City Plaza Hotel Athens (Greece): A refugee-housing squat as an example of how to fight social struggles together on a daily level and for another tomorrow‏

with many pictures:
http://infomobile.w2eu.net/2016/05/29/city-plaza-hotel-athens-greece/#more-3849

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City Plaza Hotel Athens (Greece)

A refugee-housing squat as an example of how to fight social struggles
together on a daily level and for another tomorrow

„The City Plaza squat at 78 Acharnon celebrates its first month. The
hotel now houses refugee families totalling 385 people, including 180
children. These include 22 single parent families, as well as people
with disabilities. The nationalities that make up City Plaza include
Afghans, Kurds, Syrians, Palestinians, Iranians, Iraqis and Pakistanis.
The families being housed at City Plaza were selected on the basis of
their previous “housing” arrangement as well as on the particular
problems being faced by each one. Each family lives in a separate room
of the hotel, while all inhabitants are provided with breakfast, lunch
and dinner, as well as with hygiene products and other essentials.
Nearly all are covered through solidarity offerings, while the few
purchases that need to be made are financed through donations sourced
from within Greece and from abroad.

In a framework of self-organization and coexistence, there are teams for
cleaning, cooking, security, education and childcare, medical care,
communications, reception, as well as regular assemblies of refugees and
solidarians. Initiatives such as that of City Plaza, apart from granting
obvious rights and needs, also put in practice a conception of everyday
life which aims to, through self organization and “bottom up”
emancipation, ultimately form a space of freedom and creativity, which
will act as living proof of the society which we envision.“ This is how
the call for an Open Assembly in the City Plaza Hotel in Athens starts.
The whole text can be found on their Blog.

Among the first residents of the squat are many highly vulnerable people
and refugees who have been supporting them in solidarity already before,
when they were still neighbours in one of the overcrowded and
sub-standard mass camps of the government. More than that, those that
already helped others to self-organise, who accompanied them to
hospitals and to NGOs, who voluntarily translated, they also suggested
persons to move in who were in great need. So there is a lot of
experience in self-organising under extremely difficult conditions
already existent among the inhabitants which meets in one space with the
solidarity of others from Greece and all over the world. During our
first visit to the ‘Plaza’ we spoke with many of the refugees who found
a temporary home there. It is them who described to us their impressions
and experiences of the first three weeks and what is most important for
them about this space.

Safety and privacy

When we asked B. who fled with her child from the threats of her violent
ex-husband, what is most important for her in this place, she did not
need to think one second about it:
„For me the most important is that I found safety. I have for the first
time since long ago a room with a door that I can lock if I need this.
There is always someone at the entrance of the hotel, checking who is
coming and going. And there are a lot of people here I can go to when I
get afraid.“

“When I need to cry, I can do it in our room. When I need to take a
rest, I can close the door. Here we got back a little bit of privacy.”
Says F. a young Afghan woman who lived before in the overcrowded camp of
Elliniko. “Especially in the night when I had to go to toilet I could
never go alone as a woman.”


Medical needs

N. from Afghanistan suffers from Diabetes. She used to live in an
emergency reception centre in Greater Athens area one-hour drive by
public transportation from the city centre. As the bus connection is
poor and she lacks money for taking the bus and the metro, she couldn’t
regularly get her Insulin from Praksis’ offices, which are located near
Victoria Square. More than that, she had no access to a fridge in order
to adequately store the medicine. When she moved to the City Plaza,
which is opposite to Praksis offices, she found out that her room had a
proper place for her medicine: “There is a fridge. That is such a
relief,” her daughter said immediately.

Also F. from Afghanistan felt slightly better since moving in. “I have
cancer. I was staying in a tent for more than a month. Rain was entering
and the floor was wet and humid. Later the sun was creating the feeling
of getting boiled inside. I was never examined and I suffered a lot of
pain. Here I know there is a doctor and others who take care of me. Also
my children now don’t get sick anymore like before. They even have a
place to play.”


To find better sleep

F. from Afghanistan had a heart operation just two months ago. She was
living in an emergency reception centre in Athens where she had to share
one space with 1,500 others. Until she moved to the City Plaza. The day
she moved in her daughter said: “I cannot tell you how happy I felt to
see my mum sleep calm. Every excitement is a danger for her life.”
23-year-old H. from Afghanistan is taking many responsibilities in the
Hotel. He most of all expressed his gratitude to have a safe and calm
place to sleep. “The permanent noise, the fighting among people, the
insecurity not knowing what will come next… all this left me sleepless
in the camp. I even started having thoughts of suicide. Now I can sleep
better.”



A space of learning

„Before I came to City Plaza I could not speak English. All I can speak
I learned here. And also some Greek.“ said A. from Afghanistan, who is
still a teenager and left behind his family when he had to flee. He
crossed the Mediterranean Sea in a small rubber boat towards Greece. His
brother E., as well underage, lives together with him and three other
youngsters in one room until hopefully one day a place in one of the
rare accommodations for unaccompanied minor refugees will be found for
them or until they can manage to travel to their relatives who live in
other European countries. E. started giving language classes to the
other residents the second day after moving in. Every night, when it
gets calmer they gather in the dining room and he just passes on all he
knows to 10 other youngsters – girls and boys alike: „I like so much
giving classes and it is very good to have something to do that makes
sense. I would like to do more than this. It is a good place for me to
effectively spent my time and for us all to learn something new. … Until
now I was just surviving in Greece. Now I can say I am living.”

