Thanks to the people in Mitilini!

  

To
The village of all together
Siniparxis in Aegeais
ERGATIKI LESXI – Workers Center in Mitilini
ERA AEGAIOU – Radio Era
Club of the fishermen of Thermi-Poseidon
3 whales who showed up shortly after the memorial in Thermi
The mayor of Mitilini
The administration of Tsamakia beach- ADEL
Hotel Votsala
Epimelitirio for giving the possibility to show the exhibition
Web for the printings
The boys from Agiassos
And all who have welcomed us on Lesvos and supported us in so many ways…

20th of October 2013

Dear people in Mitilini,

we have left the island – many of us with the feeling of having left a place where we all felt at home somehow. This feeling is mainly dedicated to all of you: without you this journey back to the border would have never been possible! We want to thank all of you. We will never forget the warm welcome you gave to us. We left with the feeling of a great experience and with a lot of strength for all coming struggles.

We left also with worries for all those we had to leave behind.

Our worries are with all those who are still imprisoned in the detention centre close to Moria. We wish all of them that they will overcome this horrible place and that they will arrive safely at their destination, in the country they wish to arrive and settle.

Our worries are with all those who will start tomorrow or in the following days, weeks and months from Turkey with a boat. We wish to be able to stop the senseless border regime of Frontex that risks their lives soon.

Our worries are with all those who are still in Agiassos and struggle for some hope for their future. We hope the new period of Agiassos will establish proper conditions for all minors arriving on the island and will give them a home like many of us had found it for a period of time in Villa Azadi, the house of freedom. We hope that all those who have to leave this home will always be able to count on the hospitality of the people in Mitilini who have proved with Pikpa that a village of all together is possible.

Our worries are with all of you, who remain in this place that is so full hopes and dreams but also tragedies. We thank all of you for having shared your experiences of being pressed by the Troika, of being unpaid in your workplace or having lost it and who have to struggle the same struggle for survival than us on a daily level.

For us it was not easy to leave this place. With some of you we could not even say good-bye. We would have liked to stay with you. In our hearts the idea of a welcoming island at the entrance of Europe remains. We want to give you a promise: we will return again! Until then we will do our best to spread all the stories about incredible encounters with people who gave us the strength to continue.

We hope we can leave some memories for you and to have been able to express properly what belongs to all of you who have been involved to keep alive the idea that humanity is possible. That it is possible even when there are forces who try to put pressure on your island to host all these ugly forces of a deadly border regime.

We want to continue together with you. May Lesvos be known as a place full of memories of successful struggles against prisons and walls and the war against refugees at sea. We want no more victims of this regime. We want to stop this senseless loss of lives.

In our heart and mind we are still here with you. We want to continue the struggle together with you and we will reach finally what we are longing for.

Against all prisons and walls!

For another, a welcoming Europe!

Welcome to europe and JOG-Youth without borders

             

My wife and children didn’t pass away. They were murdered by Europe”

Wasim Abu Nahi, 36, a Syrian refugee of Palestinian descent, recently underwent an almost indescribable personal tragedy.
It came to pass on July 21, as Turkish traffickers dropped him off on the cliffs in front of the Greek island Samos, accompanied by his thirty-year-old wife Lamise, his four-year-old son Oday and his tiny daughter Layan, who was nine months old.

Wasim Abu Nahi
Since the Greek coast guard refused to provide assistance, and since his wife was injured and both his children were exhausted and dehydrated, Wasim left them behind to search for water, food and any help he could get. He was soon arrested and imprisoned by the local police, who refused to even listen to his pleas. As he sat helplessly in his cell, a forest fire broke out on the island, eventually claiming the lives of Lamise, Oday and Layan. The police’s reaction to this unspeakable tragedy was to arrest Wasim’s two Syrian companions who had sailed with him to Greece and charge them with causing the fire, even though there wasn’t a shred of evidence to support the charges.

After keeping Wasim imprisoned for five more weeks, they eventually let him go. With the help of friends and local activists, he immediately travelled to Athens, where he met with his nephew from Sweden. Together, they then returned to Samos and, after a few gut-wrenching hours, found the remains of Wasim’s family. Utterly broken, Wasim travelled back to Athens, where he is now stranded. Since he hasn’t been awarded refugee status, he cannot even file for an asylum. He is living with one of his Syrian acquaintances in the anarchist quarter called Excarhia, which was where I met him. What follows is his story. A story about Europe. A story about the human race.

“My family and I, we used to live in Dubai, but in the spring I lost my job. I come from Latakia by the Mediterranean sea. In 1948, my parents fled from Haifa to Syria to escape the Jewish terror. A large part of my family remains there still. So my first impulse after losing my job was to return to Syria, I wanted to help – I could no longer just stand by and watch the destruction of the land and the suffering of my relatives. But my wife convinced me my first duty was to the future of our children. Layan, my little girl, was only a few months old. Returning to Syria was simply not an option. We decided we would head to Turkey and try to worm our way into the European Union. Our ultimate goal was to reach Sweden, because I have some relatives there.”

Bostjan Videmsek from Lesbos. Symbolic funeral for victims of the European immigration policy
Wasim Abu Nehi was telling his story in a quiet, monotone voice, and his gaze was focused on some undefinable, unfathomable point in the distance.

In Turkey, some friends got him in touch with the local human traffickers. Because of its proximity to several Greek islands, the Turkish coastline is one of the key points of entry for the ragged, starving immigrants from all over the world who had set out for the promised land called European Union. Yet the vast majority of these refugees from war and unimaginable poverty are quick to learn that, for them, the EU is no promised land, but merely a xenophobic, racist and bureaucrat-dominated new circle of hell.

