Debt increased, public assets sold. The Greek and European elites make profits.

In January 2017 the coalition government of SYRIZA and ANEL will be two years in power. During this time, in the Dutch media there has been an almost total silence about Greece, interrupted only by short references to the ongoing negotiations for the disbursement of the loan tranches. Silence covers also the new tough measures that the Greek government imposes, dramatically deteriorating the living conditions of the great majority of people in Greece.

At every critical moment of the last two years, the SYRIZA-ANEL government has proven a loyal ally of the Greek and European elites. The year of 2016 was no exception to the long succession of years through which people in Greece have suffered hard austerity measures under the pretext of the debt crisis. These Memoranda measures were never designed to rescue Greece, as the mouthpieces of the EU have been claiming so far, despite the fact that the debt has now climbed from 127,1%  in 2009 to 179.2% of GDP. Even the IMF admitted the failure of the bailout program.

More specifically: In 2012, the Memoranda rescued the creditors with the notorious PSI, which although presented as a reduction of the Greek debt, in reality it was a transfer of the Greek sovereign debt from the German, French, Dutch and Greek banks to the governments of the EU member states. In the same vein, the Memoranda measures imposed ever since have been rescuing those responsible for the crisis in Greece, i.e., the Greek economic elite, while at the same time distributing all profitable activities of the Greek economy to the European and Greek economic elites.

It is characteristic that in 2015, fourteen of the most lucrative regional airports were sold for 1.2 billion to the German Fraport AG-Slentel Ltd. The entire amount was used to repay the debt. Furthermore, despite the pre-election commitments of SYRIZA, the water companies were recently transferred to the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (Greece’s privatizations fund, the so-called TAIPED). As a result, the main multinationals specializing in the water market -and actually denying access to water for large segments of the population- are getting ready to benefit from this transfer. Another characteristic example is the sale of business and housing loans to international speculative funds, which is now on the table of negotiations with the creditors.

Meanwhile, the business elites that looted and indebted the Greek state and destroyed the Greek economy during the 35 years of PASOK and ND governments, continue to enjoy privileged and scandalous contracts as well as full tax immunity even during the so-called “government of the left”.

What about the Greek society and the refugees?

The SYRIZA-ANEL government that promised to end the memoranda policies and relieve the working classes has proven to be one of their most dangerous enemies. Its climb to power by deceiving the Greek people with the supposed negotiation with the creditors ensured their tolerance and disappointment in the face of the hardest and most class-ridden measures so far. In fact, the SYRIZA-ANEL government has been the most efficient administrator of these policies and, therefore, the best option for the Greek elite and its lenders. At the same time, this government along with the creditors are condemning the Greek people to a daily deterioration of their living standards.

A homeless man sits next to a Christmas tree on a street in Athens

Soup kitchen in Athens

According to the latest Eurostat’s data, the percentage of those at risk of poverty rose from 29.1% in 2009 to 35.7% (3.8 million) in 2015. Incidents of starvation in schools are increasing. The new cuts on pensions are plunging into poverty not only the retirees but also a large number of unemployed people who are literally being fed by their parents’ pensions. According to ELSTAT’s (Hellenic Statistical Authority) latest data, only 14% of the unemployed receive the meager unemployment allowance of 360 euros per month for the first year only. At least 500.000 private employees working part-time are paid less than the unemployment benefit. Over one million working people suffer delays in their payment that can even last for 12 months. Uninsured work (without healthcare and pension rights) has reached the staggering levels of 30%. Approximately 24% of the people was obliged to make bold cuts on basic necessities (e.g. food and fuel) in order to buy medicines, while 13% delay to perform the doctor’s prescription because they cannot pay their contribution. To save on their medication, 10% of the patients take smaller doses against their doctor’s instructions. On top of this, auctions of primary residences have begun – and have been met with strong opposition from the people.

The plans of the government and the creditors for the future will further worsen the current situation. The 2017 budget includes an increase up to 26.27 billion in indirect taxes, a decrease in pension expenditure and cuts on benefits.

As far as the refugee crisis is concerned, the SYRIZA-ANEL government has shown a most awful and inhumane face. Fully in line with the right-wing and fascistic policies of the EU, it closed the borders, forcing the refugees to risk the dangerous Aegean Sea crossing, which has cost the lives of hundreds of people. At first, it let the refugees who crossed the border helpless, depending only on the solidarity of the Greek people, and later on, it practically imprisoned them in remote detention centres under appalling conditions and away from the local populations. At the same time, it provocatively allowed the development of racist and fascist groups that committed criminal actions against the refugees. It faithfully applies the shameful EU-Turkey deal, systematically redirecting refugees to the fascist Erdogan regime. As a result of this deal, around 60.000 refugees have stranded in Greece, with 16.000 of them ending up in overcrowded jail-like centres, where three times as many people are now detained as when the deal was signed. In addition, against any notion of legality, the government intervened in the asylum procedures and changed the composition of the committees in order to ensure the massive rejection of asylum claims.

