- Title: GREECE: Racist attacks on the rise say migrants group
- Date: 14th August 2012
- Summary: ATHENS, GREECE (FILE) (REUTERS) IMMIGRANTS WALKING IN BUSY ATHENS STREET VARIOUS OF IMMIGRANT WORKING AT GROCERY STORE
- Embargoed: 29th August 2012 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Greece
- Country: Greece
- Topics: Crime
- Reuters ID: LVABW2Q5EODD0T3RZTS6UF0GYWH8
- Story Text: An immigrant workers' association said on Tuesday (August 14) that hate crimes in Greece are on the rise and the recent police crackdown on illegal immigrants has only added fuel to the fire.
Javied Aslam, president of the Pakistani Community of Greece and member of Migrant Workers' Association, says that in the last three years attacks against immigrants have escalated both in frequency and in ferocity, with 20 stab victims being taken to hospital only in the last month.
"In the last six months, from the testimonies that we have, there are about 500, just over 500 people have told us that they were attacked by fascists (far right thugs). And now, in the last three weeks to one month - It started with verbal (attacks) then brass knuckles and bats and now they go out with knives, so in the last three weeks more than twenty people have been stabbed and had to go to the hospital," said 43-year-old Aslam, who came to Greece in 1996 and works as an interpreter at Greek hospitals.
Human rights' groups have said that there is evidence to suggest that the perpetrators of these anti-immigrant attacks are associated with local vigilante groups and Golden Dawn, an extreme-right party elected to parliament this year which garnered seven percent of the popular vote, a first since the fall of a military junta in 1974.
On Sunday (August 12), a young Iraqi man was stabbed to death by five unknown assailants, the latest of a series of violent attacks in Athens.
A day after the killing of the Iraqi, arsonists firebombed an office of Golden Dawn causing minor damage.
Reacting to Golden Dawn's rise, Greece's conservative-led coalition has pledged to crack down on illegal immigration.
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras struggles to maintain social peace amid growing public frustration with painful austerity measures he needs to take in return for bailout money from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
Greek police have arrested over 1,650 paperless migrants in a sweep operation this month code-named "Xenios Zeus", the ancient Greek God for guests and foreigners.
But Aslam said that rising anti-immigrant sentiments, as well as a recent police crackdown on illegal immigration has made many immigrants fearful of going to the authorities.
"People are really scared now and they don't say anything to anyone. It's terrible, a really bad situation," he said.
Since August 2, Greek police have detained more than than 7000 foreigners and arrested over 1,650 migrants for not having a permit of residence in a sweep operation code-named "Xenios Zeus," named after the ancient Greek patron God for guests and foreigners.
Aslam says that anti-immigrant sentiment becomes legitimized if people see immigrants being rounded up in operations like "Xenios Zeus" and their attackers failing to be caught.
"If they don't arrest people who are going around with knives, with clubs and things like that, and that kill people, then, to us it's like they are supporting them, like they are saying you have leave to do whatever you please," he said.
Greece is a major gateway for mostly Asian and African migrants who wish to enter the European Union, with about 130,000 immigrants crossing the country's porous sea and land borders every year, and who face increased hostility as the country goes through its deepest postwar recession and record unemployment. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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