Following the raids on squats and the evictions (previously on s!n), some 60 people have been moved to other squats, after spending hours in police station and rejecting the offer to be transferred to one of the camps nearby Athens. Many experienced life in camps before, and they choose no to go back but rather to rely on alternative accommodation, mostly in squats. City Plaza, as well as other squats, took them in, and volunteers and activists found emergency shelter for everyone else.
Those with no papers were taken to a detention centre Minidi to process their registration.
People who lived in squat came back to pick up there belongings day after the raid, but were prevented by the police. Last night they could not take almost anything, only to found their stuff on the street day after. People tried to pick up stuff from the pile, some managed to find some things, some not, but police decided to stop that at certain moment and to throw all the stuff in garbage bins that were taken away. All the stuff are personal, including documents, and for many people this is another huge lost.
The Acharnon squat, Alkiviadou Street, was raided after the Red Cross, that own the place, claimed it. This is, unfortunately, another example among many of authorities and large INGOs failing to treat people in need appropriately. Police raided the squat and detained some of the residents, including vulnerable ones.
Once again, AYS strongly condems the raids and how authorities treated the residents. There was no intention to find any solution to shelter the people. They did not take care of their well being. Neither did the Red Cross, which wanted to replace the residents with unaccompanied minors. The only reason to replace one vulnerable group with another is indeed for economical reasons.
We stand in solidarity with the victims of this raid and the citizens who stood up yesterday for human rights.
