“I was walking alone along the train rails in the dark. The police appeared … they started beating me up.” “Fear… fear… fear!” “I was walking alone along the train rails in the dark. The police appeared … they started beating me up.” always the same. The violence that refugees and immigrants encounter today is daily, both physically and psychologically, and perhaps it is a precursor of the violence that we will all encounter as our society becomes more authoritarian and callous.” 23 As members of the "Motion for the defense of refugees‘ and immigrants‘ rights" stressed to us during a meeting held in April, 2012, often migrants and refugees are literally haunted by police officers on motorcycles and have sometimes been seriously injured while jumping from the upper floors or roofs of the buildings where they find temporary refuge. In 2007, the Group of Lawyers for the Rights of Migrants and Refugees and Pro Asyl, in their report “The truth may be bitter, but it must be told” (p. 28f) documented cases of illtreatment by the police in Patras. Among them, there were cases of beatings with electric batons and of ill-treated minors. In 2008 Human Rights Watch in “Left to Survive: Systematic failure to protect unaccompanied migrant children” reported: “Many of the unaccompanied children, in addition to numerous adults, interviewed by Human 23 P  ress Release by Kinisi 13.10.2011 (translated by Pro Asyl): http://www.kinisipatras.gr/index.php?option=com_cont ent&view=category&layout=blog&id=14&Itemid=62&lang=en Rights Watch, described violence and ill-treatment at the hands of police, port police, coastguards or border guard taking place during interception at sea and during arrest or detention”. These cases included an Afghan minor referred to the Greek Ombudsman in 2008 24 who was stabbed with a knife by a port official. (p.36) Other significant cases include the mock execution to which police subjected another Afghan minor named Ghulam S (p. 35) and Jafar F, who was thrown into the sea by officers from the port authority. In 2010 the European Committee on the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) interviewed a detainee interviewed in the Gounari Street police station in Patras, who was alleged to have been ill-treated by the police after his arrest (p.17). “A detained person interviewed at Patras Gounari Street Police Station alleged to have been punched in the eye and nose on 19 September 2009 by a police officer after having been apprehended.” (p. 17) 24 P  ress Release by the Greek Ombudsman: www.synigoros.gr/resources/docs/200877.pdf Press Release by the Greek Ombudsman: www.synigoros.gr/resources/_deltio_stp_8_2.pdf Letter to the Authorities by the Ombudsman: www.synigoros.gr/resources/_patra_katavlismos_8_2-2.pdf Doctors of the World, who were running a program of medical aid in Patras during the summer of 2011 and who are about to start a new program in Patras this summer stated in a Press Release (28.07.2011): “Médecins du Monde notes with great concern the persistent use of violence against immigrants – regular or not - who are caught up in the port city of Patras in a desperate situation while trying to leave Greece. Blows from batons into the extremes or genitals and severe head injuries are some examples of physical police violence recorded by the doctors of the organization. The use of physical force, without the following “excuse” of being part of the arrest, constitutes an illegal and inhumane abuse of power. Additionally, Médecins du Monde denounces the exclusion of refugees and other persons in need of assistance from the mobile medical unit of the organization. This exclusion violates the right to medical care. We want to point out the paradox of state organs undermining the activities of NGOs that are financed by the Greek State itself. Médecins du Monde has evidence proving all the above and states that it will uphold defend the right to decent survival and will do whatever it takes to turn it into practice.” 25 On February 21, 2012 the Racist Violence Recording Network in Athens and Patras, which was set up at the initiative of the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Greece (UNHCR) with the participation of 18 non-governmental organizations and other bodies, reported eight cases of racist violence against migrants perpetrated by police officers in Patras between October and December 2011. 26 25 P  ress Release 28.07.2011 (translated by Pro Asyl): https:// athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=en&article_id=1323055 26 Racist Violence Recording Network / I-RED reported: “There is a distinct category consisting of 18 incidents, where police and racist violence are interlinked (10 in Athens and 8 in Patras). These incidents concern duty police officers, who resorted to illegal acts and violent practices while carrying out routine operations. There are a few recorded cases of migrants and asylum seekers taken to police stations, where they were detained and maltreated during a certain number of hours, as well as cases where legal documents were destroyed during these operations.” Source: http://www.1againstracism.gr/index.php/en/component/k2/itemlist/category/26-racist-violence-recording-network Following a fact-finding mission (29.02.02.03.2012) the Greek Council for Refugees reported: “Complaints often concerned incidents where migrants were forced into the sea, with their clothes on and in freezing weather conditions, to stay in cold water up to their necks and then once out of the water were made to stand still for hours in their wet clothes, until they freeze (...). In addition, there were reports of migrants who were forced to stay on their hands and knees, while port authority officers would sit on them. In other cases, the victims were forced to take off their clothes, stand still with their legs extended, and beaten every time they moved. Furthermore, as we have been told, the authorities often destroy or confiscate migrants’ personal belongings – even food or their shoes. The port officers unleash their dogs, sometimes leading to serious injuries from dog bites or falls when migrants try to escape them. There have also been some isolated reports of falls from the upper floors of buildings -served as makeshift shelters- during police raids. On the afternoon of 29.2.12 members of our mission-team witnessed the beating of an 18 year old Afghan by a police officer in a supermarket carpark not far away from the Peiraiki Patraiki factory. The policeman took the Afghan to a more isolated place and repeatedly kicked him in the shins. He then took away his plastic bag, with his milk and bread. We would like to highlight the fact that all refugees unanimously expressed their desire and need for protection from police violence.” 27 On April 24, 2012 HRW wrote on its Observations to the UN Special Rapporteur against Torture, about further cases of ill-treatment in Patras documented by them during their factfinding missions in late November/early December 2011: “Human Rights Watch spoke with seventeen migrants, including ten unaccompanied Afghan migrant children, who told us of police and Coast Guard abuse. These abuses occurred on the streets, during sweeps in the abandoned factory where they lived during our visit, and in the port area during attempts to hide under or inside trucks heading to Italy.” 28 27 P  ress Release by GCR 2012 (translated by Pro Asyl). See: www.gcr.gr 28 http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/04/25/updated-human-rightswatch-submission-united-nations-committee-against-torturegreec 15