The Drowning Voice Feminist Collective from below: The House of Women for Empowerment & Emancipation Illustrations by Peter Strain Testimonies/Stories of migrant women from Greek Aliens’ Detention Centres spiti.gynaikon@gmail.com medical and pharmaceutical care, as well as psychosocial diagnosis and support unhindered exercise of their religious duties, provided that the security rules of the detention centers are not violated equal treatment (...) access to a lawyer and in case of inability, provision of legal assistance (...) absolute respect for their personality and the unimpeded exercise of their rights to receive from the guard of the detention facilities the necessary items for personal hygiene and cleanliness. to receive adequate nutrition with care of the Pre-Departure Detention Centers for Foreigners, three times a day and to be informed with newspapers, magazines and books supplied during visits, as well as to have access to the library CHAPTER B REGULATION OF OPERATION OF PRE-DEPARTURE DETENTION CENTERS Article 21 Prisoners' Rights Foreigners detained in detention centers are entitled to: PRISONERS' RIGHTS 2 Within 48 hours of arrest, objections may be lodged with the Police Department, either written or oral. Within three days of arrest, the deportation order is issued. In the body of the order must explicitly state the possibility of appeal, the time limit for exercising it and the consequences of the omission. It is important to remember that if we do not understand something from the text of the order, we have the right to request the written or oral translation of the main points of it, as well as the communication with a lawyer. The deadline for filing an appeal is 5 days since the notification of the decision and it is very important that it be exercised, as only then, if rejected, we will be able to claim the cancellation of the decision before the competent court. The appeal also suspends the execution of the deportation order, which means that the deportation cannot be ordered. If the appeal is rejected or three days have elapsed without a reply, an application for annulment may be lodged within sixty days of the rejection or the expiry of the three-day period. The request for annulment does not suspend the execution of the expulsion decision, so it is good, at the same time, to file a request for suspension of the execution of the decision. LEGAL PROTECTION IN CASE OF DEPORTATION 3 Dissolve Me Canvas Art Print by Dániel Taylor | iCanvas I'm happy because I'm close to my son again. I worked hard this summer, 14 to 15 hours ... I still have not finished the story with my papers ... I was denied asylum and I appealed. The decision which will be issued in February 2019. I am very worried.. As to the topic of Petrou Ralli, I do not know where to start ... 40 days, a pure nightmare! I'm happy for some girls, that I kept in touch with, like S, Z, A, K, and they are all, now, well, and away from the cells! ! ! What can I say about the behaviour of the police towards us? It was both relaxed and very hard what we experienced. First and foremost, we had no water. There was a tap in the hallway that did not work and we drank water from the toilets. It smelled like pipes. The food was drowned in oil. We ate the same food, day after day. The bad thing was that we had to put food on the floor because they did not allow us to use even a carton from juice to build a small table. I vomited every day of 40 days, because I could not eat oily food. I had a problem with my stomach. They did not change my menu. The girls left me some sandwiches, here and there, to eat something ... We slept without pillows. The mattresses were dirty, full of bed bugs, on concrete slabs, 50 cm wide and 2m long, like a grave ... These were our beds and there were no closets anywhere to put our things. As well as none of the essentials for personal hygiene. I remember once S was very ill. She was in pain, and the policewoman was just looking at her. I shouted: “What are you waiting for? Call the doctor ". She answered: “Maybe she is bluffing, maybe it is not true. Let's wait... ” Another day, Z. was very ill, she was in pain, with a fever and swollen, she was suffering from kidneys’ illness. She had been taking medication for years, in her faraway homeland. The medication had been confiscated and only depons were given to her as she was pleading for something. .. The policewomen /men did not believe us and could not be persuaded by anything... PETROU RALLI, November 2018 5 It was then that I called the House of Women. You called the police, and their indifference suddenly became irrelevant: they immediately took Z. to the detention centre doctor's office and from there to a hospital. Another time, a woman shouted with demand to take her to the doctor, but they would not listen to her, although she was very sick. She fainted, and if one of her inmates would not help her, the girl would die. Her tongue turned upside down, inwards, the inmate caught it and managed to pull it out ... Epileptic seizure, without medication ... When we complained, their answer was: Go back home ... Many times, we had to beg for hot water to wash ourselves, in