Refugee camp in Thessaloniki

Refugee camp on Chios island

In exchange for remaining in power, the SYRIZA-ANEL government is trying to persuade the Greek people that there is no alternative to the Memoranda and the agreements it has signed, such as the CETA or the EU-Turkey deals. Not only do they celebrate after every unpopular measure they vote and every shameful agreement they sign, they even brutally repress every social reaction to them. With the pretext that the police is difficult to control, they use the fascist police mechanism to repress opposition to unpopular measures and solidarity to refugees. During the SYRIZA-ANEL government, the police has not stopped attacking protests with tear gas and beat protesters. Even members of SYRIZA have been attacked by the police during their participation in demonstrations.

What lessons can be drawn for the people and the left in Europe

The conversion of SYRIZA to a political administrator of the interests of the Greek and European elites should raise concern in the European left. The experience in Greece shows that overthrowing the one-way road of extreme neoliberal policies and blocking the way to racism and fascism that is now prevailing in Europe (and not only in Europe…) cannot be achieved by the climb to power of a left-wing government coalition. With SYRIZA’s conversion, the hope and vision of change seemed to have faded away not only in Greece but also in the rest of Europe. Millions of Greek and European citizens who believed that there can be a left turn in Greece and Europe sank into disappointment.

At the same time, people in Greece learned an important lesson: radical changes cannot be entrusted to a party or a governing coalition. The solution can only come from people themselves. The Memoranda in Greece, the austerity policies in the rest of Europe and the rise of the far right are not unbeatable. People can stop them through collective organization, constant struggle and class solidarity in their places of work, study and neighbourhoods. With bottom-up politics and not by assigning politics to representatives can the people of Europe discover new ways to achieve social justice, decent living conditions and peaceful coexistence.

The lessons drawn from SYRIZA’s approach to the European Union can also be very valuable to the whole of European left. SYRIZA came to power by promising it will reform the EU in a more social welfare direction. This was either wishful thinking or a way of deceiving the Greek people. The EU and the Euro are political and economic institutions that have been created to serve the interests of the European elites at the cost of people’s rights. The results of SYRIZA’s attitude towards the EU is now clear and catastrophic for the Greek people.

The workers, the unemployed and the refugees cannot expect change from a left-wing management of power. The hope for changing the current dramatic situation can only be fulfilled through a political conflict with the EU, the European governments and their policies; through an effort to build new, anti-capitalist social and economic structures. In Greece, the economy will not recover and unemployment will not be reduced by government decrees or appeals for entrepreneurial innovation to a corrupt economic elite.

Social and economic progress can only be achieved if economy is run by the people, by those who will confront the decisions of the government, the creditors and the business elites to privatize and sell off every profitable economic structure in Greece. In the Netherlands, the gradual impoverishment of large parts of the population through lay-offs, lower earnings and poorer working conditions in vital sectors such as healthcare will not stop by the participation of the left in the government, but by massive popular resistance.

Both in Greece and the Netherlands, the improvement of the quality of life for the lower classes, the reversal of the fascist tendencies and the cancellation of the refugee policies that are now treating the refugees as inferior beings and a threat, cannot be accomplished within the neoliberal and authoritarian limits of the EU and the Eurozone. The common struggle and class solidarity of the working people, the unemployed and the refugees in Greece,  the Netherlands and the rest of Europe against the EU’s policies feeding poverty, insecurity, nationalism, racism and xenophobia, are required.

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Twee jaar SYRIZA-ANEL-bewind in Griekenland: twee jaar met de ergste bezuinigingen

De schuld steeg, publieke goederen verkocht. De Griekse en de Europese elites maken winst.

In januari 2017 zal de coalitieregering van SYRIZA en ANEL twee jaar aan de macht zijn. Gedurende deze tijd heerste er in de Nederlandse media een bijna volledige stilte over Griekenland. Stilte over de nieuwe harde maatregelen en dramatische verslechtering van de levensomstandigheden van de grote meerderheid van de Griekse bevolking. Soms werd die stilte slechts onderbroken door korte verwijzingen naar de lopende onderhandelingen over de uitbetaling van de lening tranches.

Op elk cruciaal moment in de afgelopen twee jaar heeft de SYRIZA-ANEL regering bewezen een trouwe bondgenoot van de Griekse en Europese elites te zijn. Het jaar 2016 was geen uitzondering in de lange reeks van jaren waarin de mensen in Griekenland hebben geleden onder de harde bezuinigingsmaatregelen. Deze memoranda maatregelen zijn nooit bedoeld om Griekenland te redden zoals de spreekbuis van de EU tot nu toe beweert. Integendeel de schuld is nu gestegen van 127,1% in 2009 naar 179,2% van het BNP. Zelfs het IMF gaf de mislukking van het bailout-programma toe.

