A prosecutor on Thursday brought criminal charges of negligence against Athens University Rector Theodoros Pelegrinis because of the way he has dealt with the 237 undocumented migrants that started a hunger strike at the Athens Law School last month. Police is not allowed to enter the university (university asylum) since the end of the military junta, when soldiers entered the polytechnic university by force – but in this case the university asylum was not respected.

The immigrants, who are in the fourth week of a hunger strike, started a campaign to obtain legal residence status, already face a very dangerous and fragile situation, as a group of doctors that visited the place declared, whilst appealing to the Health Ministry to intervene.

Since they were expelled from Athens Law University they have been staying at a neoclassical building near central Athens, Villa Ipatia, a property that was offered to the protestors as temporary accommodation for the migrants to break the impasse and where migrants were visited this weekend by a group of EL FEM members, EL Vice President Maite Mola and MEP N. Chountis.

Many of the hunger strikers are economic migrants from North African countries who live in Greece for more than six years. Most have been working on Greek farms and building sites for years under extremely problematic conditions: without health insurance, unpaid wages and no chance to travel.

What you can do to support the migrants:

Send letters, fax and emails of protest to the Greek ministries of interior, of citizen protection and of health and to your local Greek embassy and consulate!
Help spread the word to media, and send press releases to your local, regional, national and european media. Here you find the press release we sent out http://w2eu.net/2011/02/20/300-it-is-time-to-act-now/#p...lease
Send copies of your press release and solidarity declarations to: hungerstrike300@espiv.net

Pass this message on in your networks and urge other people to act, too!

Below you find a sample fax/emailing english language that you can send to the relevant authorities - also listed below. Please do note that it is always better if you compose a text on your own. It doesn’t need to be long! If you do so, please post your letter as a comment on http://w2eu.net/2011/02/20/300-it-is-time-to-act-now/, so that we can collect our voices.

Please act and help spread the this - solidarity is the proverbial weapon these days. The hunger strikers are asking for your support!!!

e-mails:
dialogue@politicalforum.gr
ypourgos@ypes.gov.gr
info@ypes.gr
papoutsi@otenet.gr
pressoffice@yptp.gr
Louka.katseli@parliament.gr
anna.dalaras@gmail.com
hungerstrike300@gmail.com

fax numbers:
Ministry of Interior, fax: 0030 2103665089,
Ministry of Citizen Protection, fax: 0030 2103387708
Ministry of Labour, fax: 2105249805, 0030 2103213688

Letter:

To Greek Embassy/Consulate in [insert the consulate next to you!!]

Ministry of Citizen Protection of the Hellenic Republic

Ministry of Interior, Decentralisation and E-Government of the Hellenic Republic

Ministry of Health of the Hellenic Republic Hunger strike of 300 migrants in Athens and Thessaloníki: Legalisation Now!

xx of February 2011

Ladies and Gentlemen,

we are writing to you on the occasion of the hunger strike of 300 migrants which is currently taking place in Athens and Thessaloníki. We have followed the situation of refugees and migrants in Greece. We are not surprised that – again – migrants feel compelled to choose such a strong measure to campaign for their rights: putting their lives at risk. We express our solidarity with their cause.

With this letter, we want to urge you to fulfil the demands of the hunger striking migrants, i.e. the unconditional legalisation of all migrants in Greece, before it is too late. We are acutely aware that the hunger strike is approaching its 30th day, and already, many hunger strikers had to be hospitalised. Their health and indeed their lives are at risk here, and it is the responsibility of the Greek government to resolve the situation immediately by decreeing a legalisation. In our understanding, this constitutes the only permanent and viable solution to the despicable situation of refugees and migrants in Greece, a political issue various Greek governments have struggled with unsuccessfully.

By following the migrants’ demands, the Greek government can send powerful political signals. A legalisation would be the strongest communication to the other EU member states that the current system of delegating responsibility to the fringes of Europe cannot continue and needs a courageous solution. A legalisation would also finally end the years of uncertainty migrants have been facing in Greece and attribute them their rights as part of the society that they have long earned by their labour in the Greek economy and the life they have led in Greece. A legalisation would also send a clear political message that it is necessary to deal with the new and (be)coming citizens in a fair, respectful and dignified way and that xenophobia and racism are damnable attitudes that better belong to the past.

The European answer of bordering and exclusion has no future, it only creates pain and violations of rights.

Assembly of the hunger strikers

Ελευθεριακή Συνδικαλιστική Ένωση - Διεθνείς Σχέσεις / Unión Sindical Libertaria - Relaciones Internacionales

Related Link: http://athens.ese-gr.org