Dangle is a way of travelling clandestine ; it is a way of hiding in the tracks…It is a kind of “visa” that undocumented for migrants in order to cross the Schengen borders. In the above article is been described the situation of undocumented migrants in the port city of Igoumenitsa in Greece.

From the squats of Patra already, many of the undocumented migrants that we meet are talking about komunisia. “I was in Komunisia, police catch me and send me to the prison, near the borders with Albania (…) In Komunisia its difficult, a lot of police there”. Ali, Somali from Patra. Komunisia is how these people call Igoumenitsa which is the second place after Patra from were thousands of undocumented migrants try to reach the Europe of their dreams.

We arrive there, on Saturday afternoon after a long trip. We take a taxi to get to a hotel and the first thing that the driver says to us is “what brings you two girls in Igoumenitsa ?” This question turned to be the most common during the days we stayed there. Igoumenitsa is a small city that counts also a small student population. That means that all foreigners, new-comers, tourists can easily be identified. So we had to have a suitable explanation of what we came for : we were there in order to catch a ship to Italy ; or to wait for some friends from Italy ; or we were from the farmers strike committee. Few times we were from an organisation that works for the rights of migrants and refugees. This was something that we had to explain to the migrant population who at that time didn’t have many contacts with any “local” apart some journalists. We were talking with a boy from Somalia for some time, when he asks us “excuse me, but can I ask you a question ? What exactly are you here for ?”

We leave the hotel, start to walk, directing ourselves to the port in order to find what we were looking for in Igoumenitsa. Near the port we get to a travel agency in order to be informed on ferry schedules ; every-day departures to Italy. We discuss with a local, to whom we reveal the reason we were there. “Ah those poor people you will see many of them standing in the port trying to get to a ship to go to Italy (…) you cannot imagine the situation in the port, what can be done for these people ?” From the local press lying in the table we read that “180 illegal (sic) migrants have been arrested during the last five days…the detention centres are full and there are many transfers to other areas…the objective is to change the situation around the port by the end of the month…the police in cooperation with the municipality has started the demolition of the migrants shelters…”. From the local press we are being informed also that the General Secretary of the ministry of Civil Protection had a meeting with the police and the coastguard of the region, in order to discuss about new security measures concerning the “problem of illegal immigration”, and the strengthening of police forces in that area.

We reach the area of the port were we see no one except farmers on strike. These days, in all over Greece farmers protest against new governmental measures. So the farmers in Igoumenitsa have blocked the port and a lot of tracks were waiting there for many hours. We think that this could be a reason why we don’t see “our” people there….. The next day we decide to climb the little hill near the top from were we were hearing voices last night. Before that we do a little ride with tow guys from Igoumenitsa that wanted to show us the places they have seen people stay….The only evidence we find is some garbage, a piece of bread not so stale that makes us think that people have passed from here… It is quite strange that we see nobody, as if there are no refugee here, this population of the city is an invisible one. On our way to the little hill we find Sam from Somalia, we talk to him, he is very open from the beginning…He tells us to come and meet him later in another place as he seems worried about been quit visible in that spot. “We have big problem here with police…10 days before they arrested almost 250 people from everywhere, the port, the jungle, everywhere...They moved everybody to the prison of Kosani and from there they deported 214 of them to Turkey”. When later we are in the place he told us to meet him little by little the invisible population of the city appears…

We talk to Ahmet from Soudan, he just arrived from Turkey were he have been deported to. “They arrested me here ; I stayed about 15 days in prison of Komunisia, then for about 3 months I stayed in prison, near Evros…One day they took 64 of us, put us in a small boat and pushed us to the other side of the river, the Turkish side. When they were sure that we arrived, about 15 minutes later, they started shooting in the air so that Turkish polish comes and gets us”.

Many refugees talk about a detention centre to the border with Albania, a kind of ghost-prison as nobody except the refugee population seems to now that it exists. Even the head of the police department denied the existence of such a place there.

We find out that to the hotel we are staying in, has moved a Kurdish family, one pregnant woman with her 4 children. They were arrested when trying get to the ferry with fake papers. Papa Suzas found them in the prison of the port. After some pressure, woman and children have been released. The father is still detained there on the charge of smuggling people, as he was arrested carrying his family. The church is paying for the family’s accommodation. Yesterday the family came to Athens, waiting for the father that has been transferred to prison there.

