April 16, 2016. Pope Francis,accompanied by Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew, Archbishop Ieronymos, and Greek PM Alexis Tsipras, spend five hours meeting migrants at the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos. ABACA/press Association. All rights reserved.On July 18, 2017, 35 migrants were arbitrarily arrested after a series of protests outside the European Asylum Support Office, organized from inside the Moria detention center. Coming from different parts of the world but trapped under the same circumstances, many people united and mobilized to denounce both the unlawful delays in their asylum applications and the appalling conditions under which they’ve been forced to live in the meantime.
34 of the 35 arrestees are black; all of them have been charged with the exact same criminal offences despite the lack of evidence of their individual participation during the demonstrations.
One of the accused was hospitalized for over a week as a consequence of police brutality, four faced restrictive residency on the island, and the remaining 30 were scattered across Chios, Athens, Attica, and Central Greece where they have been – and will continue to be – detained until the day of their trial. After nine months of waiting, it has been decided that the trial will take place on April 20, in the Mixed Jury Court of Chios.
