Regarding the rumors on the imminent evacuation of refugee squats and
the escalation of the anti-refugee policy

http://solidarity2refugees.gr/regarding-rumors-imminent-ev…/

CLOSE THE CAMPS OF SHAME – NOT THE REFUGEE HOUSING SQUATS

It looks like the government attack against the refugee housing squats
is being escalated. Following the evacuation of the Thessaloniki squats
in the summer, the Alkiviadou refugee housing squat and Villa Zografou
were evacuated a few weeks ago. Following the statements by Minister of
Public Order Nikos Toskas last week, regarding the evacuation of refugee
housing squats, rumors and leaked information has been circulating,
setting the stage for a new round of attacks.
Instead of planning to close the refugee detention centers, end the
apartheid between the Greek mainland and the islands, and house trapped
refugees within cities in dignified housing conditions, the government
is ramping up measures against the trapped refugees, is preparing to
open more closed detention centers, mass deportations and, in order to
implement a “policy of deterrence”, is organizing a completely
authoritarian neoliberal programme against the trapped refugees, thereby
being a keen implementer of the EU-Turkey deal of shame.

We are certain that the planned attack against refugee housing squats is
part of exactly this anti=refugee and anti-migration policy. It is
neither an exception nor a diversion. It is completely logical that a
government policy that presents refugees as being an enemy within is now
adopting a policy of hostility to any example of dignified living and
housing. This is, of course, a continuation of the broader anti-grass
roots government policies.

As Refugee Accommodation Space City Plaza, we are completely against
this racist policy, and we are unwilling to make a step back in the
struggle for dignity, social integration and equality, coexistence
between locals and foreign nationals, solidarity to all those fleeing
war and poverty, from Syria to Senegal and from Afghanistan to Morocco.
Over the course of one year, over 1500 refugees and hundreds of people
in solidarity, local and international, are organizing a model for
meeting fundamental human needs and a model for social self-organization
and multi-ethnic cohabitation. An abandoned hotel on Acharnon is a
center of struggle and solidarity at an international scale.

We demand nothing more than the free movement of people, dignified
living, the granting of asylum, equality and freedom for all the people
who fled their homes and arrived here. We accept nothing else.
We are here and we will remain here! Don’t even think about it…

Refugee Accommodation Space City Plaza
Athens, April 3, 2017