GREECE: New Laws Being Rushed in Against Migrants

• by Apostolis Fotiadis (athens)
• Tuesday, June 23, 2009
• Inter Press Service

The moves come after the far right Popular Orthodox Alarm (LAOS) achieved a best ever 7.15 percent of the vote, capitalising on a xenophobic election campaign.

The day after the results, LAOS invited ND members to join it in setting up a political alliance. This worried the ND leadership because many among its rank and file are sympathetic to the LAOS proposal. The ND has a majority of just one, making it hostage to any departure from an MP.

It is unlikely that a new political formation will arise from the LAOS offer, but the invitation has managed to bring government policies on migration closer to an extreme political stance.

The electoral success of LAOS does not depend exclusively on its own capacities, says George Roussis, political scientist at Panteion University in Athens.

'The right turn of the electorate could either create a new contestant in the power game, or make people rally around traditional political forces in order to stop the progress of extreme right-wing forces,' Roussis told IPS. 'In any case, parties like LAOS are tools employed by power and market elites when they are preparing to toughen their policies.'

Irregular migration is now becoming the first field in which the right turn cultivated during the last few months is producing policy results.

Policing around Athens has been expanded, with operations carried out publicly. Hundreds of migrants are brought to police stations every evening. Activists blame the police for inhumane treatment and abuses. The operations are a 'racist atrocity', says Thanasis Kourkoulas of the pro-migrant organisation Deport Racism.

The ministry of interior has announced plans for the creation of many detention centres across the country where irregular migrants will be transferred to await repatriation. The first of these will be ready in six months at the earliest. Meanwhile, most migrants arrested are soon released, leading many to blame the government for wasting police resources for the sake of a political campaign.

Many people are now aggressively demanding removal of irregular migrants from neighbourhoods like Agios Panteleimonas where large number live in inhumane conditions. LAOS and Golden Dawn, a notorious fascist organisation, had their best electoral results in this district.

The government is looking to satisfy such public sentiment, and is preparing to effectively shut Greek borders to irregular migrants. New amendments to migration and asylum have been hastily prepared, and are due to be enforced later this year.

A new parliamentary bill to be ratified in less than a month provides for doubling the detention period for undocumented migrants from three to six months. This can be quadrupled to a year if the authorities consider that migrants fail to cooperate, or documents necessary for their repatriation are missing.

According to the proposed new regulations, any foreigner charged with an offence that carries three months imprisonment or more can immediately be deported.

Decision-making on asylum applications will be transferred to regional police commanders, without any provision for improving their capacity to deal with related issues. Appealing will practically be annulled, contrary to provisions of European law which give the right to appeal in case of rejection.

Last Thursday Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis unsuccessfully asked his counterparts in Brussels to consider harmonising further the European Union's strategy for dealing with the irregular influx, and fortifying European borders. He was keen particularly on winning the Union's support to pressure Turkey to re-enact a refoulement protocol signed with Greece in 2001. Under that protocol Turkey would accept the return of people crossing into Greece from its territory.

Such repatriation agreements with source and transit countries have become a priority in Greek migration policy.

George Tsarbopoulos, head of the Greek wing of the United Nations Refugee Agency, argued against this strategy in a public speech last Wednesday. 'As long as the government doesn't essentially provide access to asylum procedures, translation and legal assistance, especially to people arriving from refugee 'source' countries, UNHCR will oppose firstly informal returns to Turkey that take place through territorial and naval boundaries of the two countries and clearly violate Greek and international laws, and secondly, refoulement to Turkey of recent arrivals based on the bilateral agreement of 2001.'

Tsarbopoulos said the new legal measures being promoted by the government will not improve the situation, and in the case of asylum applications will perpetuate existing problems. 'Toughening policing of borders should at least be accompanied by improvement of reception services and infrastructure at entry points; these are non-existent anywhere in Greece at the moment.'

With early national elections expected before next March, activists are already warning of an upcoming pogrom against undocumented migrants during the summer, on which the government will attempt to capitalise politically September onwards. (EU/IP/HD/PR/MI/AF/SS/09)

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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