Racism in Greece is Growing

[makgerman]

Attacks against minorities in Greece is rising and according to the Human Rights group, the police behavior is making it worse.

http://www.euronews.com/2012/08/14/greek-police-accused-of-stoking-racist-attacks/

Human rights groups say hate crimes in Greece are rising and that police behaviour is making the situation worse.

They say in the past six months there have been hundreds of victims and that state crackdowns on illegal immigrants are encouraging nationalist sentiment.

Activists say it is not just the frequency of the attacks that has increased but also the ferocity.

“In the past six months from the testimonies that we have, there have been about 500,” says Javied Aslam, president of the Pakistani Community of Greece. “Just over 500 people have told us that they were attacked by fascists. And now, in the past three weeks to one month it’s moved on from verbal attacks to knuckle-dusters and bats and now they go out with knives – so in the past three weeks more than twenty people have been stabbed and have had to have hospital treatment.”

Because of recent police operations against illegal immigrants, rights groups say people are now fearful of even going to the authorities if they are attacked.

“People are really scared now and they don’t say anything to anyone. It’s terrible, a really bad situation,” Aslam added.

Migrant groups say there is evidence to suggest that the people carrying out the attacks are associated with vigilante groups and Golden Dawn.
The extreme right-wing party gained seven percent of the vote at the last election.

[makgerman]

Racist murder in Greece reflects rising neo-Nazi influence

A 19 year old Iragi was brutally murdered by a racist motorcycle gang.

Five hundred people have been racially attacked in the first half of 2012 which is double over the same period last year.

Greek policemen arrested 6,700 "foreign looking" people. Hundreds have been deported, 1555 are in special camps and I wonder what has happened to the rest of them.

The minister responsible for Civil Protection justify these actions and refers to the immigrants as "occupiers".

Police are to blame also.

Source:

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/aug2012/gree-a15.shtml

15-08-2012

Early on Sunday morning, five dark-clad figures mounted on four motorcycles rode through the neighborhood of Omonia Square in central Athens, hunting down immigrants. Upon encountering a 19-year-old Iraqi, they beat him with their fists and stones and stabbed him several times with a knife. The young man died the same day in a hospital.

This racially motivated murder is the brutal culmination of a systematic manhunt of immigrants organized by the state in recent weeks. The motorcycle gang had already attacked a Romanian and a Moroccan in the same district, unmolested by the police. The first two victims were able to get to safety in time, however.

The murder in Athens is part of a wave of racist violence in Greece. On Saturday a violent attack was launched against a group of Pakistanis in Heraklion, Crete. Shops owned by migrants in the port city of Piraeus have been repeatedly attacked. Smoke bombs were hurled into one shop that that also serves as a mosque.

Five hundred immigrants have been admitted to hospital due to racist attacks in the first half of 2012. According to reports in the newspaper Ta Nea, based on various non-governmental organizations, this is nearly double the total of victims of similar attacks over the same period last year.

These attacks are the direct result of a government policy supported by the EU. Just a week before the murder, 4,500 policemen were involved in a major operation to hunt down migrants. They took 6,700 foreign-looking people into custody and interned 1,555 in special camps where they are now awaiting deportation. Hundreds have already been deported.

...The fascist party works closely with the police. In demonstrations by leftist or anarchist groups, police officials handed batons and radios to the fascists so they could provoke violence. In addition, police have allowed members of Golden Dawn to carry various weapons.
Golden Dawn member Antonios Androutsopoulos—who murdered a leftist student activist in 1998—was able to avoid capture for seven years, very probably with the assistance of the police. He was eventually apprehended in 2005. Although more people were involved in the murder, only Androutsopoulos was prosecuted.

Also in 1998, the Eleftherotypia newspaper reported that race riots in Thessaloniki had been organized by “racist forces within the police.” No one was arrested after the riots.
This list of collaboration by the police with the fascists could be extended up to the present. In the last elections, the daily To Vima reported that 50 percent of police officers voted for Golden Dawn.

Greece’s migrant rights’ organization Expel Racism has reported hundreds of cases where police officers watched by idly during attacks on migrants. There have also been reports of foreigners being beaten in police stations, and police officers giving residents the telephone number of Golden Dawn when they complained about immigrants.

“We are scared to go on the streets,” one migrant told the daily newspaper Kathimerini. “It’s Ramadan, we were invited to dinner, but we will not go. If we go out we will be intercepted either by the police or Golden Dawn.”
The German newspaper Die Welt reported on a woman from Georgia who was sexually threatened in Athens by a member of Golden Dawn. After they went to the police, the man returned in the evening accompanied by officers from the local station and boasted: “Do you see now who my friends are?”

