“Hate on the Streets”
information with, about and for refugees in Greece
Tag Archive for 'antifascism / antiracism'
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ix people – five men and one woman – who were being questioned by police on Tuesday morning over an attack on a group of migrants living in a home in the industrial suburb of Perama, southwest of Piraeus, were identified by their victims.
According to police reports, the six suspects were among a group of 10 Greeks who attacked the four Egyptian men, aged between 28 and 42 years old, while they were asleep in the their home around 3 a.m.
The attackers used bats and other makeshift weapons to break the windows of the residence and smash two cars and a motorcycle, before attacking the four men and injuring one, the 28-year-old, seriously.
The victims of the attack later identified the six suspects as being among the group that attacked them.
Saturday afternoon in Kipseli neighbourhood:
Around 60 Neonazi and 20 motor bikes made one of their ritualised “interventions” on the weekly markets of Athens. Migrants crossing their path were attacked and insulted, fascist slogans were shouted… At some point police teams of DIAS (motor bikes) arrived at the place who, according to witnesses, tried to control the papers of some of the Neonazis. The Neonazi and Parliamentarian of the fascist party “Golden Dawn” Panagiotarou as seen in the video, tried to show by whatever means that his party (GD) is “antisystemic” and that it is being “prosecuted” by the Greek police. In the following the parliamentarian started insulting god and the world and destructing a parked car. Nevertheless, he was not arrested as it happens i.e. with other parliamentarians from left wing parties. While Panagiotarou is claiming that his party is antisystemic, it actually seems as if GD unfortunately is very close to the Greek police and vice versa.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hd_9GJgVd4g
During the past few days the murder of a 30-year-old Greek in Patras on Saturday morning (May 19) was assigned in local mainstream media of Patras to “afghan” perpetrators. The increasing discourse on the violent death rose on MAy 20, the day of the burial ceremony. A group of approx. 150 indignant locals but also fascists members of “golden dawn” party started to move in the evening towards the industrial area of Peiraiki Patraiki where currently some sans-papiers live in transit. The fascists among the protestors planned to revenge the death of the 30-year-old some of them holding rods and other truncheons. Indignant locals argued with golden dawn members who wanted to use the tragic death of the 30-year-old for their own purposes. The police forces arrived just in time to prevent the fascists from entering the industrial area. The mob outside the industrial area was shouting: “Foreigners out of Greece!” After a while of struggle between police and fascists, the latter left only to meet again the next day as they announced. Small groups of migrants and refugees spread in the city were chased by fascists. There are yet no news about injuries.
video showing the protest of the indignant locals and the fascist mob
On May 22 the atmosphere in Patras is remains heated. Police forces arrived in the early morning in the industrial area and arrested some sans-papiers in order to transfer them to Athens (about three busses) – as they said in order to protect them. Anyway, for the authorities the incidents of the last days might be seen as an opportunity to empty the buildings from the sans-papiers as they are trying already since some months by daily sweep operations. In the afternoon of May 22 the sans-papiers who had been transferred earlier that day to Athens were all released. During the arrest there was no possibility for the sans-papiers to collect their few personal belongings. Some of their items were allegedly burned by the police forces.
In the afternoon members of the neonazi GD gathered from other Greek cities and marched to the abandoned factory space (Peiraiki Patraiki, opposite the new port). The approx. 350 nazis tried to storm the factory, brandishing crowbars and pelting rocks to the migrants inside the building. During the night eight police officers were injured and five fascists arrested.
21:55 GMT+2 Meanwhile, the situation at the southern front of Patras, by the new port, is escalating in a nazi riot, as allegedly a couple of hundred Golden Dawn supporters try to break through the police lines to reach the abandoned factory building of Peiraiki Patraiki used by undocumented migrants for shelter.
22:00 GMT+2 People attacked Golden Dawn MP Michalis Arvanitis, who was scheduled to speak at a local TV station. The nazi was attacked inside the station building.
22:05 GMT+2 An antifascist gathering has been called for this Thursday, 24/05, at Olgas Square in Patras.
On May 23 the police entered again the industrial area which is a provisory shelter for migrants and refugees, arrested and transferred the last 50-60 to Athens. Meanwhile the municipality is holding an emergency meeting concerning the escalation of violence in the area of the new port and the “problem of illegal migration in the city”. The plan of the local government is to increase police patrols. In a telephone conference with the Minister of Citizen Protection the prefect of Western Greece demanded an increase of the police forces in Patras to face the militias of the neo-nazis but also and mainly to force refugees and migrants out of town.
In the night of May 23 again fascists started attacking the riot police next to the port and the industrial area of Peiraiki Patraiki.
press release of the solidarity movement in patras / May 23, 2012
indymedia athens
call for antifascist meeting May 23, 2012 in Patras (in greek)
red notebook (in greek)
zougla (in greek)
peloponisos news (in greek)
best news (in greek)
the insider (in greek)
in french
the telegraph (in english)
the guardian (in English)
attack tv (in greek)
best news (in greek)
deutsche welle (in farsi)
deutsche welle (in German)
tvxs (in greek)
In Greece, serving police force members vote in specially assigned polling stations (regardless of their area of residence), together with the local population of those stations. Last Sunday in Athens, 5.000 serving police voted in 11 such specially assigned polling stations. In these precise stations, the Nazis of the Golden Dawn received between 19% and 24% of the total vote. The police who voted there serve in all agencies including DIAS, the undercover police force and others. Only a few meters down the road, in neighbouring stations, the percentage of Golden Dawn dropped to approximately 12-14%. Given that there are approximately 550-700 people voting at each of these stations, and also given that 20-30% of them are police, it can be calculate, with considerable certainty, that the percentage of police who voted for Golden Dawn ranges between 45% and 59%.
