Greek government's forced deportation provokes anger

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Amidst protests by local human rights activists refugees on the Greek island of Chios were taken to detention centres on the Greek mainland in handcuffs. Around 60 recently arrived immigrants were taken by ferry from the island in the northern Aegeon to the the Greek - Turkish border region of Evros. Amongst those relocated were an 15 year old Somalian boy forced to leave behind his mother on the island.

According to Greek national daily, Eleutherotypia, attempts by a 17 year old Palestinian detainee to claim asylum during the transfer were ignored despite the presence of a lawyer whose repeated pleas that the teenager be given his rights under UN treaties signed by Greece were dismissed.

Unconfirmed reports on the Indy.gr news site claim that previous deportations on the 16th July ended up with the refugees being dumped near the Greek - Turkish border. It should be noted that the area is heavily mined and that every year tens of those attempting to cross into Greece from Turkey fall victims to the regions numerous minefields.

Greece has been repeatedly accused of violating international agreements concerning the handling of unaccompanied minors by organisations such as Amnesty International. In addition courts in Germany has refused to deport refugees back to Greece citing the country’s unwillingness to abide by EU and other international treaties concerning the treatment of undocumented immigrants under 16.

The recent upsurge in enforced deportations has followed in the wake of the ruling New Democracy’s poor showing in the the recent European parliamentary elections. In clamping down on illegal immigration in Athens and the Aegean islands prime minister, Kostas Karamanlis is seeking to stem the flow of votes to the far right LAOS party which sent two representatives to Brussels by adopting a get tough policy on protesters and undocumented immigrants.

However, the official policy of “cleaning up” immigrant neighbourhoods has also given rise to growing militant activity on the party of the country’s ultra - nationalist groups with several well - documented cases of the police turning a blind eye to racist groups attacking buildings and areas frequented by foreigners such as Agios Pantelimenos section in central Athens which has witnessed several incidents involving member of the neo nazi Chysi Aygi organisation.

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Tags: Greece | UN | World | DEPORTATION | amnesty international | New Democracy | xios | immigation | fortress europe

The Voice of the Socially Excluded

Yesterday I took the opportunity to go to The Voice of the Socially Excluded conference which was held at the Aristotelion University of Thessaloniki. This was a two day event which gave various social groups such as drug uses, ethnic minorities and immigrants the chance to voice their opinions to a wider audience .

Genti Guri, an immigrant from Albania who has been in Greece for nine years spoke of being imprisoned in the country as he is obliged, like so many others to get a residence permit every two years. No problem there you might add but the procedure is long, complicated and expensive, riddled with corrupt official on the take. As a result the process can take up to two years every time, during which the person may not leave the country even for such crisis such as a death in the family.

Others such as Mustapha Serwan, a disabled immigrant originally from Afghanistan and Larisa Iasonidou, an ethnic Greek from Armenia both told of the problems faced by people trying to life in a country where who you know rather than what you know is the main determiner in getting a job and in fact, virtually every aspect of public life here.

However, the most heartrending moments were delivered by Alexandros Karasiadis, a member of a team of Greek lawyers and human rights activists who have been investigating what can only be termed Greece's hidden gulag in which asylum seekers are held for months in absolutely appalling condition in warehouses and old cow sheds with no heating, running water, access to legal services or even a phone, for that matter.

Then the immigrants are often deported from the country without the opportunity to even apply for asylum. Not that that would help much as less than three percent of such cases are approved. The border police's casual brutality and the unwillingness of Athens to follow European law or even its own legislation has drawn criticism from Amnesty international, the United Nations and many other European countries such as Germany and Sweden which have refused to return younger immigrants to Greece due to numerous allegations of ill - treatment.