Meer in het bijzonder: In 2012 hebben de memoranda de schuldeisers gered met de beruchte PSI die voorgesteld was als een vermindering van de Griekse schuld. Maar de PSI was in werkelijkheid een overdracht van de Griekse staatsschuld van de Duitse, Franse, Nederlandse en de Griekse banken naar de regeringen van de EU-lidstaten. In dezelfde geest hebben de memoranda maatregelen de Griekse economische elite, degenen die verantwoordelijk zijn voor de crisis in Griekenland, gered. Tegelijkertijd werden alle winstgevende activiteiten van de Griekse economie aan de Europese en Griekse economische elites overgedragen.

Het is kenmerkend dat in 2015 veertien van de meest lucratieve regionale luchthavens werden verkocht voor 1,2 miljard euro aan de Duitse Fraport AG-Slentel Ltd. Het gehele bedrag werd gebruikt om de schuld terug te betalen. Bovendien, ondanks de pre-electorale toezeggingen van SYRIZA, zijn de waterbedrijven onlangs overgedragen aan het Helleense Republiek Asset Development Fund (het Griekse privatiseringsfonds). Als gevolg daarvan hebben de belangrijkste multinationals die gespecialiseerd zijn in de watermarkt, zich klaar gemaakt om te profiteren van deze overdracht. Een ander typisch voorbeeld is de verkoop van bedrijfsleningen en hypotheken aan internationale speculatieve fondsen die nu op de onderhandelingstafel met de schuldeisers ligt.

Ondertussen bleven de zakelijke elites die de Griekse staat geplunderd en in de schulden gestoken hadden, genieten van bevoorrechte en schandalige contracten maar ook van een volledige fiscale immuniteit. Dezelfde elites die de Griekse economie in de loop van de 35 jaar PASOK- en ND-regeringen vernietigd hadden.

Hoe zit het met de Griekse samenleving en de vluchtelingen?

De SYRIZA-ANEL-regering die beloofde het memoranda beleid te beëindigen en de situatie van de werkende klassen te verlichten, heeft bewezen een van de meest gevaarlijke vijanden van die werkende klasse te zijn. Hun greep naar de macht door het Griekse volk te bedriegen met de vermeende onderhandelingen met de schuldeisers heeft het volk ernstig teleurgesteld door de hardste en meest klasse teisterende maatregelen tot nu toe op te leggen. In feite is de SYRIZA-ANEL-regering de meest efficiënte uitvoerder van dit beleid en dus de beste optie voor de Griekse elite en zijn kredietverstrekkers geweest.

Volgens de meest recente gegevens van Eurostat is het percentage van degenen die risico lopen op armoede, gestegen van 29,1% in 2009 tot 35,7% (3,8 miljoen) in 2015. Incidenten van uithongering in scholen nemen toe. De nieuwe bezuinigingen op de pensioenen storten niet alleen de gepensioneerden in armoede maar ook een groot aantal werklozen die letterlijk worden gevoed door de pensioenen van hun ouders. Volgens de laatste gegevens van ELSTAT (het Griekse bureau voor de statistiek) ontvangt slechts 14% van de werklozen de schamele werkloosheidsuitkering van 360 euro per maand voor allen het eerste jaar. Minstens 500.000 particuliere werknemers die in deeltijd werken, krijgen minder betaald dan de werkloosheidsuitkering. Meer dan een miljoen werkende mensen krijgen hun salaris te laat uitbetaald en dit kan oplopen tot 12 maanden. Onverzekerd werk (zonder gezondheidszorg en pensioenrechten) heeft het duizelingwekkende niveau van 30% bereikt. Ongeveer 24% van de mensen moest ernstig bezuinigingen op basisbehoeften (bijvoorbeeld voedsel en brandstof) om medicijnen te kunnen kopen. Tegelijkertijd vertraagt 13% van de mensen het uitvoeren van de voorschriften van de arts omdat zij hun bijdrage niet kunnen betalen. Om te besparen op hun medicatie neemt 10% van de patiënten, tegen de instructies van hun arts, kleinere doses in. Daar komt nog bij dat men is begonnen met het veilen van primaire woningen dat gestuit is op sterke tegenstand van het volk.

De plannen van de overheid en de schuldeisers voor de toekomst zullen de huidige situatie verder verergeren. De begroting voor 2017 voorziet in een stijging tot 26,27 miljard in de indirecte belastingen, een daling van de pensioenuitgaven en bezuinigingen op de uitkeringen.

Wat betreft de vluchtelingen crisis heeft de SYRIZA-ANEL-regering een vreselijk en onmenselijk gezicht getoond. Geheel in lijn met het rechtse en fascistische beleid van de EU sloot het de grenzen waardoor het de vluchtelingen dwong om het risico te nemen de gevaarlijke Egeïsche Zee over te steken. Dat heeft het leven van honderden mensen gekost. In eerste instantie liet de regering de vluchtelingen die de grens overstaken zitten zonder hulp en geheel afhankelijk van de solidariteit van de Griekse bevolking. Later zetten ze hen praktisch gevangen in afgelegen detentiecentra onder erbarmelijke omstandigheden en uit de buurt van de lokale bevolking. Op hetzelfde moment liet het provocerend de ontwikkeling van racistische en fascistische groepen toe die misdadige acties tegen de vluchtelingen begingen. De regering voerde trouw de beschamende EU-Turkije deal uit door systematisch vluchtelingen terug te sturen naar het fascistische Erdogan regime. Als gevolg van deze deal zijn er al 60.000 vluchtelingen gestrand in Griekenland. 16.000 van hen belanden in overvolle gevangenis-achtige centra waar nu drie keer zo veel mensen worden vastgehouden als toen de overeenkomst werd ondertekend. Bovendien greep de overheid, in strijd met elk legaliteitsbeginsel, in in de asielprocedures en veranderde de samenstelling van de commissies om de massale afwijzing van de asielverzoeken te waarborgen.

