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Anastasia Balezdrova

The 300 immigrants in Athens and Thessaloniki decided to end the hunger strike that lasted 44 days after the meeting of their representatives with the Ministers of Interior and Health Yannis Ragousis and Andreas Loverdos and the Deputy Minister of Employment Anna Dallara.

The immigrants have accepted the proposals of the Greek government, which are: legalization of immigrants after eight-year stay in the country by issuing a ministerial order, opportunity to travel to their home countries within six-months "period of tolerance" and the possibility this period to be extended indefinitely to the fulfillment of the terms and conditions for legalization.

The immigrants said that government decisions satisfy them. "Our efforts are justified. This is a victory for the 300 immigrants and all workers. Thanks to everyone who supported us."

Satisfied with the outcome, but highly critical to the government are the members of the initiative for solidarity with the starving immigrants. Their message states that "today's decision of the government to satisfy certain demands of the 300 immigrants proves that the only a lost battle is the one that does not take place." Activists say also that long and difficult battle will be needed to stop the apartheid against foreign workers in Greece and Europe. We, however, must not doubt that the selflessness of the 300 immigrants opened a new way of hope."

Currently, the immigrants who are exhausted by the long starving are being supplied with soups and other foodr. One of their representatives, Abdul Haji from the forum of immigrants in Crete said that immigrants remain in the building of Ipatia until all their compatriots return from the hospitals.

After the meeting Interior Minister Yannis Ragousis said, however, that Greece is unable to carry out mass legalization of immigrants. "We hope the strikers will agree that Greece is not able to take other immigrants and to accept our proposals." Anna Dallara promised to meet with her European counterparts and to refer the matter to revise the Dublin 2 regulation under which immigrants must remain in the first country in which they completed an application for asylum without the right to travel to other European countries. Health Minister Andreas Loverdos said in turn that hospitals are prepared to accept those immigrants who have health problems.

Earlier today the prosecutor filed criminal procedure for two crimes against the two activists who are assumed to have hindered the hospitalized starving immigrants to feed themselves, despite their will.

The Head of Department for Internal Diseases of the Eritros Stavros Hospital in which 20 immigrants are hospitalized filed the complaint against the two students. Today, the prosecutor filed legal persecution against them with charges of mayhem through inaction and complicity in unlawful violence.

According to the doctor, it all started during the doctor’s round when he advised the immigrants who took sugar to replace it with a few spoonfuls of cooked noodles. Hospital sources said that some of the immigrant strikers accepted the advice of the doctor who gave the relevant instructions to the nurse. A little later he was informed that when the soup was brought to the immigrants two members of the initiative for solidarity with the hunger strike threw the tray on the floor. Then followed a scene of chaos and a lot of cries and some immigrants even tried to remove the systems from their hands. The doctor filed a complaint against the two activists in police and they were arrested.

Today more than 50 followers of the two students gathered in front of the prosecutor’s office in the court complex in Athens to support them during the hearing. After the announcement of the indictment lawyer Joanna Kurtovik said that the only thing that justice has made in this case to date is “to criminalize the movement of solidarity. The charges to the two activists are very original and modern. These are unlawful violence against the subject, in this case the noodles and mayhem caused by inactivity. We'll see how things will develop in court.”
 
The initiative of solidarity has quite different version of what happened at the hospital. They argue that “the doctor visited the immigrants yesterday morning and told three of them who were taking only sugar that he has to give them something better for their bodies. The immigrants asked him what it was and he told them that this was an aqueous solution of starch, but they did not understood what it was. Two hours later immigrants saw with surprise that members of hospital staff brought them soup with noodles and small portions of jelly. They refused to take the food.” According to Thanassis Kourkoulas, this was an attempt to mislead immigrants. He accused the doctor that he cleverly made them state that they want to eat, without explaining them what it all was about..

The members of the solidarity initiative relied on the testimony of the woman who brought the soups to the immigrants as according to her the two students were not in the room during the incident.