In the middle of the preparations for our stay on Lesvos, Greece, we want to remind you that the Greek islands are not the only places in Europe where refugees are suffering the inhuman treatment by EU member states. People are suffering illegal pushbacks and police violence in many European states. Last night cops destroyed tents of migrants and refugees in Paris, France. The violent treatment of refugees and migrants is increasing across Europe.



Image: Refugees and migrants sleeping on the streets of Paris. Image by Facebook page Paris Refugee Ground Support

Published by 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 our articles about refugees; here.

Cops Destroy Tents of Refugees & Migrants in Snowy #Paris

In the middle of the preparations for our stay on Lesvos, Greece, we want to remind you that the Greek islands are not the only places in Europe where refugees are suffering the inhuman treatment by EU member states. People are suffering illegal pushbacks and police violence in many European states. Last night cops destroyed tents of migrants and refugees in Paris, France. The violent treatment of refugees and migrants is increasing across Europe.



Winter has arrived in large parts of Europe and many people without a roof above their head are suffering the cold weather conditions. Among them many refugees and migrants. On December 2 Paris Refugee Ground Support wrote on their Facebook page: “On Thursday night it snowed. Since then the snow melted leaving everywhere wet. Tonight its freezing on minus 2. The very lucky ones are the ones sharing a 3 man tent with 6 people. Their combined body warmth is their protector. The Lucky people are in a freezing tent with the rain of condensation from their breath falling on them. The unlucky ones are lying on the wet and freezing ground. If they have blankets that are now wet, how do they escape the freezing cold? What will happen to those with nothing?”

Video by Paris Refugee Ground Support: https://www.facebook.com/johanna.hommeolsen.3/videos/1228282337316551/ (Warning Facebook Link)

The inhumane living conditions for the people living on the streets of Paris doesn’t seem to be enough for the French authorities. As international human rights day drew to a close, this is what the Parisian authorities had to offer on December 10: Cops Smashed Tents of Refugees & Migrants in Paris.

Video by Paris Refugee Ground Support: https://www.facebook.com/PRGS.team/videos/2014434198836690/ (Warning Facebook Link)

While the people on the cold streets of Paris have to face police brutality on a daily basis, the decision makers are working on new laws for stricter detention of refugees and migrants who are subject to Dublin procedures. French parliament debated a proposal permitting the detention of refugees seekers who can be transferred to another Member State under the Dublin Regulation as soon as they register their asylum application at the Prefecture. The bill already passed through the Law Commission (Commission des lois) of the National Assembly on 29 November 2017. The new law still has to go through the Senate, but that is more or less a formality. There is no doubt that he majority in the senate will approve the new law.

The new law will allow the French state to detain people throughout the procedure of determination of the Member State responsible for his or her claim under the Dublin system, whereas the current state of the law would only allow detention after a transfer decision has been issued.



In Calais refugees and migrants are also sleeping in small iglo tents in the cold winter.

Image: Refugees and migrants in Calais. Image by @safepassageuk

The violent treatment of refugees and migrants is increasing across Europe. On Border Violence Monitoring cases of illegal pushbacks and police violence are documented.

Image: Living conditions in Subotica, Serbia, spring 2017. Image by: Rigardu.

The Balkan route has turned into a Balkan prison. The militarized borders with their barbed wire and fences are being heavily patrolled and refugees and migrants are often subject to illegal pushbacks and police violence. Border Violence Monitoring published a statistical overview for the time from January to November 2017. In this overview they write: “From the start of January to the end of November 2017, a total of at least 110 incidents of illegal push-backs were reported. However, since we can only document experiences of the people we meet in person during our activities on the ground, the real number must inevitably be much higher. Also, the following statistics are influenced by dynamics in the documentation and cannot be fully representative of the phenomenon.

In total, a staggering number of at least 857 individuals suffered illegal expulsion and police violence such as beating, kicking, electric shocks and even dog bites, were deprived of their belongings including their clothes, and forced to wait for hours at below-zero temperature.

In at least 52 of cases minors were involved, while 34 reports do not give this information. In a minimum of two thirds of the documented incidents the will to ask for asylum was explicitly expressed – which in every case was answered with the forceful expulsion of the people seeking protection.

Most of the violent acts (76) took place on Croatian territory and were perpetrated by Croatian police, whereas 16 cases were reported from Hungary and 12 from Slovenia. In the latter, Slovenian police usually worked together with their Croatian equivalents to create ‘push-back chains’ in which refugees were handed over to Croatian police which deported them back to Serbia, often beating them again upon release.”

The Open The Islands campaign published an update about the situation on the Greek islands: “The situation for refugees in Lesvos remains critical. As weather conditions worsen and winter approaches, Moria camp still ‘houses’ three times more people than capacity allows. With a capacity of around 2300 people, Moria camp now has almost 7000 people inside. From the promised 5000 transfers to the mainland until December 15th only a few hundred actually happened so far. If and how it will be possible to transfer several thousand people in the next five days is a questions yet to be answered.

Image: Moria refugee camp on Lesvos, Greece. Image by Open The Islands.

The population of Moria camp includes around 350 unaccompanied minors, many children with their families, pregnant women, severly sick and disabled people. They are living in flimsy summer tents, without even a mattress, not protected from rain, wind or cold.” (Read the full update at: https://opentheislands.wordpress.com/2017/12/11/unfullfilled-promises-lesvos-update-11-december-2017/)

People of the Cars of Hope collective will travel to Lesvos, Greece on December 17 to support refugees on the Greek island. Some of the Enough is Enough team will join them. If you want to support refugees on Lesvos you can join the Cars of Hope crowdfunding campaign on https://www.leetchi.com/c/soziales-von-cars-of-hope or donate directly on the Cars of Hope PayPal account: carsofhopewtal@gmail.com

Our equipment suffered a lot from traveling around Europe for our independent on the ground reports. We need new microphones for better audio on our video reports, a new laptop (the last one crashed in Catalonia) and have a lot of expenses for our on the ground reporting.

We want to stay independent and want to expand our work with on the ground reporting across Europe and even beyond. Therefore we need your support. Help maintain our site and continue our work. Your donations make our work possible.

We did and do a lot of on the ground reporting in Europe. On December 17 we will travel to Lesvos (Greece) and in January we will travel from Lesvos to Athens to report on the ground.

Each donation helps, also the small ones. Thank you for supporting the Enough is Enough project.

Crowdfunding campaign: https://www.youcaring.com/enough14novdec

You can also donate on our Paypal account: enough14@gmx.net

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