Wasim, too, was quick to admit he’d allowed his expectations to run high.

“I wanted to go to Sweden, where my nephew could help me find some work. Everything had already been arranged, you know. My wife and children would have probably been awarded refugee status, since they had Syrian citizenship. It would have been a bit harder for me, since I only have Palestinian papers, but I know I would have gotten by somehow.” With an audible lump in his throat, Wasim was telling me this in a murky street in Athens, where the ever-present smell of marijuana mixed with the smell of grilled meat. As he was telling me how his entire life was burnt to cinders in a single day, he kept weeping and shuddering and hugging himself for what pitiful semblance of comfort he could get. He told me that some psychiatrist gave him a prescription for tranquilizers, but these only made him feel worse. He reached into his pocket and produced a grimy grey cellphone.

“This was my daugher,” he clicked through the pictures: “This was my son. This was my wife. My family…” Tears were flowing down his cheeks. He looked up into the darkening sky. In a small quiet voice, he started to pray. Then he pressed the button that brought up one final image.

“This is what we found after the fire.” The picture, like a heavy blow to the ribs, showed me a heap of charred bones and some family jewelry.

“I came to Europe and immediately lost everything. I had come here to live, not to die. My wife and children didn’t pass away. They were killed. They were murdered by the Greek police. By Europe.”

Clenched fists. Firmly shut eyes. This was Wasim Abu Nahi, screaming his silent, impotent pain inside an abyss; in total darkness.

Betrayal

“On the boat, one trafficker and two male refugees from Syria, Jihad and Mohaned, were also present. We sailed from the Turkish town of Cukhuhazi at half past seven in the morning. It took us around four hours to get to Samos. We met no one on our journey. The trafficker unloaded us beneath a huge cliff and told us we were in Greece. In Europe. He told us to climb to the top of the cliff. We shouldn’t have any problem with that, he smiled. Up there, we were supposed to find a trail with someone waiting for us, a person who would arrange our further passage to Athens. There were six of us, and we only had a liter and a half of water between us. We were also running very short on food. We believed the trafficker that everything was in order. So we reached dry land and started to climb. It was awfully, awfully hot. Both my children were exhausted. My wife felt very ill. But after five hours of torture, we somehow made it to the top. Up there, we found nothing, only thorns and rocks. There was no trail, no path, no nothing. We were very high up, and all we could see was the ocean. But I still felt quite optimistic. It felt like we were so wonderfully close to our salvation!”

But salvation, for this fate-whipped band of migrants, was very far away.
The Turkish trafficker had chosen to dump Wasim’s family on one of the most remote parts of the otherwise beautiful island of Samos. Once Wasim grasped what had been done to him, he fell into a rage. Night was descending upon the travellers, and the family had already run out of food and water. Jihad, the 44-year-old fellow refugee from Syria, somehow managed to get the Turkish coast guard on his cellphone. They informed him that they were powerless to act, since the band of migrants was officially on Greek territory. They sent him an SMS with the number of their Greek counterparts, which Jihad immediately dialled. A woman answered and promptly told him they would all get arrested for illegally entering the country. After being informed about the exhausted and dehydrated children, the woman promised she would immediately send help. It was agreed that, once the coast guard ship was near, the migrants would send it light signals to indicate their location.

After two hours of miserable huddling on the rocks, the band of travellers indeed glimpsed a ship headed in their general direction. They immediately started a small fire. Wasim told me that the ship eventually stopped close to the coastline and flooded them with heavy, powerful light beams. “We thought we were saved. But the ship simply turned and sailed away. We didn’t know what to do! We waited, and after twenty minutes the ship returned. But this time, we were unable to start a fire. Our only lighter had gone bust, you see. So we tried to signal it with our cellphones, but the ship turned around and disappeared again. Jihad called the number we’d been given, and the same woman answered and told him they hadn’t even sent the ship out yet, so it couldn’t possibly have been one of theirs. We all felt that was horribly weird, but what could we do save to keep begging to be rescued? And then the cellphone’s battery ran out. We decided to wait until morning. We lay down on the ground, hungry and thirsty as we were. Around five in the morning, we set off in a pretty much random direction. Mohaned, the younger of the two Syrians, went off ahead while Jihad kept pace with us. My wife could barely walk. I was carrying both children and most of our luggage. At a certain point, my wife fell down on the ground and couldn’t get up. She told me to press on and get help, while she would stay there and keep watch over the children… Those are the last memories I have of them.”
Once more, the man telling the story was overcome with tears. His eyes were puffy, his face deeply traumatized. His body was prone to sudden spasms, as if he were being tortured with electro-shocks from afar. Suddenly, he took my hand, looking even more lost and confused than before. “My daughter was nine months old,” he said: “On October 19, my son would have turned four.”
On that fateful night, Jihad, too, had been too exhausted to keep walking. He gave Wasim a sacred promise he would remain with his wife and children and keep watch. Faced with an extremely difficult decision, Wasim chose to go on and seek help.
“So I forged ahead. It had to be done, there was no getting around it. I kept walking for a while, then, on the other side of the island, I descended down toward the sea again. My aim was to reach the first available village or beach and alert the people to our plight. The only way I could get to the beach on the other side of the bay was by swimming. There were many sharp rocks in the water. I swam up to one of them, and then a small fishing boat came floating by. I called out for help, but the man in the boat looked away, he was probably afraid of me. People on dry land could not hear my cries. I had drunk a lot of seawater, and I felt very sick. Then I saw the first helicopter, swooping down to collect some water from the sea. After that, many more helicopters came to put out what I later learned was a huge forest fire, and planes as well. Smoke was rising up into the air in the distance. I got so scared I almost lost control of my sanity. I started to scream and jump up and down on that rock jutting from the sea… I would have done anything to draw attention to myself. And then I glimpsed a house.” Wasim threw himself into the water and started swimming for his life. When he reached the shore, he was still screaming at the top of his voice. A Greek man stepped out of the house and informed him about the forest fire. He gave him water and some clothes, then he called the police. It was in the early morning of July 23.
The policemen arrived very quickly.
“They immediately arrested and handcuffed me. They wouldn’t listen to anything I had to say. They took me to the local police station and threw me in a cell. Only later they called for an interpreter. Crying uncontrollably, I told him my family was dying. I begged for his help. He went away, and after some more time passed, a policeman came to collect me. He took me by boat to the vicinity of the place where I parted from my wife and children. That particular patch was still unconsumed by the fire, but the fire was raging all around. I asked the policeman to take me up there to dry land. But he refused. I was hand-cuffed, there was nothing I could do. He immediately turned the boat and took us back toward the harbour. Why did we even set off in the first place?!, I kept wondering hysterically. But this time, the policeman took me to another police station.”
As they arrived there, Wasim saw his family’s luggage lying on the ground. For a blessed instant, he was convinced that his loved ones were safe. It was all he cared about, but in the station’s prison he pnly found Jihad and Mohaned. Jihad informed him that his wife had been unable to walk, so he had chosen to proceed by himself.
Murder

