A few words about the ESTIA program ---- From 2016 until today, the ESTIA housing
program has been operating. The ESTIA program started operating in 2016 and wasimplemented by a series of NGOs, with funding from the UN High Commissioner forRefugees. The program ended up offering 27,000 housing places in apartmentswithin the urban fabric of the cities. From January 2021 the program was takenover by the Ministry of Immigration and Asylum. Within a few months the positionswere reduced to 10,000. The Ministry, using its role as the financier of theprogram, managed to impose the policy of eviction of the refugees, just one monthafter they received their recognition. This policy existed in the past, but inpractice it was not implemented for the obvious reason that the extremelyvulnerable cases of individuals and families did not have access to any otherform of housing from the Greek state, so they remained in the ESTIA apartments.And so we ended up with a series of gross practices against refugees in order toforce them out of their homes: power cuts, water cuts, changing locks whilepeople are away from home, psychological warfare, threats from lawyers, even fromthe police (!).And so we reached 2022 and the final leveling of the program, which is the onlyhousing alternative offered by the Greek state. As of April 15, 2022, no newguests will be referred to the program, while on November 15, 2022, theapartments of the project will now be completely empty.Thus, the Greek state reaches what the government ideologically desired: the only"housing" (=storage) of immigrants will now be in closed detention centers or in"open structures" (camps) that are now surrounded by walls . The only thing thatthe people who came to our country chased by war or poverty are now "entitled" tois prisons, without having committed any crime or ISOBOX in the mud.In parallel with all this, the Greek government chose an even more vulgarcommunication attack, recommending against the refugee housing program the use of1,000 apartments of the program for vulnerable Greeks ("COVER" Program). So thegovernment is doing everything it can to reinforce the inarticulate cries for"supporting the Greeks and not the illegal immigrants". It "responds" to them bydepriving the latter of all support, supposedly, in order to support the former.But this is just the last drop in a glass that has overflowed a long time ago.The reality experienced by the refugees and immigrants in our country in the pastyears is well known: journey through the waves or the wild waters of the Evros,(illegal) pushbacks by the coast guard in the Aegean or the army in the Evros,but also by the various parastatal mechanisms that have been operatingundisturbed for years, (illegal) pushbacks even from the urban centers by theuniformed fascists of the EL.AS., torture, beatings, thefts from the "organs oforder", vengeful destruction of their documents, insufficient access inhealthcare, reduced access to the self-evident human right to asylum through aseries of laws that have curtailed it over and over again making a mockery inpractice of any concept of "human right" and "international conventions" (withthe last asylum law peaking in wretchedness), recognition for refugees fromSyria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Somalia, Turkey as a safe country(!), reduction of the 100% EU funded humanitarian assistance, racist andxenophobic attitudes, street attacks, zero access to the labor market, zeroaccess to meaningful integration programs.Perhaps some of us thought that this reality could not get worse for immigrants.And let's see her getting worse and worse, more and more suffocating, more andmore inhumane for 3 years. It is really impossible for our minds to contain allthe inhuman morbidities which we have seen inflicted on those people who arrivedhere exhausted by war or destitution seeking asylum from the ruling classes ofthe states which caused these wars and their destitution.But we got used to it. We got used to humiliating people. Their torture. There-promotions against them. We got used to wrecks. We are used to the bodies ofdead children on the shores.LET'S STOP THE BRUTALITY NOWLET'S NOT GET USED TO DAILY DEATHSolidarity is our weapon. For us, workers regardless of nationality, refugees andimmigrants, victims of war and poverty are not objects of management by statemechanisms and financial elites. We do not tolerate human life depending on thedecisions of transnational organizations such as the EU and Frontex, nationstates and the needs of the economy.Against every power, we respond now and always with class solidarity. Thesuffering, the hunted because of the wars and persecutions of every power andevery state, the refugees and immigrants, are at the heart of our solidarity.They are our class brothers, the most undervalued, underpaid and insecure part ofour class, the bane of every small and big boss. It is our duty to preserve thedignity and free movement of all workers, erasing the border lines that thepowers that be have drawn for their subjects, but not for the commodities of thebosses, and demanding the immediate legalization of all immigrants.We demand that the borders be opened immediately and that the immigrants bereleased. We demand the provision of public care and housing for those who wishto remain in Greece and the granting of the necessary documents for those whowish to move to other European countries. We demand that the hell-camps ofconcentration of immigrants/immigrants be closed now and that the obstacles toasylum procedures, social exclusions and the deprivation of labor and welfarerights of immigrants be removed.Always on the side of the weak, the oppressed, the uprooted of this world,regardless of color and religion, locals and "foreigners" we join hands, we raiseour fists.JOINT STRUGGLES OF LOCALS AND IMMIGRANTSSTANDING AN OBSTACLE TO THE INHUMAN ANTI-IMMIGRATION POLICYSTOP THE WAR ON IMMIGRANTSMONDAY 14 NOVEMBER: DAY OF ACTION AGAINST EXCLUSIONSIN THESSALONIKI, GATHERING AT 18:00,AT THE STATUE OF VENIZELOS*We support the Stop War On Migrants assembly blockFreedom Initiative of Thessalonikilib_thess@hotmail.comlibertasalonica.wordpress.comhttps://libertasalonica.wordpress.com/2022/11/12/_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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