More then 180 children are living in City Plaza. Nobody was really
prepared for this. In week three A. and N. a couple from Syria handed
out a questionnaire to each room. They wanted to figure out how many
children there are and of which age in order to form classes for all.
Both are teachers and they have a lot of experience: „We did that even
in the military camp where I had to stay before. What we need is to form
small groups, we cannot teach these kids in too big groups. Many of them
have seen a lot of bad things and they need to learn in small and
decentralised groups, so we can better understand each single child and
its needs. I would like to form a network of teachers so we also try to
find out, who else in this hotel has worked in this field before.“



Multicultural encounters and solidarity

„For the first time since I am in Greece we are living in an atmosphere
that makes it possible to speak with our neighbours no matter where they
come from. It is the first time that I found friends from Afghanistan
and the first time that we start to understand that only united we can
be strong,“ says N. a young Syrian woman with Palestinian routes. She is
waiting for family reunification with her father and brothers in
Stuttgart. They are three women: N., her mother and the wife of her
brother, who are travelling together with the children of her brothers.
The three of them had to keep the family together since all men left
more then two years ago – and after a long time of waiting they realized
that they had to make the dangerous trip to Europe as well – all by
themselves. The situation in Yarmouk, the old Palestinian refugee camp
in Damascus, worsened day by day. Like many other families in City Plaza
they tried many times via Skype to make an appointment for the family
reunification application, without success.cityplaza2

„The best in City Plaza: It is a place where you can meet many people
from so many places, who come here to join us. I speak a lot with all
the volunteers and activists and I get a better understanding of the
European countries they come from and when I will make it out of here I
have already a lot of friendships in many places. This is a gift,“ says
A. from Iraq who hopes that finally his application for relocation for
him, his wife and two daughters will be accepted – and he hopes to find
a receiving country that is giving him a chance to build up a future for
them and their kids.

Still there are many things unsolved: As all the 54,000 refugees in the
camps outside also everyone in City Plaza is suffering from the lack of
a solution for their basic problem: How to leave Greece. “Until when do
we have to stay here?” is what everyone thinks day and night. As
everyone had started from war-torn home knowing the Balkan Route was
open, finding oneself confronted with a closed border in Northern
Greece, took the hope away, that was driving them along this risky
escape to Europe. Despite the many opportunities and the good atmosphere
in the Hotel many people are depressed and unable to even think of
alternative strategies to cope with the current condition. At the same
time, too many are separated from family members in other European
countries since long time. In order to reunite they have to overcome the
obstacle of accessing the asylum system in Greece. But this seems to be
blocked totally until August, when the newly announced “pre-registration
exercise” which is supposed to start end of May, should finish. So the
most common things to hear among residents of the Plaza are currently:

Every day there are families outside the door and we cannot host them
because all rooms are full – we need many more places like City Plaza.” And:
“We appreciate all we have found here, but we are still hoping the
border will open once more and we will continue our journey until we
reach our final destination.”

The first open assembly in City Plaza took place in the meantime. The
results, as announced, correspond to what those living there described
as urgent needs and wishes:

“We talked about strengthening and multiplying solidarity initiatives,
opening empty buildings in the centres of cities, either by solidarity
initiatives or by demanding that the state do so, Organizing targeted
struggles for the equal access of refugees to social services,
particularly education and health care, linking struggles for refugees
to struggles against class exploitation and oppression, and about living
and fighting together.
In the spirit of cooperation, not competition, and with respect for the
autonomy of each initiative, we discussed issues surrounding the support
for and the functioning of the squat, as well as the need for a
coordinated effort to act and fight for the opening of the borders, for
a definitive solution for permanent housing, as well as for the social
integration of economic and political refugees, pertaining to refugee
access to social services, being ranted asylum to those who wish it, and
of course ensuring everything is in place for refugees to continue their
journeys to their destinations.”

The whole declaration can be found here.


When we left the hotel we said we hoped to meet again. Maybe in Greece,
maybe in Germany, maybe elsewhere. Hopefully it will be a better place.
One of the minors brought it to the point: “I hope very much that I will
be in Sweden with my uncle when you come back again here. But I am
afraid in Sweden I will not find a place like this and that Sweden will
not say welcome to me – because it seems to me that in Europe nowhere we
are welcome.”

Many of the struggles of the people in City Plaza are struggles not only
to be fought in Greece and not only by them. It is about Europe and the
social conditions we want to live in. “We” means all of us being here
and those who will come. In all the small daily struggles there is a
glimpse of this question of global social rights.

The squat cannot be the solution for all of this but a vivid example of
how things can be better if each of us tries. It will not solve the
European shame, but it can be an outcry of solidarity: Against this
European ‘closed gate’ policy that is trying to keep refugees out no
matter what and that has forced the inhabitants of City Plaza to stay in
a country that never was their final destination, that can never secure
their basic rights – and there are many others in much worse conditions
stuck in the mass camps all over Greece. It will especially not be a
solution for all of those, who are still remaining outside the
‘fortress’ doors, those stuck on the Greek islands, in the so called
‘hot spots’ or even further away in Turkey, Libya, Morocco or elsewhere
at the outer borders of the European Union. City Plaza is a symbol that
it can be possible: Another, a welcoming Europe.


Welcome to Europe, 29th of May 2016