Om aan de macht te blijven probeert de SYRIZA-ANEL-regering het Griekse volk ervan te overtuigen dat er geen alternatief is voor de memoranda en de overeenkomsten die het heeft ondertekend, zoals de CETA  en de EU-Turkije deal. Ze vieren niet alleen elke onpopulaire maatregel die ze goedgekeurd krijgen en iedere schandelijke overeenkomst die ze tekenen, ze onderdrukken zelfs brutaal elke sociale reactie daarop. Met het voorwendsel dat de politie moeilijk onder controle te houden is, gebruiken ze het fascistische politieapparaat om oppositie tegen impopulaire maatregelen en solidariteit met vluchtelingen te onderdrukken. Tijdens de SYRIZA-ANEL-regering is de politie niet gestopt met het aanvallen van demonstraties met traangas en het slaan van demonstranten. Zelfs leden van SYRIZA zijn aangevallen door de politie tijdens hun deelname aan demonstraties.

Welke lessen kunnen worden getrokken voor de mensen en links Europa

De verandering van SYRIZA in een politieke beschermer van de belangen van de Griekse en Europese elites moet links Europa grote zorgen baren. De ervaring in Griekenland heeft geleerd dat de omverwerping van het eenrichtingsverkeer van het extreem neoliberale beleid en het blokkeren van de weg naar racisme en fascisme die nu heerst in Europa (en niet alleen in Europa) niet kan worden bereikt door de greep naar de macht van een linkse regeringscoalitie. Met de verandering van SYRIZA leek de hoop op en de visie van de verandering niet alleen in Griekenland, maar ook in de rest van Europa te zijn vervaagd. De hoop van miljoenen Griekse en Europese burgers die geloofden dat er een weg naar links in Griekenland en Europa ingeslagen kon worden, zonk in diepe teleurstelling.

Terzelfder tijd hebben de mensen in Griekenland een belangrijke les geleerd: radicale veranderingen kunnen niet worden toevertrouwd aan een partij of een regeringscoalitie. De oplossing kan alleen komen van de mensen zelf. De memoranda in Griekenland, het bezuinigingsbeleid in de rest van Europa en de opkomst van extreemrechts zijn niet onverslaanbaar. Mensen kunnen ze stoppen door middel van collectieve organisatie, constante strijd en klasse solidariteit op hun werk, tijdens hun studie en in hun omgeving. Met bottom-up politiek en niet door het toewijzen van de politiek aan vertegenwoordigers kunnen de burgers van Europa nieuwe manieren ontdekken om sociale rechtvaardigheid, fatsoenlijke levensomstandigheden en een vreedzame samenleving te bereiken.

De getrokken lessen uit SYRIZA’s benadering van de Europese Unie kunnen ook zeer waardevol zijn voor het geheel van links Europa. SYRIZA kwam aan de macht met de belofte om de EU te hervormen in de richting van meer sociaal welzijn. Dit was ofwel “wishful thinking” of een manier om het Griekse volk te bedriegen. De EU en de Euro zijn politieke en economische instellingen die zijn opgericht om de belangen van de Europese elites te dienen ten koste van de rechten van mensen. Het resultaat van SYRIZA’s houding ten aanzien van de EU is nu duidelijk en catastrofaal voor het Griekse volk.

De arbeiders, de werklozen en de vluchtelingen kunnen geen verandering verwachten van een links machtsmanagement. De hoop op verandering in de huidige dramatische situatie kan alleen worden vervuld door middel van een politiek conflict met de EU, de Europese regeringen en hun beleid door middel van een poging om nieuwe, antikapitalistische sociale en economische structuren op te bouwen. In Griekenland zal de economie zich niet herstellen en de werkloosheid niet worden verminderd door de decreten van de overheid of door oproepen voor innovatie en ondernemerschap aan een ​​corrupte economische elite.

Sociale en economische vooruitgang kan alleen worden bereikt als de economie wordt gerund door het volk, door hen die de confrontatie aangaan met de beslissingen van de overheid, de schuldeisers en de zakelijke elites. In Nederland zal ook de geleidelijke verarming van grote delen van de bevolking door middel van ontslagen, lagere lonen en slechtere arbeidsomstandigheden in vitale sectoren zoals de gezondheidszorg niet stoppen door de deelname van links in de regering, maar door massaal volksverzet.

