Solidarité sans frontières – News Aggregator BETA

On the morning of Friday December 23, a demonstration was held in the city of Patras. It was organized after a 16-year old Afghan was left severely injured during a police operation in an informal settlement set up by Afghan refugees in the near-by town of Rio.  The demonstration started from at the deserted building of Piraiki Patraiki, a former factory, used by Afghan refugees for shelter.

A charter plane carrying 42 Pakistani and 41 Afghani nationals left Athens for Islamabad and Kabul on Thursday (December 15, 2011). The same day 24 Egyptians, 1 Sudanese, 1 Ukrainian and 1 Rumanian were deported by cargo planes and 7 Albanians were deported by police vans. All deportation were funded by EU. A similar deportation took place on December 1, 2011, one more on November, 10, 2011 and another one on October 19, 2011.

The German Ministry of Interior informed in a letter that deportations to Greece under the Dublin II Regulation will be suspended for another year. The letter states that despite initial changes in the treatment of asylum seekers in Greece the asylum system still does not comply with European standards. The moratorium is valid until 12th of January 2013. http://w2eu.

On October 24, 52 immigrants held in the central prisons of Cyprus started a hunger strike. On November 1st, 15 more immigrants in the cells in Lakatameia began a hunger strike. A few weeks ago, in the same cells, a 28-year-old man from Georgia passed away. On November 3rd, the hunger strikers announced that they will end the hunger strike, as they managed to draw attention and the government promised to meet some of their demands. Video announcing the end of the hunger strike http://www.

On Friday, September 23, a small boat that was trying to get to Italy carrying 65 Kurds and Afghans sans-papiers, broke 90 miles southwest of the island of Zakynthos. When port police reached the vessel only 32 immigrants were aboard. A helicopter participating in the rescue operation managed to save 30 immigrants that have fallen in the sea. Late in the afternoon, the same helicopter discovered the bodies of 3 sans-papiers who drowned at sea.

On Friday, September 23, a small boat that was trying to get to Italy carrying 65 Kurds and Afghans sans-papiers, broke 90 miles southwest of the island of Zakynthos. When port police reached the vessel only 32 immigrants were aboard. A helicopter participating in the rescue operation managed to save 30 immigrants that have fallen in the sea. Late in the afternoon, the same helicopter discovered the bodies of 3 sans-papiers who drowned at sea.

Report by No Borders North East The No Border camp set-up began a week before the opening, with lots of preparation work like digging trenches for water supply, and building infrastructure. One of the aims of the camp was raising the issue of the border locally, and supporting and extending local solidarity work.

On Saturday afternoon immigrants held in the detention center of Fylakio, Evros, set fire to mattresses. Border police forced the inmates out of the building, where they were guarded by riot police units, while fire brigade that arrived from the city of Orestiada managed to put out the fire. One immigrant was transferred by ambulance to the Medical Center of Orestiada.

At least four immigrants drowned in the Ionian Sea today, when an inflatable boat sailing about 80 nautical miles west of Kefalonia island, sunk on early Saturday morning. Eleven immigrants survived. One of them, whose condition was critical, was picked up by a navy helicopter and the remaining ten were picked up by turkish ship «MEHMET DADAYLI 1». The same ship discovered the 4 corpses. According to one of the survivors onboard the sunk boat there were 30 sans-papiers.

Fountain to remember death and missing at the border in Tichero (Northern Greece) John lost his wife Jane and Tahera her husband Bashir in the Evros River. They represent hundreds of other migrants who drowned in the water, were killed by landmines or are still missing. Their dead bodies were treated disrespectfully: In 2010 we discovered a mass grave in Sidero where the corpses could not be identified. We returned to give back a piece of dignity to the death and also those who survived.