Concerning the creation of concentration camps for immigrants

The government of social-democrats (PASOK) and liberals (ND) will proceed with the creation of concentration camps for immigrants, utilising EU funding. These camps will function with the aim of deporting destitute people, who as a result of imperialist wars and interventions and capitalist barbarity in their countries seek a better fate in the countries of the EU.

It is characteristic that they will have triple fencing three metres high according to NATO standards. The external guarding will be carried out by armed police staff and the internal by private security personnel. This will be supported by technical surveillance tools (CCTV).

In this way the coalition government of the two largest bourgeois parties claims that it will resolve on the one hand the issue of illegal immigrants and on the other it will create jobs, allegedly fighting against unemployment.

The Statement of the Press Office of the CC of the KKE is as follows:

“The intention of the coalition government PASOK-ND, with the agreement or toleration of the parties and regional prefects of capital, to create 30 concentration camps for immigrants in 10 of the country’s regions, starting with Neapoli Kozani, must meet the fierce resistance of the people. It is a part of the more general and merciless offensive against the rights of local and foreign workers and does not aim at relieving their explosive problems. Those who worship at the altar of capitalist profit, do not have either the ability or the desire to deal with crime, prostitution, drugs and the closure of small shops. The areas that will be “cleaned” of immigrants will be handed over to be exploited by big capital. They want to free themselves from the demonstrations and mobilizations of the people’s movement. The clean-up operations, the mass arrests and deportations of immigrants will be accompanied by the intensification of intimidation and repression, attacking the rights both of local and foreign workers.

The creation of concentration camps for immigrants has been scheduled for many years by the parties of capital which govern the country. There are already a series of EU member-states and “willing” third countries which have received funding for these from the EU. This is being carried out by those who are responsible for the mass immigration and waves of refugees in Greece and the EU, who butchered the peoples and drove them to starvation and immigration. It is the same people who impoverish and repeatedly send sections of the Greek people on the road to immigration. They want the immigrants as a cheap labour force without rights so that they can increase the parasitic profits of capital. This is the “civilization” and these are the “values” of capitalism. The popular strata of the lοcal communities must not be deceived by the promises of alleged compensatory benefits from the functioning of the camps.

They aim to imprison people in a mass way in the most unacceptable and unbearable living conditions for periods of up to 18 months, despite the fact that most of them want to go to other EU states and are trapped in Greece due to Schengen and the Dublin Regulation II. They even aim to imprison refugees who have asked for asylum so that they are deported to the countries where their lives are in danger, openly violating the rights of refugees outlined in the Geneva Convention.

The explosive problems of mass immigration and the increase of crime are integral to the system of capitalist exploitation and imperialism, are intensified by inter-imperialist rivalries and the system’s crisis and cannot be solved by repressive measures, camps and fences and by the supporters of capitalist barbarity and the free market.

The KKE’s proposal for power strikes at the very causes of mass migration, crime, social phenomena which demonstrate the rottenness of capitalism and are intensified by the crisis and its impasses. With disengagement from the EU, NATO and the imperialist organizations, the socialisation of the monopolies, the centrally planned economy for the benefit of the people, and working class-popular control will strike at, in the interests of the producers of the wealth, the roots of the modern slave trade, uninsured work, prostitution and the violation of every human right.

The KKE calls on the workers, through their activity and vote, to punish those who are responsible for the creation of more and more explosive social problems which have drowned the lives of the working class and popular families in insecurity.

It calls on Greeks and foreigners to fight in a united way and to struggle immediately for the following:

1. The plans of the government for the creation of concentration camps must be cancelled.

2. Humane and decent open and public temporary reception centres for immigrants-refugees must be created where medical care will be provided, free housing and food, interpretation and legal support. There must special care by the state bodies for non-adult refugees and immigrants, mothers and children, the victims of people-trafficking networks.

3. Asylum or a temporary humanitarian status must be given to refugees and those who come from countries under imperialist occupation or affected by civil war.

4. Travel documents should be provided for all those who wish to go to another EU member state. Disobedience to the Schengen Agreement and the Dublin Regulation II.

5. The new repressive measures against immigrants at the borders must stop and the assignment of part of the guarding of the borders to EU mechanisms must also cease (FRONTEX, European System for the Supervision of Borders).

6. The participation of Greece in imperialist missions to foreign countries must stop.

7. The immigrants who live and work in Greece must be legalised and have full labour, social and democratic rights.”