the cold of winter ... We did not even have tea, coffee, what can I say? A tea bag that someone had, we shared it up to 5 or 6 times. There was not a single glass of milk, or anything sweet, or an egg, a croissant, anything, ever ... Not even some fruit ... Coming from the island where I lived for many years, I did not have friends in Athens who could bring me toilet paper, coffee, etc. We could give just one name, only for one visit a month. And when I found someone, he could not enter because I had written someone else’s name. The place was very dirty. We were two or three women who always got up and cleaned it, as well as the toilets. Lots of cockroaches and mosquitoes there. Toilets without a bowl, down there, with a hole in the middle ... I do not know what you call it, these ... We tried to m ο tivate other women to help us with cleaning. Some of them did not even get up to clean their own cell ... During the 40 days that I lived there, the police came in three times and turned everything in our cells upside down. It was after midnight when we were already sleeping ... They were looking for drugs, cell phones, etc., because, unfortunately, such things exist. As everywhere, good and evil coexist ... In a plastic bag, various things went down for sale or exchange, from the windows of the cells of some addicted women, to the cells of some men, downstairs, and vice versa. There are good girls with sad stories in there... I remember one woman was separated from her child at the airport, she cried incessantly and asked for a phone call to talk to her child. They would not let her do it, after 10 at night.. Reaching out to the detainees that you do is very important. Someone who thinks of you, someone you see, face to face, is a great hope !! That is how I realized what freedom really means and how important it is. 6 To be honest, even today, such a long time after those events, any thought about Petrou Ralli spoils my mood. Pain has no race, it does not make distinctions between people from different places. We are all the same. In there we supported each other, with a hug, a caress, even though we did not speak the same language. But we also were together in joy. Whenever a girl was released, we would gather and say goodbye with loud applause and cries of joy ... Many times, with tears of joy and sorrow at the same time. Sometimes, no matter how difficult it was, we would gather in a cell to celebrate someone's birthday or her release, with songs and dancing! We also picked up the women who were constantly lying in bed, so that they could be with us. For a while, at least, we escaped from the state of detention. I still remember the girls from different countries, each of us dancing her own dance. We had a cardboard box, which we used as a drum, to find the rhythm. Our songs and dances were heard by the boys downstairs, they applauded us loudly, encouraging us to continue ... Unfortunately, the police let us rejoice for a very short time, they always came and stopped us. I also remember a girl from the Philippines making pigtails. We would go to her with a coffee, she would braid our hair and we looked beautiful. She did it for everyone, whoever asked for it .. We had a problem with hair removal, without razors and tweezers, especially when it was hot. It was awful. But even for that we found a solution.. One of us knew how to pull out our hair with a disposable plastic glove. We made appointments, today me, tomorrow you etc. and Z. from Iran, which we used to call our doctor, waxed us. It hurts a lot, but we did it. Another girl knew how to fix our eyebrows with a thread. I also forgot to say that there was a large corridor, where many women went daily for walking and running. 40 minutes. One hour. One girl was an aerobics gymnast, she was giving training sessions, and some of the girls attended. We had decided to use a cell as a gym. So we managed to satisfy some of our needs. 7 I was looking, from the inside, at the road ... Cars and people passing by. And I realised how important it is to be out there. Free. I think if each of us had lived for a while in detention, deprived of liberty, we would have become better people, we would have given more value to small things. We would get closer to the people. We would see how much alike we are, and that skin colour does not make any difference... 8 Michal Mozolewski, Acrylic textures My name is S. and I am from Kurdistan, in Iraq. I am 23 years old. I speak five languages: Kurdish, Arabic, English, Persian and German. I studied Microbiology for two years at the university. I studied and I worked at the same time. From childhood I felt that society was trying to make me feel smaller than male people and oppress me. Men have always violated my rights and those of other women. I could not do what I wanted. I was obliged to do what my cousins, uncles, neighbors, and other people around me wanted. I was only living for the uneducated, conservative and narrow-minded people, not for myself. In my twenties, I felt in love with an American, a former soldier of the bloody war in southern Iraq. Unfortunately, neither he felt all right with the situation, nor the family