Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Afghan Refugees at Ministry of Citizen Protection, Athens (updated)

The six Afghan refugees with sewn lips, who are on the 21st day of hunger strike at Propylaia (Academic University), went today to the Ministry of Citizen Protection, together with their kids and families. Athens, Greece. 18/01/2011



Riot police surrounded them and prevented them from going to the Ministry of Citizen Protection. Athens, Greece. 18/01/2011

An Afghan refugee on a hunger strike with his mouth sewn shut, seeks asylum outside the Greek Citizen Protection Ministry (former Public Order Ministry) Athens, Greece. 18/01/2011

Riot police surrounded the refugees and prevented them from going to the Ministry of Citizen Protection, and put 3 of them to a police car for a while. Athens, Greece. 18/01/2011

Riot police surrounded them and prevented them from going to the Ministry of Citizen Protection. Athens, Greece. 18/01/2011

Riot police surrounded them and prevented them from going to the Ministry of Citizen Protection. Athens, Greece. 18/01/2011

Riot police surrounded them and prevented them from going to the Ministry of Citizen Protection. Athens, Greece. 18/01/2011

Riot police surrounded them and prevented them from going to the Ministry of Citizen Protection. Athens, Greece. 18/01/2011

Riot police surrounded them and prevented them from going to the Ministry of Citizen Protection. Athens, Greece. 18/01/2011

Riot police surrounded them and prevented them from going to the Ministry of Citizen Protection. Athens, Greece. 18/01/2011

Riot police surrounded them and prevented them from going to the Ministry of Citizen Protection. Athens, Greece. 18/01/2011

An Afghan refugee on a hunger strike with his mouth sewn shut, seeks asylum outside the Greek Citizen Protection Ministry (former Public Order Ministry) Athens, Greece. 18/01/2011

An Afghan refugee on a hunger strike with his mouth sewn shut, seeks asylum outside the Greek Citizen Protection Ministry (former Public Order Ministry) Athens, Greece. 18/01/2011

The delegation entering to the Ministry of Citizen Protection. Athens, Greece. 18/01/2011

The six Afghan refugees with sewn lips, who are on the 21st day of hunger strike at Propylaia (Academic University), went today to the Ministry of Citizen Protection, together with their kids and families. Athens, Greece. 18/01/2011

The six Afghan refugees with sewn lips, who are on the 21st day of hunger strike at Propylaia (Academic University), went today to the Ministry of Citizen Protection, together with their kids and families. Athens, Greece. 18/01/2011

An Afghan refugee on a hunger strike with his mouth sewn shut, seeks asylum outside the Greek Citizen Protection Ministry (former Public Order Ministry) Athens, Greece. 18/01/2011

The six Afghan refugees with sewn lips, who are on the 21st day of hunger strike at Propylaia (Academic University), went today to the Ministry of Citizen Protection, together with their kids and families. Athens, Greece. 18/01/2011

UPDATES: January 19th, 2011: Two more Afghan people have sewn their mouths and are on hunger strike in Propylaia from today morning.

UPDATES: January 19th, 2011: Two more Afghan people have sewn their mouths and are on hunger strike in Propylaia from today morning.

UPDATES: January 19th, 2011: Two more Afghan people have sewn their mouths and are on hunger strike in Propylaia from today morning.

UPDATES: January 19th, 2011: Two more Afghan people have sewn their mouths and are on hunger strike in Propylaia from today morning.

UPDATES: January 19th, 2011: Two more Afghan people have sewn their mouths and are on hunger strike in Propylaia from today morning.

UPDATES: January 20th, 2011: One more Afghan woman have sewn her mouth and she is on hunger strike in Propylaia from today. // Afghan refugee Waahide Rasuli 25y.o. and mother of 3 kids, in her tent.

UPDATES: January 20th, 2011: One more Afghan woman have sewn her mouth and she is on hunger strike in Propylaia from today. // Afghan refugee Waahide Rasuli 25y.o. and mother of 3 kids, in her tent.