The three migrants (two Egyptians and one Palestinian) were attacked by Greek citizens who came on motor bikes and were holding rods and chains around 11pm on Tuesday, May 8. While the perpetrators escaped the three victims were transferred to the hospital.
Following the elections and the high percentage of votes the fascist party “Golden Dawn” gained, racist attacks are on the rise again.
Athens, April 30, 2012
Serious violation of human rights and medical confidentiality through the disclosure of data and photographs of an HIV positive female prostitute by the Greek Police.
In an unprecedented stigma action, the competent authorities of Greece publicized, through a press release by the Greek Police, the full details, photographs and medical record’s information of a 22 year old prostitute, from Russia.
The unprecedented racist initiative of the Greek authorities sparked a number of articles in the press and media reports naming and shaming the woman, publishing her personal data, stigmatising her, as well as every person wholives with HIV. This action is damaging the image of our country, after which it ceases to be a modern, well-governed and humane state.
Continue reading ‘Serious violation of human rights and medical confidentiality by the Greek Police’
Watch: “Dublin’s Trap: Another Side of the Greek Crisis” (2012)
by Bryan Carter
Article from the New York Times by EVA COSSE
Published: January 26, 2012
When I tell people in Athens, my hometown, that I am doing research on racist violence in Greece, I am met with disbelief. There’s no problem, they say, and even if things sometimes happen it’s a temporary blip linked to the economic crisis.
The Greek government seems to share their view. It recorded only two hate crimes in the whole country in 2009 and one in 2008. More recent figures are not available.
I experienced the reality firsthand a week ago. I was interviewing Razia, an Afghan single mother, in the small apartment she shares with her three children in Aghios Panteleimonas square in Athens about the numerous attacks on her home since she moved in a year and a half earlier. Other Afghan migrants were visiting her the day I was there.
Suddenly masked thugs, who had been gathering outside, threw heavy objects at the front door, cracking the thick glass. During the few minutes the attack lasted, I could see the silhouettes of the attackers. People panicked and backed away from the windows, as the apartment is on the ground floor of the building, while Razia gathered up her scared children.
When the police came, they told Razia that she would have to come to the station to file an official complaint. She did. But even though the police station is less than 300 meters from her home, the apartment was attacked again on the following two nights. On the second night, someone sprayed cooking gas inside the apartment through the cracks of the broken window and tried unsuccessfully to set it alight.
“They wanted to burn us alive,” Razia told me later. “The windows and the door were broken.” She added that “we recognized” the man who did it. “He lives in a building next to this place and he always has a dog with him.”
She said that she identified one of the attackers to the officers who responded to her call, but that the police took no action. That same night she and her children moved out.
Greek residents in the neighborhood confirmed accounts from migrants that a group of vigilantes wearing hoods and masks gather nightly in Aghios Panteleimonas square at around 9 o’clock. Everyone knows who they are.
The family’s terrifying experience is part of wider epidemic of such violence in the Greek capital. Migrants and asylum seekers whom I and my colleagues from Human Rights Watch interviewed spoke of virtual no-go areas in Athens after dark because of the risk of attacks by vigilante groups. An association of Afghans in Greece provides newly arrived Afghan migrants with a map marked in red for areas to avoid.
The Pakistani Community of Greece, an association of immigrants, documented attacks on 60 Pakistani men in the first three months of 2011. Far-right extremists rampaged through immigrant neighborhoods in May, leaving at least 25 people hospitalized for stab wounds or severe beatings.
In September, a 24-year-old asylum seeker from Afghanistan was assaulted in Athens. Three of his attackers are set to stand trial, in the first such prosecution in Greece in years.
While Razia and her children are safe for the moment, the attacks in the area around her former apartment have continued. Two Afghan men were attacked in the same area by a group of about 15 people and had to seek hospital treatment. Thugs have also attacked the Internet café next door to Razia’s apartment that is owned by an asylum seeker from Afghanistan. One time, someone sprayed “Foreigners Out” in big blue letters on the café shutters while another time, the glass storefront was smashed.
Since everyone in the neighborhood seems to know about this group, why is it that the police officers at the station 300 meters away don’t prevent the attacks or catch the attackers? In part the answer lies with ordinary Greeks. The people responsible for the violence depend on the “passive participation” of those who tolerate it. In part the answer lies with the government, which needs to acknowledge Greece’s problem with racist violence openly and make combating it a political priority.
In short, the police and prosecutors have to do more than simply take reports. The attackers will back off only in the face of rapid police response, diligent investigations and successful prosecutions of attackers. Razia and her children deserve nothing less.
Eva Cosse works for the Europe and Central Asia Division of Human Rights Watch. Continue reading ‘Greece’s Epidemic of Racist Attacks’
Citizen Protection Minister Papoutsis said that 25.000 migrants have been returned either by force or voluntarily within the last months from Greece to their home countries. The last deportation flight took place on thursday of January 19. Among the 56 deported were: 2 Egyptians, 23 Bangladeshi, 29 Chinese, one Pakistani and one Indian. The deportations take place from Athens airport.
Police raids and sweep operations have become harsher and more frequent. According to Papoutsis the Greek police controls daily an average of 400 migrants.
Meanwhile the construction of the anti-migratory “wall of shame” fence in Evros is being proceeded. The construction is planned to be finished in the next 5 months.
While migration policy is harshening, the racist pogrom continues unhindered in the centre of Athens. Daily migrants get beaten, stabbed and insulted in the areas close to Attiki and St. Panteleimon Church without any reaction from the police. Today an African migrant was stabbed nearby Panteleimon Church. The police reacted by asking the stabbed who was lying on the ground bleeding for his papers.