Hello,
I’m writing you on behalf of Indymedia Romania editorial team. We declare
our full support for the 300 migrants demands, hoping that at least in
this 30’n day of a humiliating hunger strike their voices will be heard
and an important precedent for all migrants and refugees around europe
will be created.
Below you can find a letter to greek authorities that we wrote the last
days and which was signed by few groups and individuals from Romania. The
letter was given personally to the assistant of greek ambassador this
morning (the ambassador will be in bucharest only on sunday, according to
him).
In solidarity,
Victor, migrant in romania
Bucharest, 24.02.2011
Open letter to Ambassador of Greece in Romania regarding the situation of
the 300 migrants on hunger strike :
Mr. Georgios Poukamisas,
We, Romanian citizens and migrants, wish to express our deep concern
towards the increasing number of deportations and persecutions of
migrants in your country, along with the deployment of EU military in
the region of Aegean, the border isolation with the construction of
the Evros wall and more recently, the actions of intimidation directed
against the 300 undocumented migrants in their fourth week of hunger
strike in Athens and Thessaloniki.
We draw your attention to the clear contradiction between the practices
used by the Greek authorities in managing migration and the common
European principles described in the Stockholm Program of the European
Union, in the European Social Assistance Programs and in the
International Human Rights Agreements of Security, Justice, Freedom,
Solidarity, Integration, Equal Treatment and Equal Rights. We believe
that these principles are compromised as long as there is no agreement
on their universality. Ensuring Security, Justice and Freedom for the
EU and SEE citizens cannot be achieved in parallel with deliberate and
constant denial of these rights to others, pushing their boats back
from the shores of Europe, holding them in detention centers for
undefined periods of time, or attacking and intimidating them when they
make their ultimate appeal for their basic human rights to be respected
by going on hunger strike.
It is well known that migrants all over Europe, documented and
undocumented, play an important role in national economies and
maintain the social wealth of most EU member states. While benefiting
from this situation, the European governments should also take the
responsibility of ensuring the basic rights of these people,
regardless their status (immigrants, refugees, persons with subsidiary
protection, tolerated persons, asylum seekers, stateless persons), to
protect their physical and psychological integrity, and to avoid the
treatment of people as numbers and subjects of multiple repressions.
We demand from the Greek government an immediate legalization of the
status of the 300 migrant workers on hunger strike, the introduction
of the right to amnesty in all EU countries’ migration legislations, a
lessening in the restrictive EU migration legislation, a recognition
of the migrants’ rights to work, study, move freely and benefit from
the same social services as Europen citizens. We ask for a recognized
status and a decent treatment for the people that were forced to leave
their countries of origin because of poverty, disease, wars and other
reasons that were threatening their integrity or life.
Despite internal economic and social problems that the Greek and other
European governments are presently facing, we demand that they respect the
fundamental human rights when dealing with migrants.
Indymedia Romania editorial team (contact : romania@indymedia.org )
Simina Guga and Gina Mocanu (ADIS Association)
F.I.A. Collective
H.arta Group
Mihaela Ștefanescu (Sociologist)
Ștefan Guga (PhD Dept of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Central
European University)
Șerban Toader (Radio Romania International, BNS – National Trade Union Bloc)
Romana Marin ( CARE – Centrul Centrul pentru Actiune si Responsabilitate
in Educatie)
Rodica Novac (ADO SAH ROM)