Greece arrests prominent Syrian activist

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Greek authorities arrested last week a prominent Syrian activist was trying to cross to Europe

illegally.

Activist Abdel Rahman Ezzeddine, known as "Abu Humam Ristnawi" was, as thousands of Syrian migrants, trying to reach Norway through Greece that turned into 'crossing way'.

Abu Hamam worked as a media activist since the beginning of the Syrian revolution in 2011 where he documented with his camera, the bombing, the destruction, the displacement of children as well as the war crimes committed in the northern countryside of Homs province.

He preferred to stay in Rastan, his hometown, to work as head of the Unified Media Office.

For seven years spent under bombardment and destruction, he fled to northern Syria and then he entered Turkey where he failed to obtain the Turkish residence.

Seeking the EU heaven, Ezzeddine had reached the Greek capital. He began arranging himself for traveling illegally like all migrants, but he could not travel so he moved to the Greek port of Patras, then imprisoned- as he says - for 10 days and confiscated from his stuff, to be deported to the capital Athens and placed in the central prison.

He was detained with dozens of refugees within the caravans like the beasts - as he described.

He pointed out that the visit of the detainees in the central prison in Athens is only two minutes and behind the iron grid, revealing that

His refugee brother in Norway came to visit him but he could not see him more than two minutes although he had not seen him for eight years.

The prison authorities had threatened Ezzeddine and his mates to deport them to the Greek island of Kos to place them in a closed camp similar to Guantánamo Bay.

He was the only Syrian with migrants from Bangladesh, Yemen, Iran and Afghanistan.

Ezzeddine hopes he could return to Turkey under the agreement with the European Union in March 2016 to reunite with his family and children who had not seen them for seven months.

A report by the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR) published in 2018 has contained a large number of testimonies about the cases of deportation and throwing carried out in the area of Evros on the Turkish-Greek border.

The report states that the Greek authorities systematically arrest those in need of protection from "asylum seekers and even recognized refugees" and return them to Turkey. The report said, according to the German "DW" website, that there are "detention centers" for masked men and others in dress Police uniform or paramilitary clothing.

The report adds that the personal belongings of the detainees are confiscated and not returned such as money, mobile phones, ID cards and legal residency papers.

Zaman Al Wasl