After 44 days of water and sugar the 249 immigrants received documents for six months stay and left to Crete by ship today. Shortly before the arrival of the four buses that brought them to the port of Piraeus, there was strife between them in the yard of Ipatia. As it became clear later, two of the immigrant tried to pour kerosene on them and burn themselves to death because they did not receive permanent residence permits for Greece. Their self-burning was frustrated by a countryman of theirs. Once everything calmed down and the buses arrived, the immigrants packed and left Ipatia making the sign of victory. A team of the Red Cross came to collect the tents after the inhabitants of Megara Ipatia who had spent more than a month there left.
The preparation for the trip was hectic. All the activists who supported the strike of the immigrants had gathered in the yard. At about four o'clock in the afternoon the immigrants flocked around Abdul Haji - the man who represented them before the media all the time. He gave them tickets for the ferry name by name. Young boys and girls from Greece, who had helped in recent days however they could, hug the departing goodbye. Some Greeks had brought photographs taken during the previous days and looked at them with their friends. Other immigrants were standing in the sun holding their documents and tickets in hand and waiting for the time to leave.
It turned out that when the group ticket was purchased the ferry company officials requested all the 249 people with their documents to go there to be issued tickets. "All of Greece realized that they were issued certificates, only they did not know," said a member of the committee in support of the strikers. After three hours of wrangling, officials were reluctant to issue the tickets without the personal attendance of the entire group.
After two weeks in Hania the immigrants will celebrate their victory with a football game, said Abdul Haji. The remaining 50 people who were on hunger strike in Thessaloniki will leave for Crete after several days. There will be a large poster at the port of Piraeus when seeing off the immigrants, saying: "hunger strikers deserved victory, hope for the whole society," said Nikos Giannopoulos from the committee for solidarity towards immigrants.
"When the strike began we said on the first day at the Law School that the largest hunger strike by immigrants in Europe's history starts and that they will win. Today we are happy that everything ended and the strikers are returning to the cities - especially in Crete - with heads up. That fight ended in victory for the strikers... Some of the demands of the immigrants who held a hunger strike have been met. This is the first battle won in Greece of the Memorandum. And so we are proud of them. Everything else is open-ended – whether the number of days worked with paid insurance will be reduced to enable immigrants to renew their residence permits, whether the number of years of stay in Greece needed for legalization will be reduced... There is nothing certain."
Immigrants showed determination and strength, said the representative of immigrants Abdul Haji, adding that they have come out winners and their voice is heard. "We must continue the fight, but I do not advise any immigrant to go on hunger strike. There are other ways to fight for their rights and win," said Haji.
Immigrants themselves are not quite sure what this regime of tolerance means but it is certain that their extradition is postponed. Beside the 15 people who previously have had permits to stay or have applied for asylum, others can not claim a humanitarian regime. And even if the Ministry reduces the period of undocumented residence from 12 to 8 years as a prerequisite to obtain the "green card," some of them could not take advantage of this because they are in Greece for less than five years.
Meanwhile, the two students, who were arrested with the accusation that they did not allow hospital staff to give food to the immigrant who wanted soup during the strike, were acquitted.
In the late afternoon today, Health Minister of Greece Andreas Loverdos stated before the Parliament that he considers the options the immigrants who were hospitalized to pay for their treatment which amounts to 100,000 euros, reported Ta Nea newspaper. A total of about 100 people were hospitalized. Some of them were rescued from getting irreversible damage to kidneys and body because of starvation. All of them were discharged and left for the ship for Crete, except for one who is in recovery period.
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