GREECE: Immigrants demand political asylum outside Greek parliament

Record ID: 348307

  • Title: GREECE: Immigrants demand political asylum outside Greek parliament
  • Date: 22nd January 2011
  • Summary: TWO HUNGER STRIKERS WITH THEIR MOUTHS SOWN, ONE HOLDING HER CHILD IRANIAN WOMAN IMMIGRANT HOLDING HER CHILD WITH HER MOUTH SOWN MORE OF AFGHAN AND IRANIAN IMMIGRANTS ON HUNGER STRIKE IN WHITE SMOCKS IN FRONT OF PARLIAMENT BUILDING
  • Embargoed: 6th February 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece, Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA9QSETF9WJMIGGDGQUJ2A2D53F
  • Story Text: The Iranian and Afghan immigrants, including some who have had their mouths sown shut for a month as part of a hunger strike to demand political asylum, protested in front of parliament on Friday (January 21), joined by Palestinian immigrants insisting on the same.
    Immigrants said some of their number had been living in Greece for up to eleven years.
    "Unfortunately, these people, after being here eleven years, have had to take the most difficult decision to go on a hunger strike and sew their mouths shut," said Afghan immigrant Golam Reza, who said he had been in the country for a decade.
    "We didn't decide to come here, we are forced to be here, and we request our rights like political refugees," said Palestinian immigrant Mohammad Dar Yazin from Jenin in the West Bank. He has been in Greece for a year.
    Police forces surrounded the protesters to prevent them from entering parliament.
    The hunger strike is part of an ongoing protest by Afghan and Iranian refugees requesting political asylum.
    Greece has been criticised by the refugee agency United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the past for the low and sluggish rate of processing asylum applications. The UNHCR has also attacked the Greek government's decision to build a fence on the Greek-Turkish border to keep out illegal immigrants.
    A new immigration law was passed by the government on January 12 which foresees improvements in handling and processing illegal immigrants, including a more efficient process for asylum applications.
    Under the new law an independent asylum service is to be formed, with more staff and offices in various parts of the country to speed up applications. The UNHCR said it welcomed the new law and is awaiting its implementation.
    Illegal immigrants have been victims of harassment in Athens in recent months by local residents and right wing groups in one neighbourhood where scores of them have settled. Last Saturday (January 15) right wing groups clashed with police as they tried to disrupt an immigrants rally.
    The government estimates there are 500,000 illegal immigrants in Greece, a large number for a country of 11 million people.
    In 2010 ninety percent of illegal immigrants trying to reach Europe passed from the Greek-Turkish border, and in November Greece had to call for help from the European border Agency Frontex to handle the flow.
    The Citizens Protection Ministry pushed through the new legislation and plans to build the border fence, which have raised controversy, even though a recent poll suggests most Greeks support it.
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