Against racism, against the Greek Government, and against the EU! Freedom to refugees!

ANTARSYA condemns the anti-migration and racist government policies and the violence against the refugees in the islands of the North Aegean Sea and the land borders with Turkey, that seek to sustain the anti-refugee agreement between the EU and Turkey.

The tragedy that the refugees experience in the Greek-Turkish borders with the Greek army and police mobilisation and their violence against desperate people stems from the failed racist policies of the Greek Government, the EU and the NATO in the last decade. Citing EU protocols, the Greek government is putting human lives at risk, by voting a law that suspends for one month the internationally-recognised right to claim asylum. Moreover, violent and illegal “push back” operations have occurred by Greek soldiers that have been sent to the borders who have been instructed to use violence against refugees in order to block their way to Greece. In a similar way, local far-right and fascist groups are attacking refugees with the tolerance of the Greek government, and in some instances, they capture them and hand them over to the authorities and the army.

Under these circumstances, the Greek political establishment and the media continue to disconnect the refugee flows from the war in Syria and the imperialist invasions in the wider area (Iraq, Afghanistan). They conceal the responsibilities of the current capitalist system and the competition for the energy sources that have destroyed several countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

The anti-refugee policies are the main reason for the growth of the fascist threat in the Greek border areas, with the local governments’ hate rhetoric supporting this threat. There is nothing to divide the workers and people of Greece and the victims of wars and poverty. We will resist and struggle together for a better future.

ANTARSYA demands:

• Open the borders for the refugees
• Asylum, free access to health and education and equal rights for the refugees
• Immediate release of the thousands of refugees from the islands. Immediate closure of refugee (concentration) camps-prisons
• Free and safe transfer of the refugees to mainland Greece, with decent conditions in the cities
• The refugees must be free to travel to any country they want
• Immediate abolition of the racist agreements between the EU, Greece, and Turkey
• Immediate abolition of Dublin II Regulation
• No to Fortress Europe
• Stop the war in Syria. No participation of Greece in the imperialist invasions
• We will never participate in wars for fracking and exclusive economic zones
• Internationalist solidarity between Greek and Turkish people and other countries in the area

Do not use the troops for repression against refugees!

Meet on Tuesday 10th March at 6pm outside the Holland Park tube station. The demo will then proceed to the Greek Embassy nearby.

ANTARSYA, 5.3.2020