“Jihad was arrested 44 hours after I left my wife and children. He and Mohaned were charged with starting the forest fire. Without so much as a shred of evidence! Today, they are still imprisoned on Samos, waiting for the trail which is some five or six months away. They threw me in jail again as well. During the first nine days, they only took my handcuffs away when I needed to urinate. One evening, one of the policemen dragged me to his office and forced me to watch pornographic movies to break my will as a devout Muslim.”

When, after a good long while, they started interrogating him in earnest, Wasim told his story in its entirety to the prosecutor. “I cried all the time. I was absolutely desperate. Even then I somehow knew the worst had already happened. None of the policemen went to search for my family. Finally, a representative of the United Nations came to visit my cell and promised to take care of everything. Four more days passed, maybe five. The policemen assured me they had searched the area and found nothing. I spent fourteen more days in that prison. And then – without so much as a word – they transfered me to a local detention centre for the immigrants.

From there, Wasim was able to call his nephew in Sweden, who immediately made the trip to Greece. But since he was an immigrant himself, he should have obtained a special permit from the authorities, and immediately upon his return to Sweden his passport was confiscated. In the detention centre, Wasim was also helped by a lawyer named Marianna and a Syrian activist named Aziz who invited him to come live with him for a while in Athens. Almost a month after that horrible, fateful night, Marianne officially filed three missing persons claims for Lamise, Oday and Layan. Only then the policemen on Samos set themselves in motion. Yet they still claimed there was nothing to be found. Wasim himself was forbidden from moving around the island. The detention centre was really just a prison with a politically correct name. The crime committed by the poor souls locked within its walls was to have been born in the wrong part of the world. In the promised land called EU, such a crime often merits the death penalty.

After his long wait in prison, Wasim’s lawyer and activist friends helped him to finally obtain a set of papers which entitled him to a six-month stay in Greece. In official bureaucratspeak: since he came from Syria, a country consumed by war, his deportation had been ‘delayed for six months’. After he got the papers, he went to Athens and then quickly returned to Samos. Accompanied by his nephew and by Aziz, he started searching the area where he had last seen his loved ones. It didn’t take long before he found their remains. “Their bones and jewelry…” he said and showed me the nauseating picture on his cellphone again. “This is all that was left of them. They murdered them by refusing to help them. They had more than enough time. They knew all they needed to know. We could have easily been saved by the coast guard. We found the bones a mere two hundred meters away from where that policemen took me with his boat. We are now having a DNA analysis made. Once the results are in, I am going to file a suit against those who are responsible. Against the murderers of my wife and children. Apart from legally leaving Greece, this is now the only goal I have left. I am a dead man. I don’t have any reason to go on living. They took everything from me, and there was nothing I could do. I still feel like I am drowning.”

For the last time during our meeting, Wasim Abu Nehi dissolved in a spasm of uncontrollable sobs. Then he repeated: “My wife and children did not pass away. They were murdered by Europe.”

No to a new Pagani

No to a new Pagani: The detention camp on Lesvos/Greece near Moria is the Pagani of the Troika!   On Thursday we finally

 received the answer from Athens: With a short “no” the headquarter denied the access for “Youth without Borders” a selforganisation of young refugees who had applied at the Police Department Lesvos for an official delegation to visit the newly built detention camp on Lesvos close to the village of Moria. Many of us had been in the past imprisoned as well in what was called by a Greek minister “Dantes Inferno”. This old detention centre Pagani had to be closed after we struggled all together from inside and outside shouting for weeks and months “Azadi! Freedom!” until the last refugees had been released in the end of 2009. The very short negative answer to our official application proves what we already knew before: on the old military base close to Moria they try to hide again an inhuman prison. The official plan to treat refugees on this island remains the same: to keep them behind barbed wire, isolated from the society. The only thing that has changed is the amount of money coming from the EU to finance it.

