While impunity of racist violence remains a persistent problem in Greece, the Greek government not only refrains from addressing it, but is proceeding to institutionalize it, and furthermore to penalize its victims! Last week it submitted to parliament an amendment to the country’s Immigration Code that mandates the deportation of immigrants who accuse state employees of using violence against them, in case their claims are officially rejected. It is hair-raising: this provision is a deterrent, punishing not the aggressors but the victims.
The Minister of Interior has temporarily redrawn from the amendment but announced it will be back next week. At the same time the whole article 19 of the code is gone, which concerns the possibility to receive a residence permit on humanitarian grounds also for victims of racist violence.