GREECE: The issue of illegal immigrants becomes a sizzling topic before elections, prompting the government to round up immigrants

Record ID: 348509

  • Title: GREECE: The issue of illegal immigrants becomes a sizzling topic before elections, prompting the government to round up immigrants
  • Date: 28th April 2012
  • Summary: IMMIGRANTS WITH CHILDREN WAITING IN QUEUE
  • Embargoed: 13th May 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece, Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVABY7QCAC514C7R7N8P8WMOSGAF
  • Story Text: Anti-racism groups have begun protests over impending plans by the government to move thousands of illegal immigrants into holding centres to get them off the streets ahead of elections. Police have already started sweeping them up in raids in Athens.
    The Civil Protection Ministry, responsible for illegal immigration, is building 30 holding centres nationwide to remove them from the congested Athens capital where residents vocally complain and blame them for crimes and unsanitary conditions. It comes as Greece prepares for elections where according to polls an extreme right anti-immigrant party is making gains for the first time. In Athens racist attacks against migrants have been taking place. New civil protection minister Michalis Chrisochoidis, re- appointed last month, says the sudden initiative is not politically motivated but an effort to implement an immigration policy that has been sitting on the back burner due to the economic crisis.
    "We care about every citizen that lives in this country regardless of race, religion, and nationality but at the same time let me say with all compassion it is not possible for hundreds of thousands of people to be out on the streets illegally, victims to illegal channels that spread prostitution narcotics, diseases," Chrisochoidis said.
    Some 90 percent of those entering Europe, enter through Greece. A fence is being built on a section of the Greek-Turkish border, one of the main crossings, to deter immigrants from entering. But they slip in through the police net and arrive in Athens. Some get mixed up in the black market, or drugs, or prostitution. Hundreds together rent cheap, abandoned decrepit apartments. According to police statistics 100,000 illegal immigrants were arrested nationwide in 2011. Many measures of Greece's immigration program have not been implemented, with a shortage of funds due to the crisis exacerbating the problem. About 14 new Screening Centres to speed up asylum applications have not opened due to a lack of funds to staff them, and only the central Athens Aliens Police Bureau handles the task. Thus scores battle for a place in the long queues outside, some sleeping overnight. Many have come here a dozen times over several months but have never even reached the door. Arguments break out over who will have priority in the queue. Police can see only about 20 asylum applicants a day, and there is currently a backlog of some 30,000 immigrants waiting for a decision on their asylum and thousands more just waiting to apply.
    "Now, in 2011 and 2012 things are very very difficult. There is no work, no home, no food, there are many of us, there is nothing. And they won't give us papers. And if they don't give me papers then I will leave and go back to Pakistan or somewhere else," Pakistani immigrant Abdul Amid said.
    The successful applicants are issued pink cards allowing them to remain and work while their application is being considered. Without it these immigrants now risk being swept up and taken to these new reception centres. Refugee agency UNHCR believes holding centres alone will not resolve the problem. Greece has been blasted several times for substandard detention conditions at centres already on islands and borders. The UNHCR wants immigrants first to be screened, registered and separated before being taken to holding centres.
    "We are concerned, that because of the lack of access to the asylum procedure not only in Athens but also in other places many people who are in need of protection and who are refugees or are fleeing war may have tried to apply for asylum and may have not managed which means these people are at risk of being arrested and deported," UNHCR spokesperson Ketty Kehayioglou said.
    Between October to December 2011, 63 incidents of racist attacks were recorded by UNHCR and other non-governmental organizations against immigrants. According to an April poll of 1,610 Greeks, 48 percent think illegal immigrants should leave, up from 19 percent in 2009. Another 90 percent believe immigrants are to blame for the rise in crime, while 54 percent believe detention centres are necessary. Only 7 percent believe immigrants should be helped to assimilate into society. Residents living near the proposed locations of the holding centres have already begun protesting. With the elections fast approaching and the gains of the anti-immigrant extreme right party unnerving other parties, politicians and media have been accentuating residents fears over crime and diseases, which non-governmental organizations say is a myth. According to UNHCR data 64 percent of serious crimes are carried out by Greeks and only 36 percent by foreigners. According to the organization Doctors Without Borders, 60 percent of the contagious diseases caught by immigrants were caught in Greece while in detention.
    "The economic situation creates more tense atmosphere and frustration among the population and it is fertile ground for the creation of scapegoats," said Kehayioglou.
    Ali Amami, 18, from Afghanistan says he spent 20 days in a hospital after being attacked by 10 people with clubs and knives while walking home from Greek school in Athens. Amami fled Afghanistan as he said his family was being victimized by the Taliban. He is applying for asylum.
    "I came from hospital because they have beaten me with a knife, with everything what they had, there were ten people," he said, showing his bandaged leg and bruises.
    And thousands of immigrants who are willing to leave voluntarily also face obstacles. Under a government program, illegal immigrants can receive airplane tickets and pocket money if they return voluntarily to their country, but due to the crisis the government cannot afford to pay to send them all back.
    They flock to the offices of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which handles the voluntary repatriation, and wait in endless lines, fighting to get through the door. The economic crisis has left them without work and near starvation, thus they say they would prefer to leave.
    "Since two years I did not get any work, I did not go to any work. So I want to go back to Pakistan. And I don't have money to purchase my tickets, my house rents, my electricity bills so I want to go back. And one of my friends told me, if I come here to IOM so I can see my tickets and some extra money. But I came here approximately three times, but I could not receive any money and any tickets and any response," Sajawal Sultan said, a 25 year old immigrant from Pakistan.
    IOM has already sent back 2,500 people in the last years, but has another 3,000 requests pending, and according to the government IOM figures also show a 50 percent increase in applications for voluntary repatriation in just the last month. The European Union funds 75 percent of immigration policy measures but the government must cover the remaining 25 percent. Chrisochoidis said he would tap 10 million euros of available EU funds to speed up the repatriation process Non governmental organizations have said the European Union needs to actively and physically participate in assisting Greece to tackle the problem, not just with monetary support. They fear that after the elections the issue will once again be ignored.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: Footage contains identifiable children: users must ensure that they comply with local laws and regulations governing the publishing of this material.
Register