Dear the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi; the Deputy High Commissioner, Kelly T. Clements and the High Commissioner’s Representative in Greece, Mireille Girard;
Today, Monday, November 22nd, 2021, as I have entered day 70th of my 3rd-Hunger Strike outside the UNHCR office in Athens, Greece, I reach out to you again in order to reiterate my call on UNHCR for an immediate end to this 7-years-long Hostage taking and my prolonged imprisonment in Greece. In other words, a durable and sustainable solution now.
Counting the number of days from my first (64-days – March 21st, 2017 to May 23rd, 2017) and second (73-days – Tuesday, June 23rd, 2020, to Thursday, September 03rd, 2020) Hunger Strikes here, thus far I have been on 207-days-long Hunger Strike in this very exact location since the start of my protest on March 21st, 2017.
I ran out of funds last year, my own past savings, and have been surviving on other people’s Donations ever since the break of my 2nd-Hunger Strike on September 3rd, 2020. But that also ran out. Consequently, currently, I face extreme difficulties providing myself with clean water and other essentials such as Multivitamins and Electrolytes. For the same reason I am also unable to get myself a heater OR even warm clothes in order to keep warm, particularly at nights and therefore I am unable to sleep and get rest.
As the winter looms, under current circumstances the risks of freezing to death become equally as high as dying of starvation. I fear the extreme exhaustion from the lack of Sleep/Rest could also accelerate the process. You should also take note that due to lack of support, I have been unable to take a shower in nearly 3 months. Along with lack of electricity and sanitary services, this is one of the persisting problems that I have been forced to deal with on a daily basis since the start of my protest outside the UNHCR office on March 21st, 2017.
The current state of my dire situation and my ongoing Hunger Strike aside, I should let you know that apparently the Greek State, despite prosecuting, depriving, humiliating, degrading and torturing me for years over seeking a durable and sustainable solution for my life, seems to have not yet given up on its illegal practices and had once again summoned me to appear before a Court today on Monday, November 22nd, 2021, for no apparent reason. Hence, as you receive this email, I am probably already in the Court facing another trial that might potentially lead to my 6th Imprisonment. No one is willing to offer legal aid to my case, therefore same as the 24 other occasions before, I fear I would once again be left without legal representation and proper defense.
This is when I have not yet been able to find Justice and hold the perpetrators of repeated assaults on myself accountable for their crimes. The latest of which occurred on Wednesday, August 18th, 2021, at the Syntagma Police Station where I have been assaulted by as many as 5 Police Officers on several occasions during one of which they had even attempted to suffocate me by placing a pillow on top of my head and blocking the airway for about 2 minutes OR so. Perhaps an approximate replica of what happened to George Floyd in America, with the exception that I didn’t die from the assaults, at least not this time. All occurred for no reason other than trying to reach the Australian Embassy in Greece and seeking tangible assistance for my Resettlement there in Australia.
Regarding my repeated appeals to UNHCR for a durable and sustainable solution, I would once again like to highlight the followings:
- As Greece had begun easing its Covid-19 restrictions in May, 2021, the two Greek women, Elizabeth and Tatiana Papageorgiou, who had taken care of my two times hospitalizations, my accommodation and my survival ever since the break of my second Hunger Strike (73-days) from September 03rd, 2021, had eventually informed me they could no longer support me in any ways, form OR capacity and at the end had given me 50 Euros and left me all on my own. As such, whereas technically they left me for death, I had been without shelter and adequate food and consequently starving on a daily basis ever since.
- The placement of my 6th-shelter outside the UNHCR office, which occurred on Tuesday, August 31st, 2021, came with a lot of delays first and foremost due to lack of sufficient Donations and secondly because of the obstacle, a traffic cone, which was purposely installed exactly at the same very spot where all my previous shelter(s) were used to be and my current shelter is now. Consequently, as the organization had kept calling the police on me for sleeping outside its office without shelter and also declining to provide accommodation and survival aid, I was forced to spend the whole summer without shelter again with the only difference that this year rather than outside the UNHCR office, I was sleeping rough in the bushes outside in the yard of the National Library of Greece also known as the Stavros Niarchos Multi-Cultural Center (SNFCC) where I have been suffering from ants, rats and mosquitoes for the whole time.
- Here at my protest site, I have no access to food, water, electricity OR even sanitary services for that matter. A situation that is deliberately being forced on me for since the Start of my first Hunger Strike (64-Days) on March 21, 2021. Regarding the provision of sanitary services such as a portable toilet and shower and electricity at my shelter, the Greek Ombudsman and the Municipality of Athens had last year in response to my written request in these regards failed OR rather declined to be of any assistance. It was then that the destruction of my fourth and fifth shelters followed. Hence, as a matter of fact, I have been without shelter since May 2020.
