Since the
morning of
22/4/2016,
the abandoned Hotel “City Plaza” in the centre of Athens has
been turned
into an Accommodation Centre
for
Refugees.
Currently
refugee
families from different nationalities, together with hundreds of
people
of solidarity
are
working collectively for
the cleaning,
repairing
and
organization
of space, so
that it can open
soon as a project of self-organization and solidarity, as a center
of
struggle against
racism and exclusion, for
the
right to
free movement,
decent
living conditions
and equal rights.
The Solidarity Itiniative for Economic and Political Refugees invites everyone to practical and material support of the Accommodation Centre “City Plaza”.
The Solidarity Itiniative for Economic and Political Refugees invites everyone to practical and material support of the Accommodation Centre “City Plaza”.
For
practical reasons for the next few days and
as long as
there are works in progress in the building, it
will not be possible to accommodate more refugees.
This fact has created two very distinctive and
opposed tendencies: the first is expressed by the activation of racist reflexes,
which can be found in the core of the European continent: fences and walls have
been built; FRONTEX and NATO have been invited in order to “protect” the
borders; deportations and brutal oppression of refugees. It is clearly expressed through the racist
agreement between the E.U. and Turkey, which violates the Geneva Convention and
every humanist value, as it copes with the refugee issue as if refugees were a
merchandise that can be part of a transaction; it also leads to an unthinkable
number of deportations towards countries in which their life and freedom is
compromised.
The second tendency is the one expressed by the
huge wave of solidarity in Greece, as well as in Europe. Millions of people
were found side by side with the refugees in their battle to cross the borders
and overcome all kinds of difficulties through their journey. People in
solidarity in Athens, in August 2015, took immediate action in Pedion Areos,
thousands of people from all over the world have come to Lesvos and other
Aegean islands, in order to contribute to the efforts of the people there.
Europe has known the largest wave of solidarity and mutual aid in the last
decades. This mobilization is bearing the hope for a resurgence of the society,
in order to erase the danger to see Europe becoming a “Dark Continent” again.
The Solidarity Initiative for Economic and
Political Refugees has taken action, for quite some time now, within this
movement of solidarity, in the centre of Athens. It has brought out the fight
of the refugees; stopped the efforts to create “apartheid” areas, without the
presence of refugees; pointed out the responsibilities of the Greek government,
which not only did they fail to secure the accommodation, protection and free
passing of the refugees, but also signed the racist agreement and took the
responsibility to implement it.
From now on, our needs go to a different level.
Europe’s political agenda of closed borders basically determines the conditions
under which a number of political and economic refugees, who initially had the
intention to move on towards northern countries, are now stuck in Greece. Without
foregoing for a moment our basic demand for open borders and our fight against
closed ones, we feel the need to gather our forces toward the creation of
decent living conditions of refugees in Greece, in our neighborhoods, with full
rights in all social services.
In this framework, all along with our constant demand
for immediate accommodation of the refugees, not in camps, military or not, but
in appropriate buildings with full infrastructure, where they will be able to
move freely in and out, we decided to occupy this building: on the one hand, we
wanted to contribute, within our grasp, with a solution to the problem; on the
other hand, we felt the need to have a place where information and coordination
for refugees’ issues would take place.
Our decision does not release the Greek or any
other government from their responsibilities to immediately provide all
refugees with accommodation and protection. However, it points out that
solidarity can be the driving force which will stand up against any racist
plans of the European countries and it will see to the protection of all
refugees, in the direction of full integration, next to the local workers and
oppressed people. There have been several attempts, right after the racist agreement
between E.U.-Turkey, from the media and the government, to demonize and attack
solidarity, which was considered to be responsible for the fact that the
refugees stand up for their rights.
It is rather clear that if the status of
exception, which has been planned for the refugees, proves to be successful, it
will be used as a model to other parts of the society, which, during the last
years, have experienced the brutal agenda of poverty, oppression and exclusion.
We declare that we will stand to the side of
the refugees, people in solidarity and workers who, during all these years,
have fought for the rights to education and health, accommodation and food for
refugees, against the criminal politics of closed borders, which, up to now,
has killed thousands of people, against ghettos far from the city centre, where
refugees will be “invisible”.
The Solidarity Initiative for Economic and
Political Refugees invites the workers in solidarity to participate in this
effort, in the Refugee Accommodation Center City Plaza and every other
independent solidarity structure.
Let’s create a world of mutual aid and
co-existence.
Against racism, solidarity.
We will all live together.
- Down with the shameful agreement between
E.U.-Turkey. Open borders, safe passages for refugees.
- Full legalization of all refugees. No
deportation to Turkey or elsewhere.
- Accommodation for all refugees in appropriate
buildings, within the city core. Requisition of hotels and empty houses for
refugees’ accommodation.
- Free
access to health and education services for all refugees. Participation of the
refugees’ children to programs of school insertion.
- Closing of all detention centers, no
exclusion of refugees from the cities.
- No criminalization of the solidarity
movement.
Solidarity Initiative
for Economic and Political Refugees
