TOGETHER IN SOLIDARITY
The context is terrible, but the meeting is amazing. After marching under a torrid heat, in the gates of the reception centre of Eleonas formed a huge assembly between refugees, asylums and solidarians. A circle of old and new, of diverse ethnic backgrounds and diverse languages.
After yet another violent police intervention in the center of Athens, with the eviction of more than 100 refugees and asylums in the precarious conditions of the camp of Eleonas, in the south of the city, the support movement acting in solidarity made a demonstration. During several days it was this self- organized group that, in Victoria Square, in the center of Athens, supported the migrants that met there. The police arrived by dawn, avoiding the public eye and evicted the refugees in a temporary camp and took 12 people to the police headquarters. In reaction, the next day, the past wednesday, June 17th, several dozens made a peaceful demonstration. Eleonas is an industrial area, where the small ‘temporary’ asylum center is located since 2015. It was built for a maximum capacity of 700 people, but much more than double the numbers has been taken for the past years.
In the popular assembly after the demonstration the migrants complained of the precarious conditions of the center. Flaws in the food distribution, sanitary conditions and improper structures, several concerns were shared. Children played idly. We were there together, sited in the shadow of this moment. I felt relief for being there sited, as in the beginning of a new time. But I also know that once these hours are over, each one of us will return to his/her place and this profound injustice will live through...
Tomorrow, saturday, June 20th at 14h in Omonia Square, in the center of Athens there’s a protest in support of the refugees. It was set by different anti- racist and antifascist movements and solidarity platforms. The demonstration is against the anti-refugee policy and politics of the Greek and European States. The joint declaration emphasizes the thousands of evictions announced by the Greek state: “The government announced the eviction of more than 11.000 recognized refugees from their residencies. 2.500 from camps, 600 from hotels and 7.400 from apartments. They plan to throw them in the street, adding thousands to the country homeless. The N. D. government acts accordingly to a previous governmental law from SYRIZA that predicted evictions after 6 months and worsened it, granting eviction just one month after granting asylum”.
The same declaration adds: “We are fighting together, locals and refugees, to live together in peace, locals and refugees in our cities and villages. To build a resistance and solidarity wall so that the evictions plan doesn’t go forward”.