In 2012 the Greek government launched an operation to sweep up irregular immigrants from the streets of Athens (known as Xenios Zeus) and other cities and relocate them to facilities euphemistically known as ‘hospitality centers’ or less optimistically as ‘pre-deportation detention centers.’ In reality they are nothing more than crude, often overcrowded facilities with squalid living conditions devoid of basic sanitation.
Many immigrants in the detention centers have now been kept for over a year and a half in confinement with the dates of their release continually postponed. The indefinite nature of their detention, together with the often terrible conditions, have left many facing serious physical and mental problems.
The government’s treatment of irregular migrants has been criticized by multiple observers. Recently the medical NGO Medicins sans Frontieres highlighted the abysmal treatment of the irregular immigrants detained in the centers.
Below is the statement by the immigrants held in the Corinth detention facility announcing their hunger strike (translation by TPPI).
“For a year and a half (since August 2012) many immigrants without documents have been arrested by the Greek authorities. The mass checks and arrests that are being performed are racist and violent. People from all around the country were taken to detention centers. Without going into too much detail about the terrible situations that we, all of us refugees have been through, our only mistake was not having a piece of paper.
When the detention centers were opened, the Greek government passed a law according to which the maximum time period for which refugees could be held was six months. Subsequently it raised the detention period to a year, then to a year and a half and today that is the longest period Greek law allows.
But now, suddenly, a few weeks ago they again raised the detention period to indefinite detention!!! This move was a racist decision. It is an injustice. The only purpose of this is to stop us refugees from coming to Greece, we who were forced to leave our countries because we were suffering. Now we are forced to suffer in Greece.
With the systematic and indefinite detention the Greek government is killing us. They are wasting our lives and killing our dreams and hopes inside the prisons. And all of this when none of us has committed any wrongdoing.
The majority of us are dealing with health problems: both physical and mental. Mainly those who have been held for over 18 months are in a terrible state and are in desperate need of assistance and support.
Today, 9/6/2014/ we who are being held in the Corinth detention center have begun a hunger strike. We feel immense pressure due to our ignorance of our futures. We are protesting against the illegal extension of our detention to over 18 months.”