UPDATES: January 20th, 2011: One more Afghan woman have sewn her mouth and she is on hunger strike in Propylaia from today. // Afghan refugee Waahide Rasuli 25y.o. and mother of 3 kids, in her tent.

UPDATES: January 20th, 2011: One more Afghan woman have sewn her mouth and she is on hunger strike in Propylaia from today. // Afghan refugee Waahide Rasuli 25y.o. and mother of 3 kids, in her tent.


The six Afghan refugees with sewn lips, who are on the 21st day of hunger strike at Propylaia (Academic University), went today to the Ministry of Citizen Protection, together with their kids and families. Athens, Greece. 18/01/2011

They came with the municipal councillor of the city of Athens, Petros Konstantinou and Naya Vartzeli, doctor and member of the General Assembly of ADEDY. Riot police surrounded them and prevented them from going to the Department of Citizen Protection, where the delegation would seek an urgent meeting because of the health status of strikers.
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Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi reports:
(text used by permission)
http://rebeccaomonira.wordpress.com/
18th January – “We are here and we are human”

“What is happening? What is going on?” asks a young woman looking shocked and slightly fearful. “It is a quiet area, its unusual this is happening here. In the centre [of Athens] yes, but not here”, she says, gesturing at the immaculate tree-lined streets leading up to the Greek ministry for citizen protection.

What had unsettled the woman was that about metre from where she was waiting for a bus, at least 20 armed police officers had formed two semi-circles around 15 Afghani men, women and children preventing them from leaving a small area of pavement. Ten of them were blue-uniformed ordinary officers with flat caps, riot shields, sneers and cigarettes – they formed the inner circle around the Afghans, stopping them from leaving the tight space (in England, they call this kettling, a controversial method used by the police to control large protests).

The outer ring was made of 10 riot officers in green khaki and wearing heavy black boots and protective knee pads. They wore helmets with shields and carried guns and canisters of tear gas. Having got caught in the kettle myself, I was quickly let out when I told them I was journalist. When I started taking pictures, a couple of officers started yelling for me to stop. Why? I asked. “Because the government says,” he said. Expecting trouble? I ask the police officer in charge. “We thought there would more of them,” he shrugs apologetically. “Since we’re here, we might as well stay.” He looks nervous as a Greek TV crew turns up.

The Afghans are asylum seekers caught up in Greece’s notoriously slow asylum system (what system? One Greek journalist tells me, exasperated. That’s the problem, we don’t have one). They were on their way to a meeting with the minister to present their demands: that their applications for asylum are looked at. The 15 represent a group of about 100 men, women and children, some who have waited years to have their applications looked at. The government must make it hard to get asylum in Greece, if it is easy everyone will come here, one sympathetic Greek activist tells me.

But despite the horror stories, they are still coming. Between 75-90% of asylum seekers and migrants that enter Europe travel through Greece and most get stuck unable to leave except illegally. Just last weekend 22 – that’s the official number but sources here say it is closer to 60 – Afghans went missing after their boat (carrying more than 200 people) hit difficult conditions sailing from Corfu to Italy. One Afghan man I spoke to in Victory Square, an area heavily populated with migrants, said he was depressed about the news. Not just because he had a friend on board, but because he had been hoping to leave Greece, where he’d been staying for 3 months with his wife and child.

The 100-odd Afghans are hoping to avoid being smuggled out of Greece or deported back to their war-torn country and be granted asylum legally. Since November they have set up a small protest camp outside Propylaea University in El Venizelou, a busy street forming part of a popular shopping district in Athens. Since 29 December six of them have sewn their lips together and are on hunger strike. They are desperate.

