Anastasia Balezdrova
Six people, including two children died in a fire in the Athens suburb of Egaleo. The fire started at 2 o’clock in a three-storied commercial building full of Chinese goods.
Neighbours alerted the fire-brigade minutes later but when fire engines arrived the whole building was in flames. Firefighters extinguished the fire at 04:15, but when they managed to enter the building they found six burnt bodies. They were of economic immigrants from China - owners of the premises, of their children and two employees. It is believed that the fire started from the gas stoves the people used to warm with. The presence of flammable materials allowed the fire to spread rapidly and the six victims were unable to leave the building.
At the same time, according to unnamed government sources, the Greek cabinet has decided to resort to forced return of migrants who are on hunger strike in Athens and Thessaloniki in case they do not accept the proposal for solution.
It has been decided at today's meeting with the participation of all relevant ministries that if immigrants do not stop the hunger strike till tomorrow and do not accept the government proposals they will be expelled from the country immediately.
It has been proposed to apply "the status of tolerance" for immigrants who have health problems and to take them to hospitals. Under current law, "the status of tolerance" is intended for illegal immigrants when there are serious reasons for this, such as health problems. In practice it means six-month postponement of extradition.
According to new information provided by sources from the Interior Ministry, it is about to make a new proposal to starving immigrants in order to stop the hunger strike. The proposal is expected to contain new conditions that must be met. In particular, only immigrants working in Greece for 12 years will have the right to apply for legalization. The rest will be given six-month "status of tolerance" which could be extended by six months. The third part of the proposal includes humanitarian support in the form of covering the costs of those immigrants who wish to return to their countries.
Earlier today it became clear that in a letter sent from the Athens prosecutor Eleni Raykou to the head of the Health Directorate of Attica Aris Mousionis doctors are defined as the only people who could cope with the situation in the building of Ipatia.
"At this stage the prosecution can not intervene in any way because it has no legal right," states the letter which was sent a day after the doctors’ call the immigrant to be taken to hospital and food and water to be given to those who want to take them.
According to prosecutors, doctors are criminally liable when they do not do anything they are required to do to save a patient. "The doctor has the right but a legal obligation too to take all medical measures which he believes are necessary to save or preserve the life or health of the patient." The letter emphasizes that between the right to live and the right to dispose of life, as in the case with the hunger strike, the first outweighs.
After 43 days on hunger strike the health problems of the immigrant such as hypothermia, low blood pressure and weight loss are increasing continuously, and low temperatures in recent days have complicated the situation even more.
The doctors from the initiative of solidarity that examine their health condition expressed their fear that there might be a sudden death since many immigrants suffer from bradycardia and cardiac arrhythmias caused mainly by hypothyroidism, which makes them even more vulnerable to cold attacks. Yesterday the doctors judged that 14 immigrants must be taken to hospital but they refused, only one was hospitalized later. Today, three immigrants from the building of Ipatia agreed to be taken to hospital.
Hospital doctors have complained recently that activists who support the hunger strike of the immigrants and accompany them in hospitals do not allow them to eat, despite their will.
Activists, in turn, argue that food could cause shock to the body of immigrants and even death. Today, two participants in the initiative for solidarity with the hunger strike were seized by police in one of the hospitals where an immigrant was taken. According to some information, both students have found themselves in the room at lunch time, they took the soup the immigrant had wanted and tried to convince him to continue the hunger strike. The hospital director called the police who seized the two activists.
They argue from the initiative of solidarity that "the police attempts of the government to stop the hunger strike" are doomed to failure. Today they held a procession by motorcycles, and their supporters from the city of Ioannina symbolically occupied the building of the regional office of the ruling PASOK party.
At the same time, members of the Coast Guard at the port of Igoumenitsa arrested two men for trafficking of immigrants. The trailer of the truck of a 38-year-old foreigner accompanied by a 36-year woman had a special hiding place in the middle of the load where the guards found 20 immigrants of Asian origin.
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