The 250 immigrants and activists who support them are now housed in a building on the central Patision Blvd. The owner of the building gave most of the first floor, basement and stairs to the second floor, but the toilets are locked. "The City Council in Athens made provisions for chemical toilets, which are located in the yard of the building. Inside there is heating and electricity but no water. Not all the immigrants are in the building - 90 of them are in different houses and other premises in the district, and the fifteen immigrants who were sick with fever yesterday are also placed in a more appropriate to their situation facility", says Abdul, who has documents and lives in Greece for 18 years, but is not one of the strikers. Those who are conducting a hunger strike have settled on blankets on the floor of the premises and in small groups are holding conversations or resting tucked in over the head.
The whole story began in August last year when 120 people - economic immigrants working without papers on the island of Crete, decided to conduct a hunger strike to demand documents. So they came into the building of the Forum of Immigrants in Chania and declared their intention, says a Greek representative of the Forum of Immigrants in Chania. "We told them that this is not such a good idea. It is even a very bad one and they should not do it, but they were dead set", says the boy from the Forum of immigrants. What happens next? When the news spreads numerous volunteers appear who want to join!
"We had to put a ceiling of two hundred to the number of people to join the strike. Otherwise 600 people would have gathered! But we warned them that nobody will take them seriously if so many people gather. Even for the last 50 we cast lots who to come". According to the representative of the Forum of immigrants, they have decided to make a hunger strike because in 2008 to certain economic immigrants who didn’t have documents and conducted a strike in Chania were given such. Their request wouldn’t have been heard if they had remained in Chania, the boy said, adding that this was the reason to come to Athens and Thessaloniki – as well as to be in a place which is large enough to accommodate them and to be in the center so as for people to understand what the strike is about...
So all those 250 immigrants who have been in Greece for between eight and three years and are working on the island of Crete have been training for four months for the strike. They have prepared themselves physically, they have raised money, but during that time they have also established connections with activists in Athens that can support them.
After the thriller last night, now in a more relaxed atmosphere, Abdul says that "this day will go down in history." Tension was so high that one of the boys nerves could not bear the pressure and he walked up the stairs to jump from one of the windows from the top floor of the department of law, but his friends caught him and stopped him. "Can you imagine what would have happened if this had happened?" Says Abdul. "But the relocation will not affect the strike" he adds. He gets a call from the Red Cross to warn him that they will bring 50 blankets and 50 sleeping bags later in the day.
The building, which was granted to them since Friday, was found by the Dean of the University of Athens Theodossis Pelegrinis and it generally houses the "Hepatiya" Foundation. Ultimately, the conditions of the immigrants are met – there are no police officers in front of the building, and their supporters can come to them. Yesterday they negotiated for more than ten hours on whether to move to the proposed building or not. Immigrants had set their own conditions, among which one was for there not to be any police in front of the building and for the activists who support them to be able to enter. But just when they came to some agreement, yesterday the owner of the building backed off and said he does not want to give the building to 3000 people. But around 4 am after a march across the city center the immigrants along with 250 other people, peacefully moved in the building. They are given three large rooms on the first floor and basement.
Police forces are located a few blocks away from the building, inside are allowed visits, while activists are guarding the yard. The recently renovated building also called Megara Hepatiya has an area of 1240 square meters and is located on the corner of St Patision Boulevard and Epirus str. It was built in the early 20th century by one of the greatest Greek architects - Alexandros Nikoloudis. The building is located opposite the Archaeological Museum and near the Polytechnic University, and currently Institute Hepatiya is housed there.
Meanwhile, the news of the strikers toured the world. Today, in the building there was a TV crew from Australia and English reporters, and on the second day of the occupation of the Law Faculty through there have passed journalists from around 40 countries from all continents, including South Korea.
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