agreed that I could have a relationship with him. After that I realized how weak I was. I had no power to make decisions. I was obliged to say yes to whatever my uncle suggested, even to have a forced marriage with his middle son. Then I realized that this was not my place anymore and that I had to do everything I could to gain my freedom. I knew this would not be easy. My uncle had all the power, and he was a conservative Muslim. He would not let me live if I broke his rules. The idea of escaping came to me. Finally, I left my house at 3.00 am, on 26/8/2016. I was only 21 years old. I flew to Turkey. The traffickers knew I was alone and tried to rape me several times. Fortunately, I managed to save myself. That period was very difficult, because I was trying to do everything on my own and at the same time to protect myself. After 5 weeks in Turkey, I found a trafficker who would bring me to Europe if I could give him 5.000 $. I told him I could not spend more than 3.000 $. Finally, I left Turkey on 2/10/2018, in a 9-meter boat. There were 60 people with a pregnant woman and small children. The traffickers had lied to us about everything: the boat was not 15 meters, it was 9 meters. There was no shower, nowhere to sleep, no drinking water. People started screaming, having panic attacks, shouting, peeing where they were. S. KURDISTAN 3 December 2018 10 It took three days and four nights under huge waves to get to Italy. Suddenly people started screaming because the boat started to fill with water from a small hole in its bottom. In those hours I felt that I would die, without having given the last hug to my mother, without saying goodbye. A man threatened the captain with a knife: "I know you want to bring us to Italy to get your money, but this boat will not last. If you do not drive to this small town now, I will kill you and will lead the ship.” Some people, including me, called the Greek Police to come and rescue us. They even sent them our location, with the very weak Wi-Fi we had. But the police ignored us. They told us they could not find us. Then the captain, frightened, changed the course of the ship, to reach the nearest small town. It took him 10 hours to get there. It was the first time I prayed to God, from the bottom of my heart, to save us. I had not slept for 4 days, but suddenly I felt asleep, as if God wanted me to forget my fear for a while. When I woke up people were jumping from the boat to the lifeboats to reach dry land, which was 10-15 meters away. Finally on 5/ 10/ 2016 we reached the shore, 3:00 - 4:00 p.m., and began to kiss the earth. Then we wanted to know where we were. In a small town with empty houses, from what I could read. I told people that we were in Greece, in a city called Gythio and they did not believe me. We all were shaking from cold and hunger, dizzy, like drunk men. Some were still vomiting blood. I remembered that my mother was saying: "Help others even if you are not well," so I decided not to leave them, as I was the only person who could speak English. I was with 10 other people, we slept in front of a small church for a couple of hours. Then, a bus passed by it was going to Athens. On our way we were stopped by police. We understood that it was the driver who had called them. They arrested us all and brought other 49 people. They put us in an old football stadium and brought us some dirty blankets and some food. The first Greek words I heard were: "Hurry up, let’s go", by some children who were playing football. After two days they separated the men from the women. 11 They handcuffed me, put me in a patrol car and sent me to Karakoli. There I was imprisoned in a cell next to the criminals. I was kept in that cell for 8 days, alone. . . I almost lost my mind. Men passed by and looked at me in the middle of the night. A dirty place with a lot of fear. Finally, on 14 /10/ 2016, they transferred me to the Detention Center for Foreigners of Elliniko. There, they told me: "Do not worry, you will go out in a few weeks”, just to keep me calm, so that they can search me and my little bag. There for the first time I received insults, for no reason. Me and 70 other women were living in terrible conditions. The police have taken our telephones, our money, our sanitary ware, our jewelry. There were girls who were thinking of committing suicide. Nobody knew when we would get out of there. We knew a woman who was kept there for a year, and another one – for 9 months, etc. Poor quality food, dirty bathrooms. When we were sick, they did not care about us. The police officers, in Greek, played with our minds and hearts. This led to psychological disorders for many of us. I had panic attacks, three times a day and sometimes more. We thought only God was there, but our friends from the House of Women and Solidarity groups were always there for us. As if we were one of the members of their family. They brought us toiletries, chocolates, cookies, clothes, calling cards, Love and Solidarity ! ! ! ! ! The situation would be much more difficult without them. After a demonstration by the comrades, the cowardly Commander of the Hellenic Foreign Women Detention Center decided to move us to the third floor of Petrou Ralli detention centre. I was there for another two and a half months, after a fraudulent lawyer had stolen my money and did nothing. Like almost everyone else steals our money. I was released on 13/03/2017. People are used to shouting: "Freedom or death!" I say, "Always fight for freedom or liberty", because you are not a soldier. The Η ouse of Women continued to come to Petrou Ralli as well. It stood by us even after our release. We were together. 