Zowel in Griekenland als in Nederland kan de verbetering van de kwaliteit van leven voor de lagere klassen, de omkering van de fascistische tendensen en de annulering van het vluchtelingenbeleid niet worden bereikt binnen de neoliberale en autoritaire grenzen van de EU en de eurozone. De gemeenschappelijke strijd en klasse solidariteit van de werkende bevolking, de werklozen en de vluchtelingen in Griekenland, in Nederland en de rest van Europa tegen het EU-beleid van verhoging van armoede, onveiligheid, nationalisme, racisme en vreemdelingenhaat, zijn vereist.

Although the European governments talk about a “humanitarian crisis” and pretend they take relief measures, they hide the causes of the refugee crisis and the real face of their policies, multiplying the death toll on the Greek islands.

Despite the early media reports presenting Germany and other west European countries as open to refugees (Germany was even talking about thousands of employment posts they would cover…), the reality is totally different. The number of refugees that Europe eventually agreed to resettle is too small compared to the millions of refugees that the countries neighbouring the conflict zones have admitted. This tiny quota is the hypocritical answer of the European governments to the huge pressure placed on them by social and political groups but also industrial circles that see in the refugee crisis an opportunity for even cheaper labour in Europe.

The countries of the EU on the refugee route to Europe are doing their best to keep them out. The extreme-right Hungarian government set up fences on the borders of Hungary with Serbia and Croatia, while the “left-wing” Greek government claims that the fence on Greece’s land borders with Turkey cannot be removed. On the sea borders of the EU, Frontex intensifies its efforts to block the refugee entrance instead of helping with rescue efforts. Together with the Greek Coast Guard, they turn a blind eye to the gangs attacking refugee boats. This is Fortress Europe.

But the EU’s responsibility extends even further. The EU along with the US and Russia are to blame for the disastrous wars driving people off their homelands. Their direct or indirect interventions have fuelled the civil wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. Talibans in Afganistan and the Islamic State in Middle East did not rise on their own but thanks to the financial, political and military support by the international imperialist forces. The invasion of the US and their allies in Iraq brought about more wars and horrors for Iraqi people. Kurds are suffering an ongoing oppression and faced with fierce attacks by the Islamic State and Erdogan’s authoritarian regime. The economic, political and military interventions of the US, the EU and Russia have totally disrespected the need of people in these areas to live peacefully and are to blame for the enormous migration wave that the EU is trying to keep out of its fortress.

In the past years, European societies are under an enormous pressure due to the financial crisis, by and large paid by the lower classes. The governments in the “Europe of the people” saved the banks and international companies by providing them huge amounts of state funding. A few years ago, Greece’s public debt was transferred from the banks to the European people. Harsh austerity measures have been imposed on the people of indebted countries, while the welfare state throughout Europe is under attack. It is not only salaries that have been severely cut, but also labour rights. At the same time, flexible working has almost become the norm.

Given that neoliberal governments cannot care less about the quality of life of lower classes, a part of them fears that the arrival of the refugees will lead to its deterioration. Like every other government in the EU, the Dutch government makes sure to live up to this fear: it sets up huge cheap camps next to small neglected villages, without concern for the living conditions of the refugees or the local population. At the same time, it gives no guarantees that the refugees will not be used as cheap workforce.

The part of European population that has been paying the price of the neoliberal policies is now being told that the refugees pose a threat to its standard of living. In this way, its discontent and uncertainty are directed against the refugees, themselves victims of the EU’s foreign policy. Protesting against the arrival of the refugees or the creation of refugee camps and not against the neoliberal policies that cause unemployment and poverty for the people and profits for the capital, is very convenient for the governments and economic elites in the EU. It fits in well with their goals and plans if people fall for the racist and fascist propaganda of Golden Dawn in Greece, Wilders in the Netherlands or Lepen in France.

Humanitarian solidarity and material support to the refugees are necessary but not enough. The real solution to the migration crisis will come from overturning the policies of the European Union and the governments applying them. The borders should open immediately so that no more people are drowned at the sea borders of the EU in Greece and Italy. The criminal fences blocking their way to Europe should be removed. Refugees should get equal rights to housing, education, healthcare and work in Europe.

The foreign policy of the EU should change right away. The military, economic and political interventions in the countries of the Middle East should stop. Democracy, peace and development should be actively supported. The EU should stop backing authoritarian regimes. The right of Kurdish and Palestinian people to their own state should be admitted. Money should be given to the refugees and the poor. We should not allow the refugees to be used as cheap workforce in the service of capital.

Parties and organizations of the Left and trade unions in the whole Europe should take specific initiatives in this direction. They should point to the real culprits of the refugee crisis and play a leading role in organizing the struggle of European citizens to protect their quality of life as well as the right of every human being to live with peace and dignity at some place in the world.

Refugees welcome!

Racists, fascists and neoliberals, you are personae non gratae.