Also without giving us access to speak with the detainees they cannot hide it any more. We have not been waiting for any bureaucratic procedures. In all our struggles to go further we have already learned that rights are nothing to beg for but to take them by ourselves. If you don’t want to close your eyes you just see what is happening – and you feel the need to get active.

We have already been inside the new detention camp on last Saturday, 12th of October 2013. After having met the first people released from this prison and having heard their sad stories we decided to go there and to have a look. When we went to the prison we found the door open and so a spontaneous Go-In-demonstration took place. About 50 activists, many of them selforganised refugees, went to the fenced containers with about 80 detainees on an old military area near the small village of Moria (10 km from Mytilini). Usually a gate should avoid direct contact, but as the door was not locked, we all went inside to talk to the jailed migrants and to put some banners on the fences. Obviously the police was surprised. Direct communication between the new arrived and the old-experienced refugees could happen in many languages. Visitor cards from www.w2eu.info and flyers were distributed through the fences.

The authorities tried to make the local population believe that they build a welcome and reception centre. They tried to hide the plans with dozens of container blocks also for long term detention with finally more than 700 detainees who can be held there up to 18 months. When we left the area of the detention centre on Saturday we went on to the small village of Moria to make another demonstration, to distribute our flyers (see below) and to come into a lot of discussions with the people on the street and in the cafés. Beside the main slogan – “No to a new Pagani, yes to a real welcome centre” – we used also a smaller banner with the text: “Pagani tis Troika, Pagani of the Troika!” – as the “modern” container style of detention is financed and forced by EU. A lot of people in Moria expressed their worries that the name of their village will become a shameful meaning like Pagani had it in the past. An old men sitting in a café chatted with others: “Before when I said to you that they will build secretly behind the wall a big prison you were laughing. Now you see all these young people: they know it from their own experience! When finally they will put also you in a prison you will not laugh any more.”

We don’t need any permission to come and see. Our networks and friendship have been growing since 2009. They go beyond fences and borders. The first people who were released from the new prison, we knew already. They have stayed in the open selforganised welcome center in Pikpa before they were brought to Moria. An absurd situation: to register they had to spend many days in prison. They were welcomed by us after their release with a spontaneous freedom party, so we had a very clear picture about what was going on inside even before our short visit on Saturday. Inside we found friends who will tell us afterwards. The time of a hidden prison on this island is over – because you can never forbid our longing for freedom for the friends inside!

The more “No”s you give us, the more you try to press us down by racist controls (and we experienced several this week, in the port when some of us arrived, in the airport when some of us left and even directly in front of Tsamakia beach as a provocation) the more you water the plant of our rage the more energy it gives us to tear down the walls and fences and to break your cages.

Everybody in Lesvos remembers the detention camp of Pagani, which conditions became an international scandal and which had to be closed soon after the Nobordercamp 2009 and mainly because of the continuous revolts from inside. Local authorities are afraid that the new detention will cause again international attention and solidarity. Last Saturday’s action is the beginning for this!

No to a new Pagani

Yes to real Welcome Center!

We are returning to the island of Lesvos four years after the succesful struggle to close Pagani. We are here to demonstrate against the new detention centre near the village of Moria, with the support of local and international activists. Migration is not a crime! We were in the detention centre of Pagani and we don’t want anybody else to have the same experience. The new detention centre will imprison up to 700 people for up to 18 months. The experience of an open centre such as the one in Pikpa shows that it is possible to register and welcome refugees without detention. The EU is wasting money on building new prisons and turning Europe into a big fortress.

Close the new detention centre! No to a new Pagani of the Troika!

Yes to a REAL welcome centre such as Pikpa! Yes to solidarity with migrants and refugees

خالد حسینی خواستار شکیبایی غرب در برابر پناهجویان شد

خالد حسینی، نویسنده رمان های پرفروش "کاغذپران باز" و "هزار خورشید تابان"، خواستار شکیبایی بیشتر غرب در مقابل مهاجران شده است. او در گفتگویی با خبرگزاری فرانس پرس، در مورد کتاب جدیدش "و کوه ها انعکاس دادند" صحبت کرده است.

                 خالد حسینی، سفیر کمیشنری عالی سازمان ملل متحد در امور پناهندگان است. 

حسینی، رمان نویس امریکایی متولد افغانستان که در رمان جدیدش میان کابل و پاریس و از آنجا به جزیره ای در ایتالیا و سپسس به کالیفرنیا پل می زند، گفت: «نوعی ذهنیت مستحکم و تغییرناپذیر در غرب [در قبال پناهجویان] وجود دارد».

حسینی پس از این که دو قایق در آب های جزیره لامپیدوسای ایتالیاغرق گردید و جان بیش از 300 تن را گرفت، از شهر میلان این کشور بازدید کرد. او در این سفر گفت: «فکر می کنم برای ما این مهم است که بشر بودن این انسان ها (مهاجران) را به خاطر بیاوریم».

این نویسنده افغان –امریکایی افزود: «هیچ کس نمی گوید که شما مجبورید دروازه های تان را باز کنید تا همه جهان به داخل کشور بیایند و مسکن گزین شوند. مهاجران سرنوشت خود را به دست خود تعیین نکرده اند. این سرنوشت بر آنها تحمیل شده است».

خالد حسینی به صورت مرتب به عنوان سفیر کمیشنری عالی سازمان ملل متحد در امور پناهندگان به کشور زادگاهش افغانستان سفر می کند؛ اما او می گوید تلاش کرده است تا کتاب جدیدش "کمترافغانستان محور"باشد.

خالد حسینی با کتاب اول خود، "کاغذپران باز" به شهرت جهانی رسید.

