Protest at the Ministry of Immigration, on Friday 16 December

We call all Trade Unions Organizations of Greece, Europe and other countries to sign and support these demands with actions and initiatives

PAME calls the trade unions in Greece, the people’s organisations and Committees to strengthen their solidarity to refugees and migrants who suffer. The unions need to work on the problems of migrants and refugees, along with the struggle against the problems of the working class of our country, the struggle for the protection of the unemployed and those who suffer from poverty and destitution, the struggle for better lives for the workers in Greece regardless of race, colour, or religion.

The situation in most Hot-Spots and other migrant concentration camps is tragic. Besides the main problem, which is their entrapment, they have to deal with the unacceptable and often wretched living conditions in the camps which have been created by the Government of SYRIZA to Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). The necessary infrastructure is non-existent, and most of the people live in tents for second year’s winter- there is a huge shortage in food and there is a huge lack in hygiene, health and care. People suffer from the weather conditions and there is practically no access to education for all children.

Especially in the islands of the eastern and northern Aegean Sea, the situation in the Hot-Spots  is even worse, since the facilities there accommodate two or even three times more the number of people they are capable to accommodate.

We demand humane and dignified living conditions to be ensured in all places where refugees and immigrants are located.

We demand all refugees and migrants to be transferred directly to locations with decent living conditions, prioritising pregnant women, families with children and people with special needs.

We demand adequate nutrition and health care for all refugees and migrants to be ensured.

The government of SYRIZA bears the main responsibility for this situation. The government with the support of the other bourgeois parties fully accepted and validated all the EU decisions, which trap refugees in Greece.  The government has cosigned the EU-Turkey Agreement, and fully complies with it: this agreement is presented as if it can mitigate the refugee problem, while it traps refugees and migrants in the islands of the Aegean Sea and it is used as a means to blackmail people of Greece, in a time when the Turkish bourgeoisie aggression towards our country’s sovereign rights is being escalated.

This situation creates conditions for the fascist-racist party Golden Dawn to perform acts of political provocation against refugees and the local population, promoting racist poisonous messages to the workers and the people, turning them against the refugees, men, women and children. Against the refugees, who all they did was try to save themselves from the horrors of war.

The fake tears shed by the government of Greece are cause for Anger. The government, following the EU policies and the NATO doctrine, opened the door to NATO in the Aegean Sean, supposedly in order to help the refugees. It has offered everything so that the murderous imperialist plans in the broader Eastern Mediterranean region will be successful and the big oil, military and construction companies will get even richer, spreading death with their bombs in Syria and elsewhere. This government promises and propagates the desire to engage Greece more deeply in ongoing competitions and war conflicts, which are evolving or are about to happen in the area, increasing the risks for the working class and our people, and other nations, to join in this circle of blood, whose only aim is to multiply the profits of monopolies.

We must not listen to the hateful messages by the fascist Golden Dawn, and others who blame refugees to hide the real responsibles for the wars and refugees: Monopolies and their thirst for more profits.

Faced with this situation and the risk of a generalised military conflict in the region, the risk for new bloodbath, deaths and new caravans of refugees, it is necessary for Greeks, refugees and migrants, united, to organise our struggle

Apart from the immediate protection measures for the refugees we demand:

• The cancelation of the decisions, agreements and regulations, which trap the refugees in Greece

• The direct transport of refugees to the mainland and the provision of everything necessary so that they can reach safe their final destination.

• The shutting-down of all Hot-Spots in the islands in any form.

• The provision of the refugee status to all nationals coming from countries that have suffered imperialist attacks

• The state provision and state-functioning of open reception structures, where there will be a record and temporary accommodation will be offered under the sole responsibility of the state.

• To ensure adequate quality food, which will cover the nutritional needs of the refugees in the long-run and which will meet health specifications.

• To ensure the integration of refugee children in education under state responsibility and all the necessary measures to be applied.

• State coverage and provision of health to the refugees. The NGOs must be left out. Strengthening of public infrastructure with staff and funding and implementation of disease prevention and treatment and vaccination programmes, etc.

• NATO Out of the Aegean Sea. Shut- down all NATO bases.

• Our country to stop participating in the imperialist interventions and wars that create thousands of desperate refugees. No worker should shed his blood for the interests of the capitalists.

We call the trade unions in Greece to organise solidarity actions and to express solidarity in all ways; to gather and supply anything that can help support the refugees who suffer (blankets, winter clothes, foodstuffs, toys, etc.)

We call trade unions of Athens to participate in the Protest at the Ministry of Immigration, on Friday 16 December