We talk for a little while with the three guys from Morocco in a quite pleasant mood. Mustafa has been deported to Greece from Italy ; he was living in Bologna for three years. “Here, in Komunisia we are staying in a half-finished building inside the city…but these days police is chasing us from everywhere…Police never leaves with an empty bus, they are arresting us from the port, from the jungle, from the streets and when the bus is filled, they go on…They tell us that 2 days ago 40 people have been transferred from Komunisia to Orestiada and from there some of them to Turkey. “Some friends have called us from Istanbul…Police takes us to the mountains near Albania and leaves us in a place in the middle of nowhere, if someone has money will wait for the bus to pass by, but nobody has money so we walk for 110km to return back to Komunisia.”, Says Hassan from the Moroccans. Many refugees have been referred to that place, and all of them give the exact information that this area is 110km far.

“I was working in Vrahati [1] , picking grapes, I was getting 15 to 20 euro for 14 hours work per day.” Says Mustafa from Morocco. “I was in Filiatra [2]”, says Ahmet from Algeria, “I was working in the production of watermelons, for 14 days.” They look quite happy when they talk about the places they have been working to. When we say to them, “but all this work for that little money” they say “yes its hard work but we need the money, you know, we need money to go on”. It is very common for the refugee population in Greece to find temporary seasonal work on fields, once people run out of money ; in order to continue their trip, or to send “back to the family”. Tough working conditions and exploitation is the rule that governs seasonal agriculture, but it’s a way of survival also.

Halil from Algeria is around 40 years old. He speaks really good Greek as he has been living in Athens for almost 4 years. He wants to go to Italia “I cannot get papers here ; I don’t want to ask for, us I know that they give nothing”. We are discussing with some others from Algeria also. All of them have been to Crete, to work in Kasteli. “Ah, it was really difficult in Kasteli, people there, don’t like migrants. The villagers were treating us like animals…They came and put fire in our shelters, when we were inside, sleeping and police was just staring, doing nothing.

Another guy from Algeria Ahmet arrived a few days ago from the hospital, with a handed leg. “I was trying to climb with a rope to the ferry. Police tried to prevent me, they were throwing things to me…finally they managed to make me fall. As I was falling I hurt my leg by a piece of iron…I stayed in the hospital for ten days, then the doctors told me I was ok and I should leave. They didn’t give me any hospital paper [3] or any medicine prescription ; I feel a lot of pain especially during the night”. .

Another friend of Ahmet from Algeria says “Police beats us a lot and tell us all the time : fige malaka [4], fige malaka”. Everybody starts to repeat fige Malaka and we all laugh. It’s a phrase they all know very well. “Malaka is the first thing I learned in Greek…everybody calls us like that”, says Ahmet’s friend while he show us a wound in his leg, after police beatings.

Later on we are talking with Sitar from Iraq. He has been deported from Germany on March 2009. He shows us his deportation order with that date on it “I have been arrested 10 times since that time and police always gives me the same paper with that date on it, what I can do ? Every time they arrest me, they keep me 3 - 4 days and then they let me go”.

Another guy from Somalia joins us. “I was caught in Italia and sent back to Komunisia…when they found me, they send me back with the next ferry. They put me in the toilet and gave me a cardboard to lay…we were three in one toilet. When we reached Komunisia I stayed in the detention centre of the port for 15 days, I had a paper that proved that I was minor, so they transferred me in the prison in Kosani, where I stayed for one month. When I got out of prison they took all my money, about 100 euro, and my mobile and sent me to the reception centre for minors for one more month. There it was ok. In the prison the situation was really bad. Almost everybody was sick, we had scabies, we couldn’t walk and whenever we were complaining they were kicking us”.

We were talking to Xalid when he receives a phone call from Said Ali, a friend of him that has been arrested few days ago. “Where are you ?” he asks “They took us from the prison that we were, I don’t know where probably Volos, I don’t know… for about 7 hours we are inside the bus…I see no village here only snow, a lot of snow, I don’t know were we are going.” One day later when we tried to call him his mobile was switched off, never heard about him until now...