsened rapidly. Safer formal ways through the
Balkan-corridor were closed down already before by the European
governments while more than 50,000 refugees are caught up inside Greece.
More than 90% come from war torn countries such as Syria, Iraq and
Afghanistan and the majority are women and children. More than one month
after the closure of the border to FYROM / Macedonia they are still
under shock by the sudden changes unable even to consider alternatives
such as relocation, family reunification or asylum. They cannot realize
and accept that this is the new reality they have to confront, with
everybody being stuck in limbo under inhuman conditions in refugee tent
camps all over Greece.

From Monday, 4th of April, on the return agreement with Turkey will be
implemented with more than 500 people being readmitted from the Hot
Spots on the islands of the Aegean which have been turned into detention
and deportation centres in practice. Only the ones applying for asylum
or family reunification and unaccompanied minors will not be deported
back to Turkey. Asylum applications since a few days have reached
unprecedented peaks while the Asylum Service is not able to deal with
the many applications.

Resistance against deportations in the hotspots on the Greek islands
started already: in Moria, Lesvos, the Hot Spot that is totally
overcrowded with more then 2,000 detainees a group consisting mainly of
Pakistani refugees started a hunger strike. They belong to the five
nationalities that are already affected by the more than 700
readmissions that were conducted since the beginning of the year. In
“Vial”, the Hot Spot on Chios, half of the people escaped after a revolt
on 2nd of April from the closed camp and marched to the port of Chios
city where they are staying since then. They are protesting and
demanding their freedom of movement in order to travel further on. Today
again another protest was started in Vial by mainly Afghan refugees
against their deportation. In Athens demonstrations for open borders
took place already twice with hundreds of refugees most of which were
Afghans, a major group within the refugee population who can not take
part in the relocation program and who are largely excluded from the few
possibilities of adequate reception conditions. In several open camps on
the mainland protests within the last week refugees all over Greece
demanded open borders as well as for better conditions in the camps.

Already since several weeks solidarity structures are being increasingly
criminalized suffering repression by the authorities and exclusion from
different official refugee agglomeration sites. We declare our deep
solidarity with all the people who have been since months on the ground,
struggling for the rights and dignity of those on the way and a lot of
times for their mere survival. The example of Lesvos, which was for the
last year the island with the highest number in arrivals, shows how an
amazing amount of solidarity and the many support structures could
create a welcoming atmosphere even in the hardest conditions reacting
immediately to emergency situations contrary to the formal structures of
the government, UNHCR or many bigger NGOs.

Since 14th of January Proem-Aid and Team Humanity, two rescue teams
being active on Lesvos island, were criminalized when the Greek coast
guard arrested their team in Lesvos, for an alleged offence of
trafficking in persons. They were arrested while they did exactly what
they had been doing already for many weeks: rescuing people who were in
danger to drown, often in a close cooperation with the Greek coastguard.
They weren’t the only ones: on Lesvos there are several support teams
active in recue missions, such as Medicins Sans Frontières (MSF)
Greenpeace, Seawatch, ProActiva or Platanos.

Since February the Greek government started requesting from all
volunteers active on the beaches and then the others working in and
around Moria Hot Spot to get registered. They also demanded from the
NGOs active in the respective areas to hand over lists of members and
volunteers working for their organizations and register with detailed
information on their own structures and funding.
Volunteers and activists were the ones who had been giving refugees
shaking from the cold and the horror of distress at sea dry clothes
providing also first aid. They were the ones who saved uncounted people
suffering serious medical problems unnoticed in the crowds in front or
inside Moria Hot Spot. In a lot of situations they started to support
the refugees and to coordinate among each other very fast, while the big
NGOs were still monitoring and the government still trying to make
plans. They were in Moria and in the port of Mytilene in the moments
when the big NGOs had stopped their work because the tensions among
refugees were estimated to endanger their employees. These activists and
volunteers did not only help and save lives, but they also saved the
dignity of the companions who had been forced to leave their homes in
search for protection and a safe life. They made reality that a
welcoming Europe could be possible. These activists are now partly
criminalized, while in the same moment they are still asked to provide
food for the open camps on the Greek mainland when there is a lack of
food or even for those detained, what solidarity groups denied.
None of them need to be registered and listed to be used from
authorities for their purposes. They are and want to stay independent.
Trying to register them is opposing the power of solidarity of
individuals. Statewatch criticized the registration as follows: “There
is no better example of the crucial role of independent NGOs and
volunteers than in the Greek islands over the last year and for long
before that. Now the Greek state at the behest of the EU is seeking to
get all volunteers to “register” with the police and hand over lots of
personal data including previous “activities” – they are being asked to
spy on themselves. And NGOs are being asked register their organisations
and hand over personal details of all their volunteers/members to the
police. Demands that NGOs hand over personal details of all their
members to the state has no place in a democracy. The exceptional
measures being taken in Greece may become the norm across the EU if not
challenged now by NGOs and civil society.”

In this moment two solidarity spaces on Lesvos are under the threat to
be evicted very soon. Both structures did an incredible job by giving
food and also a space to rest to thousands of people: The
https://www.indymedia.nl/node/32747 in Tsamakia beach in the city of
Mytilene and Platanos refugee solidarity, the anarchist self-organised
space in Skala Sikamnias in the North of the island. Even before the
authorities started a offense against the solidarity kitchens by the
excuse of improving hygienical standards, like in the case of “O Allos
Antrophos” who recently got kicked out of Elliniko Camp where 1,500
refugees are hosted under highly provisory and inadequate conditions –
as well as the solidarity kitchen of Pikpa who during autumn supplied
refugees in Moria Hot Spot with thousands of meals.

Even the internationally praised open welcome structure in PIKPA
(Lesvos) run by the Village of all Together solidarity group is again
under threat to be closed. PIKPA, a former summer camp for children, was
unused and run-down and is located near the airport of Mytilene. Since
November 2012 the mayor of Mytilene gave the permission to use the space
for ‘Village of all together’ group. The story of this unique and
self-organised place of solidarity that welcomes newly arriving refugees
began three years ago in the winter when refugees arriving from Turkey
under bad weather conditions had to sleep homeless under trees, waiting
for the police to arrest them for registration. Fascists threw stones at
a pregnant woman who was sleeping outside. The ‘Village of all together’
then opened PIKPA as a reaction to this unbearable situation and from
then on an unbelievably high number of normal people made sure that food
could be offered to all on a daily basis – from November 2012 until
today. Last year Pikpa started hosting the most vulnerable people among
refugees, among them many survivors of shipwrecks who had lost relatives
and friends. When Pikpa was under threat to be evicted the last time in
March 2015 we collected stories of many people who had spent time in
Pikpa. Pikpa accommodated hundreds of vulnerable people also during
their asylum procedure and the long-lasting procedures of
family-reunification with family members in other European countries.

The Hope Center- Eftalou, a self-organised accommodation place planned
to open in the North of Lesvos with exactly the same purpose suffers
also great obstacles to get permission and finally start functioning. In
the same time in the informal camps in the port of Piraeus and in
Idomeni hundreds of highly vulnerable people stay without shelter and
even often unidentified by the authorities unprotected in tents without
any formal assistance.

Together with all others who stand day by day side by side with the
refugees we see only one possible answer that could solve the many problems:
Open borders!
Freedom of movement!