This is a short report on an action that happened on Saturday, 5th of march, in the port of Lesbos island, Greece. About 10 activists held several banners reading „Freedom of Movement“ (English, Arabic) and „Open the borders for everyone“ (Farsi, Urdu) next to the ferry to Kavala which takes large numbers of the refugees to the main land. To spread the content people shouted “'Freedom of Movement is everybody's right” in English and Arabic next to other demands. People entering the ferry cheered and joined in.
AIM OF ACTION
Aim of that action was to raise awareness that refugees are constantly divided into “legal” and “illegal”. The first group contains mostly Syrian and Iraqi people with correct papers and registration in Greece which are allowed to enter Macedonia. The latter group contains all others that do not fit into that category (people with lost/missing papers, wrong nationality, wrong escape reason, etc..) and therefore are denied access to Macedonia. (1)
INFO UPDATE
Less than two weeks ago, the European Leaders decided to add Afghani people to this latter group. Since last week Pakistani people can not register in Greece anymore. Some were already arrested, detained and deported. A large number of Pakistani refugees were detained in Kavala after getting of the ferry. To sort out the “bad” from the “good” in order to detain the illegalised people the passengers are divided by nationality before getting off the ferry. (2)
The closed border in Macedonia results in a full stop of the “Balkan Route” and it is expected that Greece becomes a dead-end-road for all that are not accepted in Europe. Detention and deportation of large amounts of people from Greece to Turkey will be the consequences. But also for the “accepted refugees” the border to Macedonia is de facto closed since only several hundred people are let over per day. The number of people arriving every day stays high and the amount of people waiting before the border is expected to be more than 10.000. (3 & 4)
CALL FOR SUPPORT
Anti-authoritarian, anti-national structures support people on the spot, regardless which religion, nationality oder whatever box they belong to or are put in. If you're interested to support us in the struggle on Lesbos, please contact us.
Call: 0030 694 946 9116
or write to: noborderkitchen@riseup.net
Overcome all nations!
Tear down the fences and walls of Fortress Europe!
Freedom of movement for all!
NO BORDER KITCHEN LESBOS
Find more info about NBK here:
https://linksunten.indymedia.org/de/node/168713
facebook.com/events/107402646309597/
https://twitter.com/noborderkitchen
SOURCES
1: https://newsthatmoves.org/en/?p=1549
2: facebook.com/areyousyrious/posts/590236367791917
3: https://newsthatmoves.org/en/?p=1546
4: facebook.com/areyousyrious/posts/591824194299801