Tag Archive for 'greece'
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Message by the union of African nationals (refugees in Ermioni) in Greece…
We, African refugees resident in Ermioni, have the honour to bring to your knowledge the perpetual threat of our security.
We send out this alarming and disgraced message to all national and international organisations defending the cause of refugees and all persons of good will who can defend us from this insecurity and racial segregation, and restore and recognise our international human rights as no one wishes to be a refugee.
Following the economic crisis that has hit Greece, a large number of young refugees live an intolerable life in this village. Depite hard work, we are badly paid, badly housed, have no access to health care, and have no consideration from the Greeks and the authorities in the village because of the colour of our skin. This situation gone even further than we had believed, shooting us at point-blank like wild animals and making us disappear into nature one after the other. We are evoking here two cases among thousands:
1) It was 29 October 2011 at 8am exactly when two youngsters were waiting for their boss on the road in order to get to work. A Greek man found them and asked them to be quiet, brandishing a knife against these youngsters. The latter picked up stones to defend themselves, and the Greek man went home, took a hunting rifle and returned and shot the black youngsters who were seriously wounded and transported to hospital. The police was notified but there was no follow-up, no legal proceedings made against the criminal and no cover or compensation for the victims.
2) In the same zone where the youngsters were shot, this time it is the disappearance of one of our brothers Mamadou Samba Diallo on Saturday 28 January 2012 at his workplace Porto Hidra programme, where he was employed by the boss Inco.
Here is the information gathered by one of the collaborators: the missing person was in his sixth day of work, his friend came to get him for lunch but the victim replied his was not ready. His friend left and returned later to his workplace situated next to the sea. He did not see his friend again. Later, he asked his boss who confirmed having seen him in the sea playing on the floaters and in the water. Maybe he drowned. Three days later, the boss told us that seamen saw some clothes somewhere in the sea. The police, once again informed about this disappearance, has not carried out any investigation to find the missing person.
Excuse us to ask to all organisations and people of good will to help us find our brother as our security is more at threat than ever.
Three young Afghans 20-23 years old died due to suffocation when they were trying to reach a port of exit hidden on a truck. The truck was transporting cottonseed and headed most probably towards Igoumenitsa. The three corpses were found nearby Parga. The Coroner Theodoros Bougiouklakis who made the autopsy. The bodies were then transferred to Ianena University Hospital.
One of the Afghans who had been together with the three inside the truck had informed via telephone on the day of the incident the family of one of them about their tragic death. Relatives then informed the Greek police who was searching for the three but could only find them yesterday since they lacked exact information on the place the corpses were left.
An immigrant died of hypothermia while 14 others were rescued. The 15
migrants were trying to cross river Evros from Turkey to Greece, and
were trapped in an island on the Evros river near Tychero village.
Seven of the survivors are nationals of Eritrea, two are Palestinian
nationals, three are from Algeria, one from Syria and one from
Bangladesh. The dead immigrant was also Palestinian. He was
transferred in critical condition at the Medical Center of Feres,
where he died of hypothermia.
A young 9-year-old girl and her grandfather disappeared on the 29th of January together with nine other migrants while trying to cross the border in Evros. They got lost when they boat turned around and they fell into the very cold waters of the river.
A three year old boy and two men survived the accident and informed the Greek authorities about the loss of the others in the boat.
Following a police operation aimed at finding the missing persons seven were found, among them the parents of the three-year-old boy. Two persons are still missing. The little girl and her grandfather.
Yesterday night a truck transporting 48 Afghan refugees had an accident near Astakos. Five of the passengers died, 25 got injured. The truck had been stolen some days before. The driver could escape.
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Since Friday about 100 refugees are caught up on a boat in the north-west of Pilos. It was heading towards Italy when one of the refugees called the Greek authorities for help. Negotiations among the captain of the boat and the authorities still go on.
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’
In the last months police sweep operations take place every day: on the streets and public squares, in the homes of refugees and wherever they stay homeless.
The police invades regularly the private space of people, proceeding to arrests and sometimes beating people or also stealing their properties. 
Today in one more sweep operation, they arrested the 60-70 homeless refugees staying in the old fabric Columbia. Among the homeless are asylum seekers and vulnerable persons such as mentally sick. Instead of providing them with reception conditions according to law and instead of protecting the vulnerable the only answer to this issue by the government remains to arrest them.
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.