It was a heavy week on Lesvos, a violent fascist mob, supported by cops forced refugees to (at least temporarily) stop the occupation of Sappho square in Mytilini. On Saturday many people protested against the fascist mob, deportations and for open borders. Report and statement by Refugees and Solidarity supporters about the occupation of Syriza headquarters at Lesvos, Greece on Saturday November 25.

Image: On Saturday November 25 activists occupied Syriza headquarters on Lesvos, Greece, after a demo through the islands capital Mytilini. Image by Lesvos Solidarity – Pikpa Facebook page.

Submitted to Enough is Enough.

Note: Enough is Enough is not organizing any of these events, we are publishing this text for people across the US and Europe to be able to see what is going on and for documentation only.

Read all the Enough is Enough reports about RefugeesGR; here.

It was a heavy week on Lesvos, a violent fascist mob, supported by cops, forced refugees to (at least temprarily) stop the occupation of Sappho square in Mytilini. On Saturday many people protested against the fascist mob, deportations and for open borders. Report and statement by Refugees and Solidarity supporters about the occupation of Syriza headquarters at Lesvos, Greece on Saturday November 25.

The No Border Kitchen Lesvos crew wrote in a statement on their facebook page on November 23 about the fascists on Sappho square and an attempted illegal deportation: “Concerned citizens” and angry shop owners formed part of a 40-strong fascist mob at Saphous Square last Tuesday, gathered in an attempt to evict refugee protesters from their month-long occupation of the site. They were soon joined by police. After extensive negotiations between the protestors, the mayor, and the police, the protestors agreed to pack up their tents. Verbal abuse and the threat of physical attack from the surrounding mob left the protestors with little choice but to do so. They were promised a night in a ‘warm place’ in return, but this was never delivered, and instead of decent government-provided shelter they were brought to sleep in tents at House4Humanity.

Following this, the protestors returned to the square the next morning, welcomed again by the fascist mob. Police in full riot gear showed up to separate the parties and to negotiate again. After some time the protestors were offered a three-day stay in Pikpa, an independent refugee camp, with the obvious question of what will happen once the three days are up left unanswered. The protestors announced to return to the square if not offered any solutions after this time. During the negotiations the gathered fascists shouted violent verbal abuse, directed at the protestors and those in solidarity with them. At one point this broke out into a physical attack, with 25 men attempting to assault 4 women attending the protest in solidarity. In the end, luckily, no one was hurt.

Currently Saphous Square lies empty, save for a handful of bored police. For now we wait to see where this leads us, with a verdict promised by Saturday.

The importance of the Saphous Square protest, and the need for it to continue, was demonstrated again this morning. Despite one individual’s lawyer appealing his deportation order, we learned today that this man remained on the list for deportation to Turkey. The deportation has been stopped for now, by pressure from the lawyer, activists, and journalists on the police.

However, the question remains: what if this individual had not been one of the lucky few represented by a decent lawyer? Most likely, he would right now be in a Turkish detention centre, and in a few months, on a plane back to Kabul.

Nearly every week between 7-20 people are forcefully deported to Turkey. The situation is almost impossible to monitor, as access to the prisons is strictly limited to lawyers and close family members, and there are nowhere near enough lawyers on Lesvos to provide access to legal aid for the detainees. We know that today was not the only attempt to illegally deport someone, and we can be sure that the cases we hear about are the very tip of the iceberg.”

Arash Hampay wrote on his Facebook profile on November 25: “Two days ago the police, along with some fascist people, came to us the day after our protest and started beating everyone – even women!.

They used so many bad words and humiliated us! After that the police asked details of our demands!

We are demanding that they free Hesam Shaeri Hesari is in hunger strike now for more than one week (the police put him in prison and want to deport him) and open the Lesvos border and let refugees leave this big prison where their people, the mayor and the head of the police don’t want us to stay anymore!