12 We took part in anti-racist, anti-fascist demonstrations and events, that included solidarity bazaars for the detained refugees, with various handmade things that our friends and comrades had made. They made open calls for solidarity for us. They called for help everywhere to gather things for us. Once a month, we were waiting for them to come. We called them when we were having serious problems, they gave our voice a chance to be heard, with their denunciations. We were not invisible. They organized events and discussions about women detainees, so that the public would be informed about the torture of imprisonment, about the "crime", which was and continues to be the lack of documents / papers. I am now in another European country, but I feel the need to continue to fight with them, against war, borders, sexism, against exclusion and misogyny of the old patriarchy, which dominates the whole world. I hope I have not written too much, but many more things have happened and good things, too. Still, it is very hard for me to recall this period of imprisonment, in a European country, in the land that I considered to be the land of freedom, before I left my country. . . Last night I dreamed of the Petros Ralli detention center and the stories of all the women who were with me. It was as if I was imprisoned once again, together with all other women. When I woke up I felt very bad, but a little later I realized that it was over for me. . . I wish you all a Merry and Happy Christmas. We were there a year ago and we wished we could go out and celebrate. And now you see, I am out and I am celebrating. It is important to make the most of your time inside. I learned Persian while I was inside. I found good friends. I learned a lot about solidarity and how to help others. 13 Beloved ladies, be sisters to each other in this hell, because when you are United things are easier. Celebrate Christmas with your sisters there, do not lose your hope of freedom. One day, one day everything will be fine! Do not give up the hope of freedom! Solidarity is our weapon ! ! ! We must never forget that ! ! ! ! 14 Ciel&Sebastian, Kuroshitsuji. Nightmares have hands On 19 December 2019 was our last visit to the detention center of Petrou Ralli. Once again, the number of detainees had increased to 50 women from 15 different countries. Indonesia, Ethiopia, Albania, Afghanistan, Georgia, Iran, Italy, Cameroon, China, Tibet, Belarus, Nigeria, Somalia, Syria and Turkey. As we were trying to talk to them, some police officers were so close that they prevented women from talk freely about the situations they were experiencing. The behaviour of some police officers was also provocative towards us. A typical testimony: "It was forbidden for us to wear headscarves, they told us: 'Outside you can be Muslims, here – you can‘t! You are Christians here... ” Another testimony: "When Georgina from Albania was coming out of the shower the blue-eyed policeman, who is always watching us, shouted at her from the small entrance window: ‘Throw down your towel. I want to see your body.’ It happened two or three times. If you look through camera recordings of our floor you will see this... ” At the same time, the health of many was in poor condition and despite the fact that we were demanding that two very sick women are hospitalized, nothing substantial has been done. They are still very sick. On Christmas day we were informed through relatives of the prisoners about the possible start of a hunger strike. After our next visit, they started writing down their experiences, where they describe in their own voice what we can only imagine. Women from 6 different countries, who want their letters to be made public. 'When you have lost everything, you are afraid of nothing ... Their voice must be heard everywhere. Let other people hear it. Discuss it in your assemblies. Let the organizations and institutions that speak about human rights stop deceiving us and playing games with the dramatic circumstances of immigrants and refugees, which leads to their extermination. We stand by them and admire them for the bravery and solidarity they show for each other ... THERE ARE NO CELEBRATIONS IN PETROU RALLI. 16 No one is invisible, no one is illegal Right and justice are with our rebellious sisters For the abolition of detention centres, for open borders End illegal racist & misogynistic behaviors Stop verbal, physical, and mental torture The Passion for Freedom is stronger than all cells Immigrant women you are not alone Feminist Collective from below: The House of Women for Empowerment & Emancipation spiti.gynaikon@gmail.com 17 The so-called immigration office is such a horrible and miserable place that it makes everyone forget his / her humanity. Nothing legal survives here. Lying, harassment, sexual abuse, illness, rejection, dirt, abuse, beatings, insults... You literally come face to face with all of this. Above all, how can they dare to do so? If Europe does not know, how dare they? Maybe this is a conspiracy! Here we are locked in the cells 3-4 times a day, in cells that are dirty and full of lice. Only after we hit the iron bars again and again, a policewoman asks “What?”