SINTI & ROMA and millions of Immigrants suffering in and out of Greek Camps 2009

Devious Diva in Greece published this article on her blog feed. The article "Shocking Conditions" is from Ioanna Kotsioni, who works as the Deputy Head of Mission for the Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

The article at the blog THIS IS NOT MY COUNTRY reminds us that gypsey children are still persecuted in Europe. Interestingly, the article came out about the same time that the German high courts banned emigration police to stop sending illegal aliens to Greece where the refugee camps and life conditions are substandard in Europe.

http://deviousdiva.com/

The conditions of Gypsy and Roma in camps reflect a greater problem in Greece which cannot integrate or is not willing to integrate so many foreign born peoples that have landed at its shores over the decades.

http://clandestinenglish.wordpress.com/tag/greece/

The German court stopped the expulsion of an African family to Greece. The family had already suffered in Greece for several years in camps etc. before arriving in Germany.

Ioanna Kotsioni writes, "Between August 20 and 28, I visited the detention center of Pagani to support the MSF team that since July has been providing psychosocial support to the undocumented migrants inside the center. The situation I faced when I first arrived was shocking."

Moreover, "In the center, there were more than 900 people detained in extremely overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. The facility is actually an old warehouse that is not suitable to accommodate people. According to local authorities, its capacity is for up to 300 people, but when I visited I saw three times that many people—men, women, adolescents, and children—living in overcrowded cells, most of them sleeping on mattresses on the floor with no bed sheets. In each of the seven cells, including the cell with women and children, there were only two toilets and showers to be used by the 100 to 250 people detained there. People eat their meals inside the cell and are not regularly allowed in the yard."

This has led to children-led hunger strikes in recent weeks at the camp.