Politics

UPDATE:  CHANGE OF LOCATION: The solidarity demonstration on Saturday 17 December will take place at SAPFOUS SQUARE, 12.00.

INVITATION - LOCAL COORDINATION FOR REFUGEE AND MIGRANT SUPPORT LESVOS 

2 years after the EU-Turkey deal came into force, we invite you to join us for a demonstration outside Moria camp. On 17 March, people will come together all over the world to show solidarity with refugees and migrants who are imprisoned, who are mistreated and tortured, and who lost their lives as a result of EU’s dirty anti-migration deals. We will demonstrate outside Moria against the EU-Turkey deal, which has turned Lesvos into a prison island. The living conditions in Moria camp are inhumane and unacceptable. We demand to open the islands and to have adequate reception on the mainland for refugees, outside of detention facilities.

2018 has brought some alarming new developments to the situation for refugees and displaced people on Chios. After the failure of a recent injunction meant to halt Vial’s expansion, a group of frustrated locals set up camp on the road leading into Vial, forcing refugees to walk through crowds of hostile people in order to access the camp. The locals’ everyday presence is objectively intimidating; at times it has crossed the line into outright bigotry and violence. We’ve witnessed xenophobic language first-hand, and one woman at our Athena Centre for Women reported being kicked by a local woman in the crowd – a completely unacceptable act of hate.