رمان "و کوه ها انعکاس کردند" با یک بگو مگوی آشفته مردم در مورد اختطاف یک کودک توسط شیطان در یک روستای افغانستان شروع می شود. صحنه پردازی نخست رمان در یک روستای افغانستان در دهه 1950 می گذرد و داستان در کالیفرنیا به پایان می رسد، جایی که حالاحسینی به عنوان یک داکتر آموزش دیده زندگی می کند. داستانبر محور قصه دو کودک از یک خانواده فقیر می چرخد که مجبور به جدایی جان گدازی می شوند و این جدایی سرنوشت آنها را رقم می زند. به گفته حسینی، این کتاب طرح "غیرخطی و غیرسنتی" با شخصیت های زیادی دارد.

حسینی شرح داد: «جنگ افغانستان در این کتاب جلوه چشمگیری ندارد. تاثیر جنگ بر بسیاری شخصیت های داستان کمتر مبرم و ضروری است. این کتاب بیشتر یک ماجرای شخصی است که به درگیری های بشر نیز می پردازد». او افزود شخصیت هایی را که خواسته است خلق کند، "اخلاقاً چند پهلو و مبهم هستند؛ نه کاملاً سیاه و سفید".

این رمان نویس که جوایزی نیز به دست آورده است، به یک پدیده ادبی تبدیل شده است.38 میلیون نسخه از دو کتاب اول او (کاغذپران باز و هزار خورشید تابان) در سراسر جهان به فروش رفته است. سومین کتاب حسینی که در ماه می امسال در ایالات متحده امریکا به بازار آمد، تا حالا سه میلیون نسخه فروش داشته است. قرار است این کتاب به 40 زبان دنیا ترجمه شود.

هرچند حسینی می گوید که در این کتابش کمتر به افغانستان تمرکز شده، اما مطمین است که کشور زادگاهش را فراموش نمی کند: «به خاطر موفقیت هایم، فکر می کنم من مدیون افغانستان هستم. این مرا ملتزم می سازد که از نظر اجتماعی آگاه باشم، اما کتاب ها به دلایل بسیاری شخصی نوشته شده اند».

به گفته خالد حسینی، "کتاب ها همیشه درباره برخی اسرار بشر هستند؛ من هم تلاش می کنم بعضی حقایق را فاش کنم". او در ادامه گفت: «این نه قصد و نه بلندپروازی من است که در افغانستان افکار را تغییر دهم. من می خواهم این واقعیت را خیلی متحرم بشمارم که هرگونه تغییر بزرگ در افغانستان از سوی افغانی که در خارج زندگی می کند، ایجاد نخواهد شد».

Protests In Paris Over Immigrant Expulsions

Thousands of French students have blockaded entrances to their schools and marched through Paris and other cities to protest the expulsions of two illegal immigrant students. 

The protests came following the deportation to Kosovo of a 15-year-old girl after she was detained in front of her classmates during a field trip.

The government said Leonarda Dibrani's family had been denied asylum and was no longer allowed to stay in France.

The Paris education authority said that a total of 20 schools in Paris were "disrupted" as students protested the eviction of both Dibrani and Khatchik Kachatrian, a 19-year-old Paris student who was deported on to Armenia on October 13.

"We feel concerned by what happened to the young Armenian and Kosovar, who were expelled this week," David, a Paris student, said. "We are really outraged by what happened. We find it shameful and we support them whole-heartedly."

Leonarda Dibrani, 15,

The Dibranis -- ethnic Roma from Kosovo -- entered France illegally in 2009 and exhausted their legal appeals against expulsion.

Kachatrian, 19, had been attending a technical school in northern Paris for two weeks when he was arrested last month on charges of theft and sent back to Armenia last week alone. He and his family had been living in France since 2011.

Such expulsions occur regularly in France as the government tries to limit illegal immigration.

The students say the expulsions are unfair to children and want the government to allow the Dilbranis and Kachatrian to return to France.

Several students clashed with police, who fired tear gas, but most marched peacefully in the capital. Some of them climbed on bus shelters, calling for the resignation of Interior Minister Manuel Valls.

Valls was born in Barcelona and only became a French citizen when he was 20.

He has taken a tough stance on Romany migration, saying recently that most of the 20,000 Roma in France have no intention of integrating and should be sent back to their countries of origin.

Valls enjoys wide popularity among the public. Nevertheless, he came under attack from within his own Socialist Party for what some members see as a right-wing approach to immigration that contradicts the values of the left.

President Francois Hollande has so far avoided commenting on the controversy.

But Socialist Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, speaking to parliament on October 16, promised the Dibrani family could return to France if the girl's rights were found to have been infringed.

"If a mistake has been made, the warrant for expulsion from the country will be canceled," Ayrault said. "This family will come back and its situation will be examined and reexamined, according to our rights, our principles, and our values."

The protests also spread to other parts of the country. In the southern town of Mende, around 100 youths demonstrated.

پناهجویان در برلین اعتصاب غذایی کردند.

آلمان در این روزها شاهد تظاهرات زیادی بر علیه سیاست پناهندگی اش می باشد. اعتراض پناهجویان شدیدتر شده و حدود 30 تن از آنها در پیش روی دروازه براندنبورگ برلین اعتصاب غذایی کرده اند.

                                                            حدود 30 پناهجو در برلین دست به اعتصاب غذایی زده اند.  

