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No Border Kitchen Lesvos
Wanneer: 29/03/2016 - 22:00
No Border Kitchen Lesvos (Greece) under threat of police rate and eviction.
No Border Kitchen (NBK) under threat of eviction and police rate.
On the island of Lesvos, where the deportation machine is working at full speed, all the camps for refugees are cleared out and registration center 'moria' has showed the true purpose and is now functioning as an deportation centre, NBK is still standing strong and opperating at full speed.
The current situation is that we now host a couple of hunderd refugees, who have been hunted down the island by frontex and police and have no other place to go. The kitchen is up and running day and night to help anyone in need on food, shelter, medical aid and a (semi)safe place to rest, where refugees work side by side with people in solidairity on an equal level. We host, the refugees participate, and together we keep the camp up and daily life running.
Already the roumors were spreading that NBK will be evicted soon, since its an ' illigal' camp and the last camp on the island were refugees are to be found, besides the unfortunate ones who have been arrested and moved to deportation center Moria (wich is still called a ' registration center' by the officials). For days we have had police coming by in small numbers, sometimes checking passports of people in solidairity, sometimes searching people for, sometimes drugs outside NBK, sometimes counting the numbers of people in the foodline and taking pictures.. Also they started arresting refugees on the road from NBK to the city of Mytilini, wich is a huge problem since NBK is on an dead-end road and there is only one way to walk to.
The current situation is that the fascist mayor of Mytilini came by today (29-03-2016) with the demand that we will leave the beach we have squatted, since there is an auction running for selling the placee to private owner. We are all aware of the fact that this is clear bullshit, made up to get us evicted more easily. The mayor informed us that within a couple of days there will be busses coming to NBK, for refugees to be transported to Karatepe refugee camp, where they will have freedom of movement and will not be detained. Karatepe is an former UNHCR camp to host refugees from Syria, but all the Syrians have been moved to mainland. UNHCR left the camp and it is now opperated by the army and police (frontex) Before the refugees can go to Karatepe they will have to (re)registere themselfs in the 'registration center' Moria, were its clear what will happen to them. Once they will walk in, the gates will close and they will be kept inprisoned, waiting for the transportation to detention centers on Greek mainland.
Also the mayor informed us that the busses to Moria will be escorted by riot police, to forcefully get every refugee in the bus who does not want to get in by themself. He invited 'us' (people in solidairity with refugees) to go to the building of the municipality of Lesvos tomorrow (30-03-2016) at 12 o' clock to tell him how many refugees we host in the camp, how many will get on the bus to Moria, and then expect us to pack in the kitchen and leave.
We will go to the municipality, but for different reasons. We will tell the mayor that the refugees have demands before they will go, and if there demands are not fullfilled that they will not cooperate and will fight for there freedom, since they are trapped on this island and have nothing left to lose.
There demands are:
-If NBK will get the possiblility to be relocated, if its truely only abouth the location being developed in the future.
-The refugees will leave from NBK to Moria only if they will get represented by a lawyer in personal or in small groups.
-They want translators.
-They will not be detained in Moria or Karatepe.
-They will have the right to apply for asylum directly once they have entered Moria 'registration centre'.
Also, we got the inside information that tomorrow morning (30-03-2016) the police will do a raid on NBK between the time of 5 and 9 in the morning, to look for drugs and evidence that we make false papers for refugees so that they can enter the ferrie (only nationallitys of Syria, Irak and Afghanistan are allowed to enter the ferries to main land, the rest of the nationalities gets arrested on the port if they try to enter).
It is clear bullshit that both drugs or devices to produce fake papers will be found in NBK. We wish the police lots and lots of fun searching every courner and all the tents on Tsamakia beach to find this!!!
We will be waiting for them!!!
Unlike camps like 'better days for moria' and others WE WILL NOT advise refugees to hand themselfs over to frontex/police at Moria. We will only provide them with information abouth the current situation, leaving the decision what to do to them and support them in there decision.
FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT FOR ALL!!!
FOR A WORLD WITHOUT BORDERS!!!
FOR SOLIDARITY, MUTUAL AID AND RESPECT!!!
and for those who are still awaiting the hell of a journey from Turkey to Greece by sea maybe the most important; FERRIES NOT FRONTEX!!!
Here you can find the manifesto of NBK, to get an better understanding how it started and what our political views are:
NO BORDER KITCHEN LESBOS
We are a non-hierarchical/horizontal self-organized group of cooking activists from all over the world
that share the aim of supporting people on their journey to Europe. No Border Kitchen [NBK] started in
September 2015 on 'the Balkan route' with few activists. We cooked at different spots along the Balkan
route, as an independent and self-organized collective, during the long summer of migration. But since
the Balkan route turned into a governmental controlled ”Balkan-corridor” the repression towards
people seeking refuge and those supporting them along the way grew. The EU government tries to
divide people by letting some pass, some only register while leaving others totally stranded. People are
stuck on the Greek islands, in the no-man’s lands of borders, in prisons and detention centers or being
forced further into even riskier methods of travel, living a marginalized life in constant fear of arrest
and deportation. Alongside the governments are trying with repressive mechanisms – ID-controls,
registration procedures, accusations, and prisons – to control access of independent activists and finally
destroy the solidarity structures. We stand against this controlling system and deny to be part of the
inhuman policies.
