(en) Anarkismo.net: Meet the new boss: Greek police baton & tear gas migrant demonstration by Andrew Flood - WSM

Saturday police in Greece batoned and tear gassed protesters outside one of the migrant 
detention camps now being run by Syriza. Militant protests both inside and outside the 
camp resumed last weekend after the suicide of a Pakistani migrant, Nadim Mohammed who had 
been held for 18 months, released and then returned to the Amygdaleza camp. The news of 
the suicide broke on February 14th along with the news that another migrant had killed 
themselves in Thessaloniki police station. ---- This led to protests both in Thessalonki 
(pictured) and what police claimed was a mass escape attempt from Amygdaleza which now 
houses around 1300 migrants. In suppressing those protests two of the camp buildings were 
destroyed by fire. Because of the despair created by the conditions there have been 
multiple suicide attempts in Amygdaleza. In one weekend in April 2013, long before Syriza 
came to power there were three attempts and a hunger strike involving 2000 migrants 
detained in several centres. There are currently 7000 migrants in detention centres and an 
unknown additional number detained in police stations.

At yesterdays protest at Amygdaleza police attacked the crowd with shields, batons and 
then pepper spray. They also targeted a photo journalist who photographed their attack, 
knocking him to the ground. Yes Syriza have order the riot police to stay away from the 
pro-government demonstrations outside parliament but they are still being deployed at the 
detention camps and are using their old methods.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2Z3TSF4tPM

Before these events but after the suicide the Minister of Public Order Yannis Panousis was 
videoed visiting the camp as migrants chanted 'Freedom, Freedom' and other spoke to the 
cameras about the terrible conditions within. Syriza have responded to the latest revolt 
by promising reforms to include better treatment for those held over 18 months, vulnerable 
groups and those who have not had a legal decision made with regard to there future within 
6 months. The video is harrowing and can be viewed at below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tafP1kCquU

This would bring the conditions migrants are warehoused under in Greece closer to 
conditions elsewhere in Europe. Waiting ahead of the elections the migrant solidarity site 
Clandestina noted that "If the institutional Left form the next Greek government, they 
might indeed shut down the concentration camps, but not necessarily as part of a politics 
of respect of human dignity and basic rights, but in order to harmonize Greek policy with 
E.U. legislation, by putting the EU money to good use, opening more proper detention 
facilities, and satisfying the demands of the Greek police and their more conservative 
voters along the way. Indeed, a part of the institutional Left in Greece is speaking in 
favor of the same system that radical movements throughout Europe are fighting against." 
For more background see the full statement in the comments.

Meanwhile migrants continue to be locked into these enters and those who protest the 
conditions inside or outside the camps risk police batons and tear gas. Yes no one could 
expect that Syriza would magically create new reception centres instantly, the question is 
why are the detention centres still being run as prisons, with guards on locked doors 
preventing the unwilling inmates from leaving? Because if its geographic location Greece 
has been doing the dirty work of the rest of the EU for years in detaining migrants and 
thus preventing them moving on, why is it still doing so under the new left government?

WORDS Andrew Flood

http://www.anarkismo.net/article/27927