ReINFORM

(Source of the photos::http://blogs.afp.com/correspondent/?post/war-in-peace)

In September 2012, while hundreds of refugees are held in inhuman conditions at the police stations of Lesbos or they are left out in the open vulnerable to any racist attacks; the “Village of all together” requests the municipality of Mitilini to allow the use of the abandoned summer camps in Neapoli to be used as a hospitality center for the refugees. With this act, the “Village of all together” defends the right of the refugees to a fair
treatment and simultaneously, it promotes the creation of open hospitality centers in support of local community.

PIKPA is a self-managed-autonomous space and has no access to any state or European funds. This self-managed space has hosted during this time more than 6.000 refugees, some for few days and others up to a year. The refugees include asylum and family unification applicants and/or vulnerable groups of newly arrived refugees e.g. people with disabilities, sick, pregnant etc. There, we offer food, clothes, medicines, hygiene, legal counseling, and medical help as well as we organize activities for children and classes of Greek and English and occasionally, we provide them transport expenses and social support.

Due to the growing number of refugees arriving in Lesbos on a daily basis, the “Village of all together” is in constant need of resources and funds to cover the increasing needs of these people as well as to maintain the human living conditions in the camp. Although the core of our activities are centred in the PIKPA summer camp, we are in continuous communication with other groups of our network to better assess the situation and the needs,
offering help where is needed, on the streets, at the port and other self-created camps.

Our main objective is to stand in solidarity with the refugees and fight against the illegal arrests and any practice of humiliation or atrocities conducted in the sea or at the borders e.g. In June 2015 and while the law was still criminalizing any altruistic acts, we, the “Village of all together” organized a convoy with over forty cars that traveled from Molivo to Mitilini in order to transport refugees to the hospitality center. Moreover, we participated
in trials against citizens who transported refugees to the cities when the respective authorities pointing the law, were leaving thousands of people walking long distances all over the island.

Currently, we act as the focal point among medical centres, social pharmacies and other medical groups all over the country in order to provide sufficient medical services to the refugees. Our aim is to create proper reception and hospitality centres for every refugee as well any Greek national who has been a victim of the economic crisis, racism and any xenophobic propaganda.

If you want to support the volunteers in Lesvos, here are the details, received from Efi Latsoudi

Village of all together

IBAN: GR7901107620000076271413353

SWIFT (BIC) ETHNGRAA

Michalis Aivaliotis

Milou 10

Pirgrelia

Mytilene / Greece

Met zijn plan meent Teeven tegemoet te komen aan de langlopende kritiek op het opsluiten van kinderen in het grenshospitium en in detentie- en uitzetcentra. Een coalitie van ngo’s, gecoördineerd door Defence for Childeren, voert al jaren de campagne ‘Geen Kind in de Cel’, die ook op steun van een aantal politieke partijen kan rekenen.

‘Humane’ gevangenis?

Teeven geeft in zijn brief aan de Kamer op hoofdlijnen aan waaruit de maatregelen bestaan om de nieuwe gevangenis geschikt te maken voor kinderen en gezinnen. Hij rept over “[h]et bieden van zoveel mogelijk bewegingsvrijheid binnen de locatie en het verschaffen van adequate voorzieningen voor gezinnen en kinderen.” De gedetineerde vluchtelingen worden ondergebracht in woonpaviljoens, met “separate wooneenheden voor de gezinnen en een apart paviljoen voor de amv’s.” Ze kunnen zelf hun maaltijden bereiden en gezinnen kunnen hun paviljoens van binnen afsluiten.

Op het terrein komt ook een “een voorzieningencentrum met onder meer een recreatieruimte, buitenspeelruimte, een winkelvoorziening en internetfaciliteiten.” Bij sommigen zal dit beelden van een vakantiepark oproepen, maar al snel komt de aap uit de mouw: het gaat hier wel degelijk om een gevangenis, eufemistisch betiteld als ‘afgesloten locatie’. Om dit gevoel wat te dempen, zullen bewakers echter geen uniformen dragen en zal de omheining “door het groen goeddeels worden onttrokken aan het zicht van de bewoners.”

De nieuwe gevangenis komt onder verantwoordelijkheid van de Dienst Justitiële Inrichtingen (DJI) te vallen. De Immigratie- en Naturalisatiedienst (IND) en de Dienst Terugkeer & Vertrek (DT&V) zullen op locatie aanwezig zijn in het kader van het doorlopen van asielprocedures en het “borgen van terugkeer”. Immers: “Het verblijf zal gericht zijn op werken aan terugkeer, dan wel nader onderzoek voor diegenen die een asielvraag hebben ingediend”, zo stelt DJI in een persbericht.
Eerder dit jaar liet Teeven zich in een debat met de Kamer ontvallen: “Ik begrijp ook dat je geen kinderen in de cel moet hebben. Dit is buitengewoon onmenselijk.” Dit zeldzame moment van zelfinzicht en menselijkheid blijkt een zeer beperkte reikwijdte te hebben. Teeven blijft van plan kinderen op te sluiten, maar omdat op de locatie geen tralies en zware celdeuren met het karakteristieke luikje zullen verschijnen, is er in zijn ogen sprake van een humaan alternatief.