[Louis]

Greek policemen arrested 6,700 "foreign looking" people. Hundreds have been deported, 1555 are in special camps and I wonder what has happened to the rest of them.

The minister responsible for Civil Protection justify these actions and refers to the immigrants as "occupiers".

Police are to blame also.

The arrested illegal immigrants were "foreign looking"? That's just shocking racism. "Police are to blame also"? I though that was their job? Actually the 1555 people arrested will not be easily kicked out; it will take weeks or months and their expenses will be paid by Greece. Meanwhile it takes only 3 or 4 days for 1555 new illegal immigrants to enter Greece.

Source: The World Socialist Web Site

Yes, not very reliable and you were wise enough to censor their last paragraph.

[makgerman]

The arrested illegal immigrants were "foreign looking"? That's just shocking racism. "Police are to blame also"? I though that was their job? Actually the 1555 people arrested will not be easily kicked out; it will take weeks or months and their expenses will be paid by Greece. Meanwhile it takes only 3 or 4 days for 1555 new illegal immigrants to enter Greece.

Yes, not very reliable and you were wise enough to censor their last paragraph.

Read the whole article before you comment and stop defending the rise of racism in Greece. My "comments" were extracted from the article.

Again you question every source whenever it isn't in favor of the Racist Greek state.

I'll make it easier for you and include a few more articles that outline the rise of racism in Greece.

An article for Skynews: Racist attacks on the rise in Greece

http://www.skynews.com.au/world/article.aspx?id=784064&vId=3460142

Here is another source: Extremist assaults on migrants in Athens

http://www.red-network.eu/?i=red-network.en.items&id=470

And a website reporting Greek news in English:Racist Attacks Increase: Iraqi stabbed to Death in Athens

http://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2012/08/13/racist-attacks-increase-iraqi-stabbed-to-death-in-athens/

An article from BBC in 2004. It has become worse since then.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4101469.stm

[United MKD]

Disgusting. Typical gypo greek behaviour.

[George S.]

yeah you wonder why people go to greece on holidays to spend their hard earned money.

[makgerman]

Immigrants in Greece protest against Racist Attacks

Immigrants are protesting to demonstrate against the growing racism in Greece.

Several thousand people including many immigrants have demonstated in Athens to protest against increasing racist attacks in crisis-hit Greece.

Mostly from Pakistan, they joined campaign groups in a march on parliament.

They called for an end to police raids on immigrants. Earlier this month 6,000 people were detained in an operation across Athens.

“This is a first action against the racist pogroms of the police which encourage the neo-Nazis of Golden Dawn to come out in neighbourhoods and murder and attack people,” said Tasos Anastasiou of the “Expel Racism” movement.

The ultra-nationalist party won 18 parliamentary seats in June’s elections. Its supporters have been accused of violent attacks on immigrants.

Golden Dawn does not condone the assaults but it does blame immigrants for a rising crime wave.

Greece is a major gateway to Europe for economic migrants, and austerity and recession have made them easy targets.

www.euronews.com/2012/08/24/immigrants-in-greece-protest-against-racist-attacks

Reasons include:

The Pakistani Community of Greece, the Union of Migrant Workers and the United Against Racism and the Fascist Threat movement will hold a rally in Omonia Square, central Athens, on Friday at 6 p.m. to protest against the recent rise in racist attacks and the failure of authorities to combat such incidents.

“If you are poor or a migrant, there is no law to protect you,” Ijaz Ahmed, a Pakistani worker who has lived in Greece for 13 years, told journalists on Tuesday.

He alleged that when he called the police to his house after a robbery, he was attacked by officers who told him to return to Pakistan.

Other migrants also told stories of police abuse or indifference.

Petros Constantinou, an Athens municipal councilor and member of the ANTARSYA anti-capitalist party, accused authorities of essentially “strengthening the work of motorcycle-riding Golden Dawn gangs, who act with impunity through daily attacks on migrants.”

A 19-year-old Iraqi migrant was stabbed to death by men on motorbikes earlier this month.

No arrests have been made.

ekathimerini.com , Tuesday August 21, 2012 (20:28)

[Risto the Great]

Such peasants.

[George S.]

Cradle of democracy more cradle crap.Instead of these peasants revolting about their govt they revolt agains't the minorities.Look at us macedonians we don't revolt we are nice to our minorities we let them walk all over us.

[Louis]

How should I put it? The major problem of Gotham City is the crime wave. Not Batman.

[makgerman]

Gotham City (Modern Greeks), the Joker and Catwoman (Racist Greeks) are the roll of the crime wave and Batman (Greek Police) is on long service leave!

[Stojacanec]

How should I put it? The major problem of Gotham City is the crime wave. Not Batman.

....and Gotham City has too many jokers in it. Hence the problem.