Greek government slammed over abuse of refugees

Photo: Chiara Tamburini, Brussels, all rights reserved

In a damning international report the Greek government was severely criticised for systematically denying refugees rights and turning a blind eye to abuse of those seeking asylum on its territory.

The German based PRO-ASYL (National Working Group for Refugees) report on the country claimed theat the situation was out of control and the the state had reneged on its international treaty obligations to treat asylum seeker humanely.

In the report published in October Karl Kopp, head of PRO - ASYL referred to a number of violations by the Greek government of refugee’s rights, including the summary deportation without hearing of thousands who had entered Greek territory from Turkey and the ill - treatment of other refugee by the police and border guards. One such example was given by A 34-year-old Iraqi Turkoman from Kirkuk who said that he made 10 attempts to cross into Greece before succeeding.

"One time I crossed the river into Greece and arrived in Komotini," he said. "They put us in jail for five days and then took us to the river and pushed us back. We were 60 persons. They put us in a small river boat with a motor in groups of 10. They did it in the middle of the night. It was raining hard, and the Greek police started beating us to make us move more quickly. I saw one man who tried to refuse to go on the boat, and they beat him and threw him in the river. They beat us with police clubs to get us to go on the boat."

Last year the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) also noted in its report considerable number of allegations of abuse by police officials of foreign nationals in custody including the case of a detainee allegedly tortured with pliers while in custody in the northern Greek city of Alexandroupoli.
It should be noted that the land crossing from Greece and its traditional rival Turkey is littered with anti-personnel mines and that between 1997 and 2006 61 people lost their lives due to land mines.

In addition the PRO - ASYL report outlined the unwillingness of Greek authorities to accept asylum seeker’s applications. In the first six months of 2008 the authorities issued 8,387 decisions concerning asylum applications of which all 8,387 were rejected. During the same period just 71 of 2,886 appeal decision resulted in the granting of refugee status under the Geneva Refugee Convention. In 2007 just eight of the 25,111 claims proved successful.

Also simply getting access to offices dealing with asylum applications can be a risky business. On 25th and 26th October 2008 one immigrant died in custody and several were hospitalised after 3000 desperate asylum seekers applying for papers at the Petrou Ralli police station in Athens clashed with police. The police station had ceased to accept applications from the 3rd October for an unspecified period of time according to the Greek ombudman so leaving those without documents with the possibility of arrest and deportation.

In addition refugees deported to Greece from other European Union countries under the Dublin II accord have also had their rights violated and sometimes face violence at the hands of the police according to human rights organisations. A joint report published in 2007 by the Norwegian Organisation for Asylum Seekers, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee and Greek Helsinki Monitor wrote of the case of Noori, an Afghan asylum seeker transferred from Austria to Greece in December 2007.

“The policemen hit my face and the back of my head until I began hitting myself to make them stop. I thought that it is the same everywhere, the police is as bad. I thought of throwing myself out of the window in order to end my life. “

The situation has gotten so bad that that the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees has recommended that no asylum seeker be deported back to Greece from within the EU. Indeed Germany and Norway have already suspended such deportations in some cases citing concerns over human rights violations.

In a recent article on immigration in Greece for Time, Greek officials argued that the small Balkan state can not handle what is a pan European problem, however, such claims have to be seen in the light of the state’s ability to suddenly find 28 billion euros to prop up the country’s banking system in the wake of the global credit crisis.

Despite all this the conservative New Democracy government is unlikely to act to ease the plight of refugees at a time of rising domestic unemployment and embroiled as it is in the latest finance and influence peddling scandal to hit the prime minister, Kostas Karamanlis’s administration since being re-elected in September 2007.

PS. I just came across this comment on the Al Jazeera video posted above.

"Giati de tous petane pisw sth 8alassa?
Arketa me tis oumanistikes malakies , de ginete o ka8e apovlitos apo th koloxora tou na erxete edw.
Gia th metanasteush yparxoun diakratikes simfonies opws px me th Voulgaria pou erxontai oi an8rwpoi kai mpainoun se doulies kanonika kai me kanonikous mis8ous.
H paranomh metanasteush prepei na timwrite me 8anato epi topou . "

Translation

"Why don't we throw them back in the sea? enough of this humanistic b#llshit. It's just not on for every scumbag from his f#cking country to come here. As far as immigration is concerned there are discreet agreements, such as the one with Bulgaria by whuch people come and get work normally at regular wages.Illegal immigration should be punished by death.. on the spot."

NowPublic

Tags: Greece | Time | World | unhcr | human rights abuse | immigration karl kopp | pro - asyl | european immigration

Greek human rights activist accused of high treason

Panayotis Dimitras, head of the human rights organisation, Greek Helsiniki Monitor is facing possible charges of high treason and if convicted a life sentence for speaking out about minority rights in Greece.

See here for the rest of the story on NowPublic.com. Thanks to Devious Diva for putting out the word.

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.

Free Abdul Rahman Shaghouri

Syrian Human Rights Committee campaigns to release a sixteen-month detainee for surfing the net. Sixteen months has already elapsed since Mr. Abdul Rahman Shaghouri was arrested for surfing sites with special interests to Syrian current affairs, downloading and distributing some news to friends.

Their contact information is here.