Source: https://no-border.nl/gezinsgevangenis-voor-vluchtelingen-op-kamp-zeist-is-geen-humaan-alternatief/

And the cries: “help me, help me, help me,” the only words the Afghan and Syrian migrants knew how to say as the vessel went down. “We were so afraid,” said Abdul Sabur Azizi, recalling the moments before he lost his wife and 10-year-old son to the sea.

“At some point we took the babies and held them up high, above our heads, to show that there were children on board,” the 30-year-old murmured, his eyes fixed firmly on the floor. “The Greek coastguard didn’t care. They had guns, they were shooting in the air. We told them the boat had broken down, its engine didn’t work but all they wanted was to take us back to Turkey.”

And that, he says, is when the Greek officials got the rope, tied it to the bow of the ship and began towing it “so fast that the boat began bouncing this way and that, like a snake, across the water.”

It didn’t last long – maybe 10 minutes at most. “The waters were very calm but we were going so fast, we were flying high,” said Ehsanula Safi, his Afghan compatriot still too visibly distressed to make mention of his dead wife and four children. “When the rope snapped the first time it made a hole in the side of the boat. The hole got bigger and bigger, and as the water gushed in we tried to get it out, first with a bucket and then with our hands.”

Eleven are believed to have died when the boat capsized. Only two bodies have been found. Of those missing, eight were under the age of 12. Of the 16 who survived all were men, with the single exception of one woman and a baby.

The events surrounding the sinking of the ship in the Aegean last week have not only triggered outrage, both in and outside Greece, but highlighted the increasingly controversial methods being used to stop immigrants from entering the EU.

While Athens has denied allegations that the boat was being towed to Turkey – arguing that radar records show it was being tugged to the Greek island of Farmakonisi when the tragedy occurred – refugees insist they were the victims of an illegal “push-back” operation of the kind frequently indulged in by authorities to keep human cargo at bay.

More than 150 migrants, the majority of them asylum seekers from Syria, have perished in “push backs” – a policy pursued since traffickers began taking the treacherous sea route from the Turkish coast to the Greek isles following the construction of a metal barrier along the land border that divides the two neighbours.

“There was a lot of pushing, a lot of kicking,” said Azizi with a wince. “Most of those who died were in the hold. Those of us who fell in the sea tried to hang on to the coastguard vessel for dear life but they didn’t want us to. They were stomping on our hands with their shoes.”

The conservative-dominated coalition of the Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras, has ordered an investigation. But as the controversy has intensified so has the language. Last week, the EU commissioner for human rights, Nils Muižnieks, said the incident bore all the hallmarks of a failed collective expulsion. “The Greek government has pledged to put an end to the illegal practice,” he railed. “I urge them to implement their promise.”

As anti-racist groups took to the streets, Athens’ shipping minister, Miltiades Varvitsiotis, countered that Muižnieks was trying to create a political issue out of the tragedy. Moreover, he claimed, survivors had changed their accounts of the incident.

“A father who lost his companion and their four children states clearly that the coastguard ‘saved us,’” said the politician, adding that the sudden change was “striking and curious”.

Seated in the migrant centre where he has agreed to speak, Safi, the man in question, shakes his head in disbelief. At 39, he has lost everything. “Nothing makes sense,” he sobbed. “All I had wanted to do was get to Europe. Now we don’t want anything: asylum, protection, bread, a home. All we want is the bodies of those we love. And justice for those who did this to us.”

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/27/greek-boat-tragedy-migrant-survivors-mourn-lost-relatives?CMP=twt_gu

This is an email sent by one of Reinform’s members who is at the moment in Athens, Greece. Yesterday she participated in the protest against the Greek Coast Guard which is allegedly accused of the drowning of 12 migrants (3 women and 9 children) off the coast of Farmakonisi island.

Hello everybody,

Yesterday I attended the interview that 3 of the 16 survivors gave to several political organizations for the rights of immigrants and Greek journalists at Sintagma Square.

I was shocked to hear what the 3 men, Abdel Sabur Azizi, EHsanula and Fada Mohumad Ahmadi, experienced during the night of 21st January . They were exhausted and shocked by the loss of their own family members but they had summoned the courage to be able to answer all the questions.

I heard one of them saying that his wife and his child jumped into the water after they got panicked when their boat was towed by the Greek Coast Guard which was heading at high speed for the Turkish coast. When the man saw his wife and his child sinking into the water, he started screaming and asking for life-jackets but the Coast Guards were just swearing at him and ignored him. “Other Coast Guards were shooting in the air with their guns trying to intimidate us and they shouted back to us: Fuck you, we will kill you all”, said the same man.

One journalist asked the 3 migrants, how it is possible that only men managed to survive. The answer was that they managed to climb on the vessel of the Greek Coast Guard which could not move because its engine was stopped. While they struggling to climb on the vessel, the Guards were trying to kick them back but in the meantime Turkish boats approached and the Greek Coat Guards were panicked.

