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Anastasia Balezdrova

On the 36^th day of the hunger strike 59 of the immigrants housed in the Ipatia are in Athens hospitals and others have been on thirst strike for several days already. Similar is the situation of the immigrants in Thessaloniki 11 of which were hospitalized.

Encouraging is the news on their condition since after being taken to hospital doctors successfully cope with the severe renal failure most of them suffer. None of the immigrants has lost their kidneys irretrievably so far.

However, the condition of strikers is critical and at least 15 people are expected to be evacuated by ambulance till the end of the day.

Today, the activists from the solidarity initiative to immigrants decided to organize a press conference not in the yard of Ipatia as before, but in front of the main entrance of the Greek Parliament, by the side of Vassilis Sofias Avenue. The representative of the police forces that gathered in front of the Parliament failed to convince the organizers to put the tables and chairs about 20 metres up the sidewalk.

Then the police began to repel with their shields the activists and intellectuals who gathered to show solidarity toward immigrants. Sharp clashes and attacks to the riot forces followed.

The police managed to remove the people who gathered at the entrance of the Parliament and this infuriated the activists who went down the boulevard and "occupied" one of the lanes. They placed the table and several chairs and the press conference began, and the participants were surrounded by police cordon. During the conference that lasted more than an hour the traffic moved along the other three lanes of the boulevard.

Activists from the solidarity initiative condemned the police actions as "an attempt to prevent the holding of press conference."

"I have lived 40 years abroad and it has never happened to me to be tossed from the police this way," said the writer Vassilis Alexakis. "In the last years Greece has become negative champion several times and I hope it will not win the first place with the death of one of the immigrants. I believe that the Prime Minister Papandreou will do something, because immigrants need us just as we need them," he added.

Tassos Kourakis of the parliamentary group of SYRIZA and Vice-President of the Hellenic Parliament urged all MPs to prevent the death of an immigrant. "We do not want heroes, we want people around. We owe much to those who risk their lives," he added.

The press conference was attended by university lecturers, mayors and city councilors, people of literature and art as well as politicians from leftist parties.

A little later they were joined by immigrants from Iran who insist Greece to give them asylum. After authorities had broken down their makeshift camp in front of the UN building in the suburb of Paleo Psychico they continued their protest in the building of the Athens Polytechnic.

Today's message of  the federation of unions of hospital doctors in Greece appeals to its members to continue to provide unconditional hospitalization of starving immigrants in state hospitals. Along with the message a declaration was sent for the people on hunger strike, adopted at the Congress of the International Medical Association in Malta in 1991 and revised most recently in October 2006. In turn, the doctors who monitor the condition of starving immigrants thanked the emergency teams for their contribution to the rapid transportation of immigrants to hospitals thus saving their vital organs.