.Shouting and insulting. They treat us like animals. (Even animals should not be treated like this) They took our cell phones on the first day, and do not give them back to prevent us from taking photos or videos. Even lawyers can not come inside. When volunteers from different organizations come, they keep us locked up. And they tell a lot of lies to the volunteers. For example, they say we stay here for a maximum of two weeks. Most of us have been here for 1.5 months. There are people who stay for 4 months with no information whatsoever. They take us out to the courtyard twice a day, as if we were a herd. When the time is up, they shout "Inside!"and lock us in the wards. When we need to go to the toilet, we have to shout, punch and kick the door. Sometimes (there were only a few times like that) a policewoman comes, after 15-20 minutes. Other times no one comes. Even if one of us dies in those hours, no one cares. We clean the space ourselves. And we have neither shampoo nor soaps. Nothing... Those who have visitors are lucky, but what about the others? They ask those who have visitors to buy things for them when they have the money. Our friends, who have no money, either ask for hygiene items from those who have them or stay dirty. There are no words to describe the toilets. No detergents, no soaps, nothing! The toilets have changed colour due to dirt and stench. Greece, ALIEN’S POLICE DETENTION CENTRE 20-12-2019 18 Those who have wet handkerchiefs, cover their nose and face, to make entering the toilets bearable. Those who do not have handkerchiefs vomit. And the police! Under the pretext of distributing food, they touch and harass women. This is a horrible place. 19 We are all sick. Everyone has wounds – it’s so filthy. Some of us even have abscesses. I, for example, have abscesses all over my body. After 5 days of waiting, I was taken to the doctor. The doctor told me, "You need to go to the hospital right away. A blood test is needed. It is urgent. Nevertheless, they still held me waiting for 5 days. Ceylan Pinar Kanli-Turkish The chamber to the right belongs to the men. The inhuman beating by the police should not be ignored (the victim was a man named M.). 4 policemen kicked and beat him to death, in the most barbaric way. I can not forget his embarrassed expression, because he was beaten in front of us. The food they give is cold and stinks! Tomatoes and oranges are rotten. Even to drink water there is a schedule. Time to drink drinking water... We are obliged to drink from this disgusting stinking water. When I said, "I can not drink this water. "Can I buy from outside?", The policemen burst out laughing and said to me: "You have to drink it". There is so much to say about this place... Phrases written on the walls, incessant tears, and constant prayers. 20 We are all here in this hell. A. from Syria, whose headscarf was pulled from her head. Aisha from Somalia, who can not walk due to abscesses, was taken to hospital in the middle of the night and when the inflammation subsided a bit, she was taken back to prison. And the rest of us, whom they insult every day: 1 Iranian, 3 girls from Albania who had been abused, etc. This place is not an immigration office, it is a torture chamber. I think I will be able to get out of here, but I'm not the only one. There are many women who have no money, no lawyer. They have no one. There are girls here under the age of 18. This is not legal. The women who were on an indefinite hunger strike ate for the first time in 3 days. Nobody cares. M. from Iran who was conned by her lawyer, has no money at all, and no lawyer. No translator, not a visitor. She asked someone who knew English to write a letter to the police, in which she said: "Please send me a translator otherwise I will commit suicide." M. has been waiting for an answer for 3 days. She is all alone; she does not know what to do without a translator. She went on an indefinite hunger strike for 3 days. Today we made her eat. Glory from Nigeria is still waiting to be released, although she has been here for 2 months, and has given both interviews. She herself goes on an indefinite hunger strike! 26/12/2019". E. from Syria (22 years old), is on medication for her psychological condition. The doctor prescribed her to take it twice a day. However, the policewoman let her take the medicine only once, in the evening. One day, she gave E. nothing. After that she did not take her evening pill and took two the next day. She fell asleep because of that (she was used to taking only one per day during 20 days). When she woke up, she went outside to get some air. The policewoman told her that the time was up. She had to go in, but she did not understand that.