عقیلی جولیس ساوا به آهستگی از دوشک اش بلند می شود. او در منطقه "پاریسر پلاتس" در نزدیکی دروازه براندنبورگ برلین در وسط یک کمپ تشکیل شده از تکه های پلاستیکی و چتری های بارانی نشسته است. زمین مرطوب و آسمان خاکستری است. بوی ساسج کباب شده به مشام می رسد. ساوا که پناهجوی از جمهوری دموکراتیک کانگو است، این ها را احساس نمی کند. او خود را در کرتی چرمی اش، که تا زانو بلند است، می پیچاند.

این پناهجوی معترض می گوید: «از هشت روز بدین سو من چیزی نخورده ام، و سه روز می شود که حتی چیزی ننوشیده ام». او ادامه می دهد: «احساس ضعف می کنم». 23 تن دیگر نیز که دست به اعتصاب غذایی زده اند، در اطراف او نشسته اند. یک روز قبل شمار آنها بیشتر بود و سه تن شان به شفاخانه انتقال داده شدند. ساوا می گوید: «همه ما هدف مشترک داریم و آن این است که می خواهیم با ما به عنوان انسان برخورد شود، ما آزادی گشت و گذار و اجازه کار را داشته باشیم».

وضعیت این پناهجویان اعتصاب کننده به یک مرحله بحرانی رسیده است. همواره شمار بیشتر آنها از پای می افتند. بسیاری از پناهجویان به کمک مدد رسانان طبی به دیدۀ تردید می نگرند. آنها شک دارند که مبادا این مدد رسانان برای تضعیف این اعتراض بکوشند.

ساوا از هشت روز به این سو چیزی نخورده و سه روز می شود که چیزی ننوشیده است.

پناهجویان اجازه می دهند یورگین هولسینگر، که یک یورولوژیست است، به آنها نزدیک شود. این مرد باریک اندام و مو سفید که متقاعد شده است، در اطراف این پناهجویان قدم می زند، دست خود را روی بدن آنها می گذارد و ضربان قلب شان را احساس می کند. او به ابتکار شخصی خود به اعتصاب کنندگان کمک می نماید. او گردن یک پناهجوی افغان را ماساژ می دهد و می گوید: "شاید بسیار زود اتفاق بیفتد که دیگر نتوانند در برابر واکنش نشان بدهند". هولسینگر می داند که در همچو حالات امکان از کار افتادن گرده ها و برهم خوردن نظم تپش قلب وجود دارد. این داکتر متردد است، اما وقتی احوال پناهجویان اعتصاب کننده را می گیرد، به مبارزه و اعتراض آنها نیز احترام می گذارد: «این خوب است که این انسان ها نه به عنوان تقاضا کننده در اینجا جمع شده اند، بلکه برای اعاده حقوق خود وارد عمل شده اند».

نگرانی ها و خویشتن داری در برلین

اعتصاب کنندگان در برابر دروازۀ براندنبورگ برلین از ایالت بایرن آمده اند. همین هفتۀ گذشته یک کمپ اعتراضی در شهر مونشن مرکز ایالت بایرن منحل گردید. مقامات آنجا گفتند که باید از تلفات جانی انسان ها جلوگیری به عمل آید.

بحث ها پیرامون مسألۀ پناهندگی ظاهراً در سراسر آلمان شدت بیشتر می گیرد. تصاویر سانحۀ مرگبار کشتی پناهجویان در نزدیکی جزیرۀ لامپیدوسای ایتالیا تا هنوز در اذهان تازه است، و همزمان با آن احساسات مردم نیز برانگیخته شده است.

در شهر بندری هامبورگ اعتراض ها به خشونت گرایید و در شهر کلن تظاهر کنندگان به اشغال یک رسانه تلاش کردند. فرانک هینکل، سناتور از برلین می خواهد وضعیت آرام بماند و اظهار داشت که نمی خواهد کمپ کسانی را که در مرکز پایتخت آلمان به اعتصاب غذایی دست زده اند، برچیند.

این داکتر به ابتکار شخصی خودش به اعتصاب کننده ها کمک می کند.

دروازۀ تأریخی براندنبورگ در برلین، مورد توجه خاصی جهانگردان قرار دارد. طوری که پیداست، شب زنده داری پناهجویان در کنار این محل تأریخی نیز کماکان به آن علاوه شده است. یک زوج امریکایی، مثل شمار دیگری از توریست ها، در کنار اعتصاب کنندگان عکس یادگاری می گیرد.

جنان بیرام، سیاستمدار حزب سبزهای آلمان و عضو مجلس نمایندگان برلین تنها لحظه ای در آنجا حضور می یابد، ابروی خود را بالا می کشد، اما نمی خواهد دیر در آنجا بماند. او و همکار هم حزبی اش لوئیز امتسبرگ، نمایندۀ پارلمان از ایالت شلیزویگ هولشتاین، به اعتصاب کنندگان وعده می دهند که با مقامات مسوول درخواستی های پناهندگی تماس خواهند گرفت. آنها از گروهی که گرسنگی می کشند، خواستند تا حداقل کمی آب بنوشند. بیرام با نگرانی گفت: "می ترسم که یکی از آنها تلف شود". امتسبرگ خطاب به اعتصاب کننده ها گفت: "اگر چیزی ننوشید، بسیار زود از پا خواهید افتاد".

زمان کوتاه است

از چهره اعتصاب کننده ها خستگی هویداست. این افراطی ترین شیوۀ اعتراض مسالمت آمیز است که آنها انتخاب کرده اند. بسیاری از مردم در بحث پیرامون تقاضاهای سیاستمداران می گویند که حالا دیگر نباید تسلیم شد، زیرا در آن صورت شاید هرگز تغییری در این وضعیت نیاید.

