The Lavrio camp has a long history. Countless Kurdish and Turkish revolutionaries began their journey into exile there over the past 43 years. Now the camp, established in 1947, has been cleared by the Greek police.

On 5 July 2023, hundreds of Greek police stormed the self-managed camp and solidarity centre. The police broke down the doors and windows of the predominantly Kurdish refugee camp and used force to evacuate more than 50 Kurdish refugees, including children, and redistribute them to other camps.

Deportation to "refugee hell”

The majority of the detained camp residents were taken to the Inofiton (Oinofyta) camp, about 60 kilometres outside Athens. The camp in the factory building is one of the most notorious shelters for refugees in Greece. The camp was closed once in 2017 due to inhumane conditions. It was reopened in March 2018, not because conditions had improved, but to meet demand. Investigative journalists visited the camp after it reopened and found that conditions were even worse than when it was originally closed. The facility is described as a refugee "hell".

In 2021, the camp was again in the headlines due to protests by refugees from Rojava. Residents blocked the entrance to the camp to protest against the conditions in Oinofyta and the continuous rejection of asylum applications of Kurds from Rojava and other regions. They were rejected because Turkey was supposedly a safe third country. The refugees stated at the time: "We have no other solution [...] For three months we have not received any cash support, the situation is very difficult. But the most important problem is that in the last two to three months the asylum applications of about 150 Kurdish nationals from Syria, including families, women and children, have been rejected. We explained our situation in Turkey in the asylum hearing. It is not safe there at all." They also criticised the regular internment in the camp. According to the authorities, only Kurdish refugees are now assigned to the supposedly renovated facility. However, the location of the camp alone shows the situation of the people. It is located on the edge of a motorway, far from any public transport. In this way, the Kurdish refugees are also meant to be isolated from Greek society, which repeatedly shows solidarity.

"Not a humanitarian action, but a military operation"

One of the affected residents who were taken from Lavrio to Oinofyta is Leyla. She stressed that the authorities' claims that it was a "humanitarian eviction" are not true. Rather, she said, it was a "military operation". Leyla, who came to Greece with her husband and three children about a year ago because of persecution by the Turkish state, said of the Lavrio camp: "I never felt like a refugee there. I was not left alone culturally or socially. It was a Kurdish camp. We accepted it as our home."

Hundreds of police for 30 to 40 people

Leyla reported that the police entered the camp around five in the morning. At first, she thought the whole operation was a joke, she said, adding: "200 to 300 police officers surrounded the camp. Ten heavily armed police officers entered the building. They pointed guns at us. I have two daughters and a son. My daughters are four and five years old. How will they overcome this trauma? My children were very scared. I tried to make my daughter believe that the guns were 'toys', but the child knows this from Turkey. My children saw things they did not deserve to see. We saw our comrades, our girlfriends, they were handcuffed behind their backs. Hundreds of police were deployed for 30 to 40 people."

"They will not achieve their goal"

Leyla called the operation a "conspiracy" and continued: "They did not even allow us to change our clothes. I asked a male police officer to go out so I could change. But they didn't even allow that. I had to change behind a curtain while they were inside. This is how we were treated in Turkey, where we fled." Leyla defined the operation as an attempt to disperse and isolate the refugees from Kurdistan, saying: "They think that they will finish off us, our companionship, in this way, but it is not possible."

Result of a deal with Turkey

Welat, also from Lavrio, stated that all Greek authorities, from ministry to municipality level, from intelligence, to riot, anti-terror, special operations and civil police units, were involved in the operation. He added that the town was under siege hours before the operation and police entered the camp at five in the morning. He stated that the police first used a dog to lure out the guard of the self-managed camp. Then the police attacked the guard. Welat also rejected the Greek authorities' claim that the camp was cleared "at the request of the refugees".

Referring to the talks between Turkey and Greece, Welat said that the Greek government acted in accordance with the demands of the Turkish state and that this operation was carried out on the basis of a deal between the two countries. He pointed out that Turkey was using Kurdish refugees as a means of blackmail.

Protest in front of the Parliament

The Kurdish Democratic Cultural Centre (DKTM) in Greece also rejected the claim of the Greek Ministry of Asylum and Migration that the residents had voluntarily evacuated the refugee camp in Lavrio, stating that the camp was forcibly evacuated by riot police. The DKTM organised a demonstration in front of the Parliament in Athens to protest against the police action. The protesters pointed to the upcoming NATO summit and described the attack on Lavrio as part of a NATO deal with Turkey. Another demonstration was held in the Oinofyta camp in the evening by the relocated refugees.

Lavrio wanted cleared since 2017

The Initiative for Solidarity with Kurdish Political Refugees in Lavrio pointed out that the Greek state has been trying to clear the camp since 2017. Thus, all aid by the Red Cross was withdrawn from the camp and state support was stopped. Despite this embargo on the refugees in the camp, the residents resisted for six years through self-organisation and self-sufficiency. Noting that the new right-wing government is trying to move towards Erdoğan, the initiative stated, "The closure of the camp is coming from Turkey. It has been calling the camp a 'nest of PKK terrorists' for years. The mayor of Lavrio has also been doing his best to expel Kurdish refugees for years."