- The group of Kurds and Persians in the U.S. and Canada who had in their own ways, same as Elizabeth and Tatiana Papageorgiou interfered in my last Summer’s Hunger Strike with the promise of helping with my Resettlement in Canada through Canada’s Group of Five (G5) Refugee Private Sponsorship, not only had never gathered the 5 people necessary for this sponsorship undertaking to work, but have also ruthlessly backstabbed me for declining to send the funds we raised in September 2020, when all they had to do was to withdraw and send it to me. In reality at the end, they left me in a much worse situation than where I was last summer. (Watch: https://www.facebook.com/HostageOfEurope/posts/1082857052203286
- Regarding UNHCR’s position on finding a Group of Private Sponsors all by myself OR through the Refugee Sponsorship Agreement Holders (SAHs) in Canada, while shamelessly negating its own promise to help in 2017, I would like to briefly inform you that none of those organizations are willing to assist with my case. Samples of their responses to my repeated appeals continually addressed to them from 2013 to 2020 are disclosed in the link that follows. (Watch:https://www.facebook.com/HostageOfEurope/posts/1102702973552027
- More OR less I am experiencing similar treatments by Australia’s Approved Proposing Organizations (APOs) that are mandated and have the capacity to offer help and support Refugees with their Resettlement in Australia through their Community Support Program (CSP). Moreover, after nearly one and half a year of waiting and mainly due to lack of a Resettlement Referral from UNHCR, Australia has rejected my Refugee Visa (Class XB) Application submitted to them in July 2019. (Watch: https://www.facebook.com/HostageOfEurope/videos/1115397392205889 and https://www.facebook.com/HostageOfEurope/videos/542552313400451
- The announcement of my 3rd-Hunger Strike outside the UNHCR office in Athens, Greece, was formally conveyed to the organization on Thursday, September 09th, 2021, and it has also been informed of my current situation in two other separate emails on Day 30th and Day 46th of my current Hunger Strike respectively on Wednesday, October 13th, 2021, and Friday, October 29th, 2021.
- Given my already critical health condition, you should know that entering this Hunger Strike same as the two previous ones, is not and was never a choice, but rather something that is being forced on me, particularly that even my survival to date since the break of my 2nd-Hunger Strike (73-days long) on September 03rd, 2021, have only been possible by relying on other people’s Donations which also ran out.
The Greek State and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) seem to have colluded with other entities to eventually starve me to death and cover it up. In the past 7-hellish years they have deliberately brought all the miseries of the world upon my life, stole OR helped to steal not only over 7-years of my life and all my valuables, but have also taken away all my dignity and honor. This is the furthest from being Humanitarian and the very antithesis of what UNHCR was mandated to do. What the organization is currently doing is nothing but outright murder and a targeted assassination. This will never be forgotten and will never be forgiven.
This 7-years-long Hostage taking in Greece must end now. Greece and the European Union should apologize and compensate me for all the damages (i.e. Physically, Emotionally, Economically, etc.) they have so ruthlessly and unjustifiably inflicted upon my life and also provide me with a Safe Passage to a country of Asylum outside this continent (i.e. Canada, U.S. OR Australia) and let me go urgently.
I also once again call on the international community and whoever else received this email, to take a stance against this ongoing atrocity in Greece and do whatever they can to help find a resolution urgently.
Ways each and every one of you could help can be through publicity, signing and promoting my online petition (https://change.org/HostageOfEurope/ making a generous Donation (https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=9P676DB9CECL4&source=url and if possible sourcing a group of reliable Sponsors whether in Canada OR Australia, who would be committed to helping for Resettlement in either of these countries.
UNHCR has to come to its senses and put and end to this endless humiliation, degradation and torture. I didn’t seek Refuge to pay and suffer. Refugees are not slaves, our lives matter too.
I will hold into account all the entities involved in my prolonged imprisonment in Greece and for all the irreparable damages done to my life so far and for any other harm that comes to it from my current Hunger Strike.
If, however, this ultimately led to my death by starvation as a result of your bullying, I am formally requesting to be cremated and the ashes of my body be poured into the Aegean Sea to symbolize that I wish I had never made it to this ugly place in search of refuge.
I fear for my life, my safety and well-being.
Stop hurting me anymore, do your job, find me Asylum and put an end to this endless torment and my prolonged imprisonment in Greece now.
Nothing like this should happen to anyone, anywhere and no one should be put through a situation like this.
This is a dire emergency. Please do not be indifferent and ignorant to what is happening here and take action now. Thank you
Yours Respectfully;
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Hostage of Europe / Anwar Nillufary (Anvar Niloufari / انور نیلوفری)
Email: anwar.nillufary@gmail.com / galadar2000@gmail.com
Tel: +30 690 683 8657
Please sign and share this Petition: https://change.org/HostageOfEurope/
Donations can be made at: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/AnwarNillufary
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HostageOfEurope/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnwarNillufary/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/AnwarNillufary/
Alternative Donation link: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=9P676DB9CECL4&source=url
#HumanRights #HostageOfEurope #JusticeForAnwar #EndThisTormentNow #NoToSlowKillings #SOS
Monday, November 22nd, 2021
[Digitally Signed]
Published: Tuesday, November 30th, 2021