متقاضیان پناهندگی در لیلیه ها عمومی به سر می برند، تنها اجازۀ محدود سفر را دارند و اجازۀ کار در آلمان را ندارند. ساوا می گوید: "برخی از ما از دو یا سه سال به این سو منتظر پذیرش تقاضای پناهندگی هستند. راه دیگری به غیر از اعتصاب غذایی وجود ندارد".

دو سیاستمدار، امتسبرگ و بیرام، وعده می دهند که بعد از ظهر دوباره به آنجا می آیند، و شاید خبر تازه ای داشته باشند. ساوا، که پا هایش می لرزد، با نگاه خود آنها را دنبال می کند. هرچه زودتر باید تصمیمی در مورد اتخاذ شود. ساوا می گوید: "احساس می کنم که هر لحظه شاید از هوش بروم".

Όχι σε νέα Παγανή»

Παράσταση διαμαρτυρίας πραγματοποίησαν στο Κέντρο Μεταναστών και Προσφύγων στη Μόρια, τα μέλη της οργάνωσης «Νεολαία Χωρίς Σύνορα». Σκοπός τους, να εκφράσουν την αντίθεσή τους στη λειτουργία του Κέντρου, καθώς όπως υποστηρίζουν θα μετεξελιχθεί σε ένα χώρο ανάλογο αυτού της Παγανής πριν χρόνια. Με ανακοινώσεις τους, τα μέλη της οργάνωσης τάσσονται υπέρ της λειτουργίας ενός ανοιχτού κέντρου υποδοχής.

Κρεμώντας πανό και μοιράζοντας φυλλάδια, τα μέλη της οργάνωσης αλλά και εθελοντές διαδήλωσαν, το πρωί του Σαββάτου, ενάντια στην ύπαρξη του συγκεκριμένου Κέντρου. Αφού παρέμειναν στο χώρο για λίγη ώρα, στη συνέχεια πραγματοποίησαν πορεία διαμαρτυρίας με κατεύθυνση τη Μόρια.

Υπενθυμίζεται πως αρκετά από τα μέλη της οργάνωσης βρέθηκαν κάποτε στη Λέσβο ως μετανάστες ανήλικοι και ασυνόδευτοι, στην προσπάθειά τους να φτάσουν σε κάποια άλλη ευρωπαϊκή χώρα. Μερικοί από αυτούς, μάλιστα, είχαν μείνει για κάποιο χρονικό διάστημα στην Παγανή και κάποιοι άλλοι, στον Ξενώνα Ανηλίκων της Αγιάσου. Σήμερα όλοι τους κατοικούν σε χώρες της Ευρώπης και ήρθαν για λίγες ημέρες πίσω στη Λέσβο μέσω του προγράμματος «Welcome to Europe».

Οι διαδηλωτές μετά το Κέντρο κατευθύνθηκαν στο χωριό, μίλησαν με τους κατοίκους και μοίρασαν φυλλάδια, ενώ όσοι από αυτούς είχαν βρεθεί κάποτε στην Παγανή, μετέφεραν στους κατοίκους τις εμπειρίες τους.

Τελετή μνήμης
Λίγες ώρες αργότερα, στη Θερμή, τα μέλη της οργάνωσης διοργάνωσαν τελετή στη μνήμη όλων εκείνων των ανθρώπων που πνίγηκαν στη θάλασσα πριν από λίγους μήνες και βρέθηκαν στη συγκεκριμένη παραλία, αλλά και γενικότερα στη μνήμη αυτών που έχασαν τη ζωή τους αναζητώντας μια καλύτερη πατρίδα, συμπεριλαμβανομένων εκείνων που χάθηκαν προ ημερών στο ιταλικό νησί τής Λαμπεντούζα.

Αξίζει να αναφέρουμε ότι στην τελετή, που περιελάμβανε και τα εγκαίνια μιας βρύσης, παρευρέθηκαν και Σύριοι, που ήρθαν από την Αθήνα και ήταν συγγενείς των ατόμων που πνίγηκαν τον περασμένο Δεκέμβριο..

A memorable encounter

Hello,
I am an Afghan girl who lives in Hamburg, Germany for 2 years. I am 18 years old, I go to school, and am in the 11th grade. Right now I am in Mytilini, the capital city of Lesvos to particpate in the conference of the initiatives Youth Without Borders and Infomobile to help the refugees who arrive in Europe. When I was in Germany and I knew I would come to Mytilini I was very excited and happy. I thought to myself: “everything is good, and everything will work out well for the refugees.” But unfortunately it was not as I thought to myself!

All of the refugees where very sick and they were homeless. Everyone was tired and they had no drive. Some people slept on the street, some in the harbour. Nobody is able to sleep. Everbody is stressed out. Some lost their families during the journey or even through death. While some were physically present, their minds and souls were somewhere else. If I have to summarise my thoughts I would say that everyone was alive but their souls were already dead.

For hours, days and nights, they were on the streets or at the harbour so that the police could come to arrest them. The people were disoriented and just waiting for the police to arrest them. But the police did not want to arrest them. Nobody wanted to offer them food or something to drink. Nobody tried to understand them. Me and the others felt helpless because we could not do more than provide food, drinks and clothes, organise demonstrations or get in touch with the media. Nonetheless, thank god that we are at least able to do that and show our solidarity with them. They are not alone, there are people who think about them. We invited all of the young people who live at the Villa Azadi to a party and we brought them into our group to show that they are not alone. Also there were young people who were just released from the Moria centre who we invited as well. We prepared food for them and gave them clothes that they could wear. They opened up to us and told us stories about their fate and the sorrow in their hearts. All of them were very intelligent and multifaceted and two of them performed for us and sang beautiful songs. Below we post the link to the song they sang.

