KAYIKI
Press Release
20.06.2014
End
death at border now! Respect human life and death!
We, the
inhabitants of both sides of Aegean Sea, express our anger and our
shock about the thousands of deaths of refugees and migrants in their
effort to cross Europe. They are a direct result of the Europe
Fortress policy: The sealing of the borders and the lack of any other
way for these people to seek protection.
Dozens
of tragic shipwrecks have taken place on both sides of the Aegean Sea
since August 2012 after the completion of the border fence in Evros,
the land borders between Greece and Turkey: In Farmakonisi, in Lesvos
and in Samos, near and some along the border river Evros.
Small
children, women and men; refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia
and Eritrea died in the Aegean Sea and in Evros trying to escape war,
poverty and political persecution in their effort to cross the
European borders. Their dead bodies were either found near the
coastlines either they disappeared in the Aegean. Many of them were
never identified, buried in unmarked graves in remote cemeteries and
not according to their cultural and religious traditions. Family
members who survived are weeping silently for the loss of their
beloved. Others are still trying desperately to locate their missing
ones.
The
mainstream media talk about these tragic incidents in a dehumanizing
way as “deaths of illegal migrants” presenting them as inevitable
or fatal. As they seem unwanted by our society both in life and death
everyone remains silent.
In the
same period, there are many documented allegations of pushbacks in
the Aegean Sea. Despite public accusations and international
criticism they continue until today unhindered. There are repeated
reports of ill-treatment, shootings, theft and violations of the
rescue protocols.
On
January 20th, 2014 a shipwreck took place near Farmakonisi
island during an operation of the Greek coast guard. Three Afghan
women and eight children died. All the survivors told in public that
the shipwreck and the death of their women and children was a
consequence of a push-back operation
of the Greek coastguard. At the meantime the coast guard claims it
was rescue operation, but they couldn’t explain why their vessel
didn’t even have life jackets on board. The survivors of the
shipwreck including the fathers of the tragically lost children were
detained, allegedly ill-treated upon their arrival in the island of
Leros and then released on the condition to leave the country within
one month. The tragic images of the father who lost all his children
standing in a cue with the other survivors upon arrival in Leros
island as detainees and the pain and suffering inscribed in his face
have marked our hearts.
On
March 6th,
2014 in Chios island the Greek coast guard shot a refugee boat
resulting in the injury of three Syrian refugees. They claimed that
the refugee boat had rammed the Greek coast guard vessel (!).
These
incidents are only a few recent examples of the shameful practices
followed by the Greek coast guard in Aegean Sea and inside the
operational area of Frontex. In public the EU hypocritically
criticizes Greece for human rights violations
but in practice it orders secretly the refoulement of people in need
of protection.
In
the end of the day, Greek as well as Turkish authorities’ practices
of hunting down refugees along this border in order to keep the gate
to Europe closed is endangering lives.
Even
worse, the authorities on both sides ignore the immediate need and
the survivors’ basic human right to bury their children, spouses,
mothers, husbands and fathers; to weep and to mourn them.
One
recent example from the Greek side: On May 5th,
2014 a shipwreck near Samos was reported: 22 dead refugees (among
them two pregnant women and four children) and 36 the survivors. The
first actions taken by the authorities were an interrogation of the
survivors about the incident and that a removal order was issued
against them. The traumatized survivors were detained during the
first days in the detention cells of Samos’ coast guard, where
neither local nor international organizations could access them and
they lacked any form of support. No protection status was granted to
them, except the temporal suspension of their removal.
How does
it feel to lose your family in one moment and in the next second you
find yourself locked up in a cage? Weeping and honoring the dead is
unfortunately not allowed equally to all people in this world.
The
Aegean is supposed to be a friendly sea connecting people and nations
and so is Evros river, but due to specific policies and practices
they have been turned into nothing less than a big graveyard. We, the
inhabitants of the both sides of Aegean Sea and Evros river, cannot
accept this any more. We do not accept to just count the corpses in
numbers and bury them silently. Our rage and our pain grow day by
day. We want to see a change now. Europe has to offer secure
procedures for protection seekers to come and find a safe place.
END
THE DEATHS IN THE AEGEAN SEA AND ON THE LAND BORDER NOW!
Kayiki
Info
about KAYIKI
In
August 2008, academics, human rights activists and artists from
Turkey, Greece, Austria and Germany held a series of meetings in the
Greek island of Chios and Dikili. The group later named itself
"Kayiki".
The
main theme of these meetings were to seek for ways to enhance the
living conditions of the refugees who are trying to reach Greece via
the Aegean Sea almost every day and to raise the voice against the
deaths occurring during their “journey for hope”.
As
a result of these meetings, The Kayiki Group took some concrete
decisions such as to increase the interaction of both countries’
NGOs, to better keep track of the refugees and violations against
these in order to take necessary precautions and to raise a campaign
to increase awareness. The movies, postcards and the radio spots are
available in Turkey and Greece primarily, as well as the whole
Mediterranean countries and other countries.
Contact:
Pırıl
Erçoban 0090 549 483 54 22 (Turkey)
Efi
Latsoudi 0030 6976234668 (Greece)
Marieke
Wissink 0031 614377885 (Netherlands)
Salinia Stroux 0049 17665429144 (Germany)