A representative from the ministry comes out and says five people can go in. Three Afghans, Petros Konstantinou (an Athens politician) and a representative from a doctors union go inside. The Afghans inside the “kettle” look tired, but hopeful. Reza is there with his wife and children including a 6-month-old baby daughter. “We want to show that we are human and we are here in Greece,” he says wearily. “We didn’t know this would happen.” But Sam, a confident 25-year-old Afghan in a Nike hoody with a sticker saying ‘asylum is my right’, says, “We are not afraid [of the riot police] because we were in a bad situation in Afghanistan.” I suppose having someone from the Taliban running your village would be scarier than Greek police officers calling you “wankers” (translation from Greek) and sneering at you.

After three hours, the five return with nothing. They didn’t get the meeting with the minister, but they met two senior officials who basically told them to wait until the end of month when the new asylum law (more on that later) becomes effective. The hunger strikers and their supporters looked crestfallen. They have pledged to continue their protest until their applications are looked at. Three of their number had already been in and out of hospital. “They want to put the life of the strikers at risk,” Petros said. But life in Greece without papers, without work and without hope is worse and as I write this one of the Afghans calls to say two more people have sewn their mouths and are on strike.

Petros, a left-wing councillor who won 90% of the immigrant vote last year, is full of hopeful rhetoric. “I think that the struggle of the refugees will be victorious.”
Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi
http://rebeccaomonira.wordpress.com/

UPDATES: January 20th, 2011: One more Afghan woman have sewn her mouth and she is on hunger strike in Propylaia from today.
Afghan people are doing what they have stated from the beginning: they increase the participation in the hunger strike and the cruel action of sewing lips, because Greek state remains unresponsive.
This makes a total of 9 people on hunger strike, with sewn lips. Six of them have sewn their lips on 29/12/2010 : http://www.demotix.com/news/546906/afghan-refugees-hunger-strike-sewn-lips-athens
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UPDATES: Two more Afghan people have sewn their mouths and are on hunger strike in Propylaia from today morning. Athens, Greece. January 19th, 2011
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- http://www.demotix.com/node/560352/



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Saturday, January 15, 2011

Afghan Refugees peaceful protest at Greek Parliament, Athens

Afghan Refugees on hunger strike with sewn lips gathered in Syntagma Square today to protest in front of the Greek Parliament, seeking political asylum. Athens, Greece. 14/01/2011.



























Statetment given from the Committee of Afghan Political Refugees at the Propylaea (Academic University):

Syntagma Square protest in front of the Greek Parliament House.

We the Afghan political refugees gathered today, Friday, January 14, at Syntagma Square to spread awareness of our request for political asylum. It was a peaceful protest and at the end of it four members of our group submitted an official letter to the president of the Greek Parliament, a copy of which he will give to all the leaders of the political parties that are represented in the Parliament.

There were no problems with the gathering and many Greek citizens signed our petition expressing their solidarity to our struggle.

The protest included the six members of our group who have sewn their lips together and are now in the 17th day of a hunger strike. During the last seven days every day one of them has had health complications and has been taken to hospital, but they insist on continuing with the strike. All of them stayed only a few hours at the hospital where they were given the necessary medical care, but all have refused to cut the stitches from their mouths. After visiting the hospital they returned to the Propylaea where they have been from November 22. Today at the end of this peaceful protest one more hunger striker had to be transferred to hospital. As the days pass their health condition is becoming critical.

Unfortunately, although we have informed the Ministry of Citizen Protection and other ministries and agencies, there has been no official response from any of them giving a clear answer to our request for political asylum.

We do not want to believe that the Greek state and the Greek people are apathetic and indifferent towards us and what we have been through in our country, which is in a war situation, and during our journey to Greece. We understand that the crisis in various sectors of Greek society and the world may have contributed to not giving the appropriate attention to our request for political asylum. Yet, because of the critical situation of the men who are on hunger strike and because more and more of our group are expressing a desire to participate in the hunger strike, a response to our request for political asylum is imperative.

Finally we would like to say that our desire is to live in peace, harmony and brotherhood with Greeks citizens and hopefully the day will soon come when things will be easier for us here.

Respectfully to all Greeks
Committee of Afghan Political Refugees at the Propylaea


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- http://www.demotix.com/node/556825/