A family who lives in Pikpa joined our party as well but the dad has been in prison for the last three months. The mother had to experience and survive a lot of difficult situations during these three months. At the party her children were very happy and dancing a lot. When the mother saw the smiles in her childrens’ faces she also became happy.

Traces back: 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!

Memorial for the families

in Moria

to remember

10 months ago, in December 2012, 27 people have been found dead here in Thermi. On the 14th in the afternoon a 16-year-old unaccompanied minor from Afghanistan was rescued by Frontex in the sea near Lesvos. He had been on a boat with more than 30 others and their dinghy got in distress in the night of the 14th/15th. The next day three dead people were found in Thermi and only after that the Greek coast guard started a search and rescue operation to look for further survivors. During the next days more and more dead people were found at the beaches of Thermi – in total 27 bodies. Some remained missing. Their names we don’t know, but many of them are buried in the cemetery in Mitilini. We will go there tomorrow.

In March 2013 another tragic incident happened at the coast of Lesvos. The father of a one of the drowned is today here with us. Thank you for coming! He called him and hoped to find him in safety 1 hour later but then the mobile was off. He informed the police in Athens asking them to report the son missing in Lesvos. A few days later he himself went to Chios and to Lesvos to look for his child. On both island the authorities did not immediately register the missing. The search and rescue operation started more than a week later, on 15th of March.

All of these deaths have a face, a name. All of them leave behind relatives and friends. Besides the bodies also their hopes and dreams are lost.

We want to give back a piece of dignity, to those whose death disappeared – right here – into the senselessness of the European borders – and we want to thank those who risk their lives to rescue.

We gathered for giving back a piece of dignity also to those who survived. A piece of dignity that was lost on the way to Europe, like the passports or the photographs showing the faces of the beloved ones that disappeared in the water.

We all feel ashamed in the moment of these deaths because we failed in our attempt to stop this murderous regime and to create a welcoming Europe.

We came with different backgrounds:

Some came to mourn their lost relatives. We thank you to be here, together we will not forget your beloved. A warm welcome also to the friends who accompanied you in March and also today. Solidarity and friendship can help us, to survive the loss, that is without words. We are very thankful that you have come together.

Some live here on the island and experience regularly dead people being found on the beach. Some of us here have had the experience of recovering bodies.

Some are here on a journey back to the place of their first arrival in Europe. They have experienced the hell of Pagani – but also the solidarity of the people here on Lesvos. They made a brave step to travel back here to encourage and support the newcomers.

Some came already several times, during a Noborder camp that took place in 2009, where they shared some days of protest against this deadly border regime. In 2010 we built a first memorial in Korakas, to mourn for those who had died in 2009.

Together …

…. we mourn …

… to what we lost …

Everywhere around this border we also find people who have not closed their eyes. Thanks to all the unknown people who help migrants on their way silently and on an every day level.

Since we have been here, on this journey back to the border, we have been received, treated and welcomed like friends by the inhabitants of Mitilini. We would like to thank them for not having closed their eyes. Thank you all for your hospitality, your helpfulness and your support, helping migrants on their way to a better life and on an everyday level. With the open welcoming centre that existed in Pikpa you have set an example that goes beyond the island: you made the prove that a warm welcome to refugees is possible! We know that those who would want to find a place to rest will find doors opened to welcome them here. This is like a light-tower in a time were it is common to detain those who survived this difficult trip. Thank you.

Our biggest pleasure today is to have some amongst us who have put their own life in danger to rescue others: we thank you and all the other fishermen who rescued people at sea. In the early morning of the 15th of September twelve refugees from Syria were rescued by the fisher boat Kapetan Stratis and the cargo ship YALKER. Here on the island there are many stories of rescue. We thank to all those unnamed brave people.

Thanks also to those who had the very sad job to recover the bodies from the water without any chance to help them any more. We mourn together with you who see their faces still in front of your eyes.

Here and today, at this place of failure and loss, we want to stop for a moment and create a space for all those who lost their lives. Remembering here means to save the stories of the uncounted who died at the borders of Europe.

They had been on the way to change their lives on their own. Their death is the death in search for freedom. And that concerns all of us.

There would be many more names and many more stories. We will never forget the others but in this moment we will remind those who died in March 2013.

So let us speak out their names.

Lujain Hashash (3 years old) – he lives!
Abdullah Hashash (6 years old) – he lives!
Jinan Hashash (7 years old) – she lives!
Kadri Tarkmani (14 years old) – he lives!
Kamar Seni (17 years old) – he lives!
Muhamad Seni (21 years old) – he lives!
Fatima Hashash (30 years old) – she lives!
Mustafa Sahrazi (30 years old) – he lives!
Omar Hashash (40 years old) – he lives!

We will never forget them.

We promise to give our best to tear down the borders that killed them.

Remembering and listening to those stories, hopes and dreams that have been washed ashore means also to listen to their warnings and accusations:

This Europe is not safe, human rights and refugee rights have lost all relevance! The victims ask the ones alive to take action against this Europe of Frontex – borders and walls. They demand us to struggle and to invent a Europe of solidarity, overcoming the deathly migration regime.

For the ones who will pass by in the future, the fountain that will be built later on should be a place to rest on their further way, providing them with water and the feeling that they are welcome.

We invite you to have a rest – and then to move on: to tear down the borders and to built another, a welcoming Europe.