Thousands of migrants are trapped in Greece because of the EU's policy. What the Greek state will do with this ever growing army of desperate people is the question that the state is not prepared to answer. The policy of treating them like cattle and hording them in camps will continue until something explodes and forces a change. These are human beings, old, young, infirm and ill, but once the label of migrant is attached to them, in the eyes of the state, they become other than human, and are treated in a brutal, savage and inhumane manner by the state. Once the state applies this label of migrant to these human beings, it means that the state can deny them the very basics of human rights. No right to freedom of movement, no right to decent food and shelter, no right to representation in society. The state takes the right to hold them in over crowded insanitary camps unfit for human habitation.
This is Western democracy at work, the state holds the supreme right to treat you as it categorises you, stripping you of human rights, ignoring your needs, or if you are in that bunch of the chosen few, heaping privileges on you. Only the total destruction of this unjust, exploitative, savage and inhumane system of state/capitalism will see an end to this savagery against desperate people, only then will all humans have the right to dignity and be treated as equals in a fair and humane manner.
This from Enough is Enough, written by Riot Turtle.
Thousands of migrants and refugees gather and demand freedom of movement in Diavita , northern Greece near the city of Thessaloniki and in Larissa train station in Athens. Greek police attacked the protesters.
The situation of refugees in Greece is getting worse and worse. After the announcement by the Greek state that recognized refugees would lose state benefits of 150€ per month and housing, migrants across started mobilizing for the ongoing protests.
Mainstream media reported that the protests are the result of rumours that the borders would open but although spreading this kind of rumours is irresponsible and counter productive, it seems that the ongoing protests for the freedom of movement have not that much to do with the “fake news” about open borders.
Most migrants are aware of the fact that the member states of the European Union are not going to open the border, and certainly not voluntarily. Many people are fed up that they don’t have the right of freedom of movement and the hostile policies of marginalization and exclusion against refugees.
In Diavate, near Thessaloniki, refugees were attacked by riot cops with tear gas and batons yesterday. After these acts of police violence, the cops sealed off the area. Refugees wrote me that the cops did not allow food supplies and water into the area where the protesting refugees are. Fortunately some people managed to get some supplies into the area anyway.
The regional coordinator of the ministry of migration announced that all trains from Athens to Thessaloniki will not be operational until further notice. This is a clear attempt to try to prevent refugees from Athens to join the protests. Many refugees stranded at Larissa train station in Athens and now started to protest in the train station.
Although the Greek authorities do anything they can to prevent people from joining the protest, the makeshift camp outside of the official Diavata refugee camp is still growing. After yesterdays police violence, cops attacked refugees again earlier today when a huge crowd tried to start marching towards the border.
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