Amnesty international

As a result of the Blogme case here in Greece, I've decided to join Amnesty's Irrepressible Info campaign. The idea is that bloggers and other internet users can circumvent government censorship;

" Chat rooms monitored. Blogs deleted. Websites blocked. Search engines restricted. People imprisoned for simply posting and sharing information.

The Internet is a new frontier in the struggle for human rights. Governments – with the help of some of the biggest IT companies in the world – are cracking down on freedom of expression.

Amnesty International, with the support of The Observer UK newspaper, is launching a campaign to show that online or offline the human voice and human rights are impossible to repress.

Find out more about this campaign"

If you wish to have a similar badge on your site (click here) and follow their simple instructions.

A plea for help

I saw this on Devious Diva's blog and decided I had to post it here. It concerns that appalling treatment dished out to refugees living in containers in the middle of winter on the Greek island of Chios.

"I received a copy of the letter, via the Greek Helsinki Monitor, from the people detained at the camp in Chios. They are pleading for help from anyone who can do something. I am not sure who the letter was originally given or sent to but it has found its way out of that place. It is heartbreaking… Please post this on your blogs or websites. Get the word out. They need our help.

(I typed the letter in full, exactly as written, below the pictures)

To whom it concerned,

We as refugees in this camp have lost the hope even in complaining, so we take you as our only hope.

After many screams and complains about our conditions here, no-one has paid any attention. We are about 225 people in this camp for two weeks and about 190 for one month, and we know this camp can shelter only 108 people; about 21 people in each shelter sleeping over each other; about 90 without shoes, shampoo and blankets; toilets are damaged and many rooms are filled with dirty water which prevent many people sleeping; diseases are increasing and sick persons are ignored and the police is satisfied in giving just “Panadol”; two meals is not enough, bread like stones and some food is damaged; the increasing number of people creates trouble unwillingly.

We feel that we are in an isolated prison, no one talks to us and when we inform the police he says that it is not his responsibility. So we pledge you to inform any power or institution to save us because things have become unbearable and our situations turn to be under zero.

We don’t know what crime that we have committed to take this punishment and harsh treatment; we escaped war, poverty, oppression and genocidal attacks and came here to find shelter in this peaceful land.

We call all committees, Red Crescent, Human Rights, UN and every power. We call the Greek nation and the civilised Europe.

The Camp"

Και η μετάφραση από το histologion-gr.blogspot.com :

"Προς οπιονδήποτε ενδιαφερόμενο


Εμείς οι πρόσφυγες σ’ αυτό το στρατόπεδο (του Μερσυνιδίου) χάσαμε κάθε ελπίδα ακόμη και για να μπορούμε να παραπονιόμαστε, γι’ αυτό απευθυνόμαστε σε σας, σαν την τελευταία μας ελπίδα.

Μετά από πολλές κραυγές και διαμαρτυρίες για τις συνθήκες και την κατάσταση μας εδώ, κανείς δεν έχει ενδιαφερθεί. Είμαστε σχεδόν 225 άνθρωποι σ’ αυτό το στρατόπεδο εδώ και δύο εβδομάδες, και 190 εδώ και ένα μήνα, και ξέρουμε ότι στο στρατόπεδο αυτό μπορούν να παραμείνουν μόνον 108 άτομα. Σχεδόν 21 άνθρωποι μένουν σε κάθε οικίσκο και κοιμούνται ο ένας πάνω στον άλλο. Σχεδόν 90 δεν έχουν παντόφλες, ρούχα, φλιτζάνια, σαπούνι και κουβέρτες.

Οι τουαλέτες είναι κατεστραμμένες και πολλά δωμάτια είναι γεμάτα με βρώμικα νερά που μας εμποδίζουν ακόμη και να κοιμηθούμε. Οι ασθένειες πολλαπλασιάζονται και για τους αρρώστους κανείς δεν νοιάζεται ενώ η αστυνομία μας δίνει « panadol». Δύο γεύματα δεν αρκούν. Το ψωμί είναι σαν πέτρα και κάποιες φορές το φαγητό είναι χαλασμένο. Ο αυξανόμενος αριθμός των κρατουμένων δημιουργεί περισσότερα προβλήματα άθελα μας.

Αισθανόμαστε ότι είμαστε σε μία απομονωμένη φυλακή, κανείς δεν μας μιλά, και όταν ενημερώνουμε την αστυνομία, λένε ότι δεν είναι δική τους αρμοδιότητα. Γι’ αυτό σας παρακαλούμε να ενημερώσετε οποιαδήποτε Αρχή ή Οργανισμό για να μας σώσει, γιατί οι συνθήκες έχουν γίνει αβάσταχτες και η κατάσταση μας είναι απάνθρωπη.
Δεν ξέρουμε ποιο είναι το έγκλημα που διαπράξαμε για να μας αξίζει τέτοια τιμωρία και σκληρή αντιμετώπιση. Ξεφύγαμε από τον πόλεμο τη φτώχεια την καταπίεση και επιθέσεις γενοκτονίας και ήρθαμε εδώ για να βρούμε καταφύγιο σε γη ειρήνης.

*Απευθύνουμε έκκληση σε κάθε Επιτροπή, τον Ερυθρό Σταυρό, των Ανθρωπίνων Δικαιωμάτων, τα Ηνωμένα Έθνη και κάθε Αρχή.

*Απευθύνουμε έκκληση στην Ελλάδα και την πολιτισμένη Ευρώπη.

Οι κρατούμενοι στο Μερσυνίδι"