That is when we decided to go to the island of Lesbos, Greece, which is a place of transit for the majority
of the people overcoming the European border regime. Since 14th November we are cooking at
Tsamakia beach, which is close to the port of Mytilene. It was squatted by the people seeking refuge as
a place to shelter for a few nights and supported by the No Border Kitchen in terms of food and
infrastructure. This is how NBK evolved into a self-organized camp where we support people seeking
refuge, irrespective of their backgrounds and adapting to the current situations.
The NBK crew is an open structure: anyone is welcome to join as long as they agree to our basic anti-
authoritarian positions and non-hierarchical form of organization. We as individuals of different
backgrounds refer to the broad terms of Antifascism, Antiracist and Antisexism. We are a vegan kitchen,
acknowledging the connection of exploitation and oppression of all living beings in the logic of
capitalistic system. We create this space together and invite all people present to create it with us. We
are individuals and affinity groups who use private donations to support each other. There is no
organization behind us. Our resources are limited, but we try our best to support the different needs
we have.
NBK is not only about providing food for the people seeking refuge, but crucially also about respecting
each other as individuals. Each traveler has their own unique aspirations, desires and sets of
circumstances that brought them to undertake their journey. In our self-organized camp all people
regardless of gender, nation and religion are welcome. We hold regular general assemblies, translated
into different languages, in which we explain the general idea of No Border Kitchen and how the space
works, and also spread independent travel and border information to help people on their journeys.
We hope that through the relations formed here we can offer each other the mental strength to ride
the storms and challenges of what is fast emerging as a distinctly brutal historical era, with dignity and
courage. We believe in our capacity to resist the regime of devastation that is undermining precisely
those aspects of our lives that we cherish the most: freedom to move, to share and to create relations
of respect and curiosity.
NBK is a political project that rejects the border regime enforced by the governments of the European
Union. We are in Lesbos because we believe that Fortress Europe and its borders must be destroyed.We are not here to assist the governments of Europe in management of 'refugee flow' and this is why
we do not work officially together with non-governmental and humanitarian organizations and we are
not officially registered as one with the authorities. We do cooperate on an informal level with some
NGOs on the island when it comes to safety of boat arrivals or medical needs. Anyone may join in the
activities of the No-Border-Kitchen, with the proviso that you do so as an individual, not as a
representative of an NGO or other organization. We reject the ongoing mobilization of massive
resources for the purpose of controlling and restricting the way in which people are seeking refuge, the
increasing militarization of our societies, the erection of new walls, the continuation of war and the
political and economic system that needs war in order to reproduce itself. We want to fight the
distinctions the state and media make between “good” and “bad” migrants based on whether they are
“refugees” or “economic migrants”, “innocent victims” or “criminals”.
We are not here as “volunteers” to fulfill a role of humanitarian charity, nor to “look after” someone in
a paternalistic manner supposedly passive refugees. The people we meet at the camp and along the
way are able to take care of themselves, and have their own structures of solidarity and mutual aid,
and capacities to endure through the direst of circumstances which we can only learn from and be
inspired by. We feel it is a gift to us to be able to share and create social space with them, hear their
stories and learn about the experiences and perspectives of those whose structural oppression in this
world is far greater than our own.
We are aware that many people of us that are in solidarity have a safe status and don ́t have the same
experiences of racism and illegalization as the people we meet, nor do we know what it is like to be
forced to live lives where you are constantly “playing with death” (the words of one Afghani teenager
we met), but we believe that we share some common desires: freedom of movement for all and an end
to the European border regime of death. Our struggle aims to fight the institutions who keep up the
current order: the European states with their repression apparatus.
We, the No-Border-Kitchen-crew understand that what we are doing is a small attempt in the face of
the enormity of destructive forces at work in the world today. But it is a real commitment of real
individuals, it is one concrete effort among many, it is one piece of the puzzle of another possible world.
We believe that all these efforts do make a difference and that they should be developed and expanded
further.
Our broader desire is to build relationships of solidarity and form new collectivities in struggle.
Therefore we also connect with the local activist structures, with whom we share common struggles
and hopes and who we support. We believe that by establishing networks in our common struggle, we
can fight powerfully as a united movement and rise together against fortress Europe.
United we stand, divided we fall.
FIGHT FORTRESS EUROPE! NO BORDER, NO NATION!
FOR THE FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT FOR EVERYBODY AND EVERYWHERE
twitter: @noborderkitchen
e-mail: noborderkitchen@riseup.net
Infotel. (greek): 0030 698 340 69 78
Infotel. (ger.) : 0049 160 95 10 27 51