Afterwards the survivors were brought to a posh restaurant on the nearby island of Leros. Later on they were transferred to the Police Station of Leros where they spent the night with their wet clothes still on and also without any food and water. At the Police Station they were asked to sign several papers with the help of a translator who spoke Farsi but not their language. When members of the UNHCR showed up at the Police Station, then the Police officers changed their attitude and they were pretending that they following the process in order to help the migrants.

“They only thing we want now is to find the bodies of our family members and bury them”, said another migrant.

After the interview was finished, several representatives of the political organizations talked about the responsibility of the Greek Government to this crime and asked the Greek authorities to take under consideration the testimonies of the survivors during the judicial process in order the perpetrators of this crime to be punished. Afterwards all demonstrators walked to the Police Station of Omonia where official declarations were submitted by the organizations demanding the immediate judicial process for those ones who are behind this crime as well as the application of the law for the rights of migrants .

I am wondering now who is really responsible for this crime? Who is allowing Coast Guards to behave like that? Isn’t Prime Minister Antonis Samaras who is blaming the migrants for the hunger of the Greek people and at the same time he is boosting for the fact that EU has now accepted officially the term “illegal migrant” ? Isn’t Merchant Marine Minister Militadis Varvitsiotis who is trying to deny that a crime has been committed by saying that all these testimonies is an exaggerated and made up story to stain the honour of Greece?

Best regards,

V.I.

26 January 2014, Athens

Muhammad Altaf and Asadollah Panahimehr camped outside the interior ministry for over a month but no one is listening to their story, they said.

The two Iranians would be joined on Tuesday by Panahimehr’s wife Mehrangiz Hematmand and friend Salah Chanim who are also going on a hunger strike. The two men said in their open letter that they would not leave unless their petition was addressed by the state.

“The government of the Republic of Cyprus has pushed us to die or to commit suicide, which under these conditions seems like our only and best option, since the option to live a life in dignity in Cyprus has been taken away from us.

Under these conditions, we prefer to die instead to continue living in the conditions we are living now,” the open letter says.

All the petitioners are recognised refugees, having fled their countries out of fear for their lives and the lives of their family members.

According to the letter, Muhammad Altaf has petitioned to be granted citizenship or long term residency for over ten years but he still hasn’t received an answer.

“We strongly believe that we have undertaken all the appropriate measures and actions needed in order to solve our problems by ourselves and at the same time we have followed all the necessary procedures when help was needed by the competent authorities. Unfortunately, all those authorities which had the responsibility to help us solve our problems, ignored us and treated us with undignified ways, ways that would normally cause shame to any democratic country of the 21st century, like the Republic of Cyprus claims to be,” the letter says.

Altaf and the others make it clear that they are not interested in being handed money or staying in Cyprus.

“We would like to make clear once again that we do not ask for money or jobs. We are only asking to give us a residency status (citizenship or long term residency), which will truly enable us to live equally with Cypriot and other European citizens in the European Union, while at the same time it will allow us to leave the country in order to save our lives and families. However, the government of the Republic of Cyprus has been denying this residency status, without even providing us with a straightforward answer to our repeated requests”.

The Cyprus Mail contacted Asadollah’s son Sina, who shared his family history.

According to Sina, who is a student at the Higher Hotel Institute, he, his parents and his older brother Aidin came to Cyprus in 2003 after they fled their country. His father was immediately arrested and put to jail for five months without being charged. The authorities let his father free after he went on a 74-day hunger strike.

He found employment as a construction worker but was let go after the financial crisis hit. He has been unemployed for almost three years. ‘There’s no job for him. Nobody hires any more,” Sina says.

Sina’s mother Hematmand used to work for a former supermarket chain but had to leave to stay at home after Aidin committed suicide on November 16, 2011. Hematmand went back to work but was downgraded to a part-time employee. She was finally let go three months before the supermarket declared bankruptcy.

Sina says that he has written and visited numerous government agencies throughout the years to plead the case of his family but he has received no answer. “I have also written to European countries embassies, like Sweden and England. No answer from them either. We have also tried various media outlets in Cyprus. Still no response,” he says.

Concluding in their open letter, the four recognised refugees plead with Hasikos asking him not to let them die. If that happens, they included a last demand in their letter.

“Our last demand to the government of the Republic of Cyprus is to deliver our dead bodies to our families and beloved persons”, they write.

The Cyprus Mail contacted the Interior Minister, who said that he was aware of the situation and would act on it next week. “One way or another, we will resolve this issue next week,” Hasikos replied.

Source: http://cyprus-mail.com/2014/01/04/refugees-say-death-is-their-only-option-now/

Some of the Syrians were huddled against the biting cold in the courtyard of the church; others had congregated beneath the trees of a nearby forest. All had made the treacherous journey from Turkey – crossing the fast-flowing waters of the Evros river – in a bid to flee their country’s war. Then came the white police vans and the Syrian men, women and children were gone.

“Ever since we have lost all trace of them,” said Vasillis Papadopoulos, a lawyer who defends the rights of migrants and refugees. “They just disappeared. Our firm belief is that they were pushed back into Turkey.”

Activists, lawyers, human rights groups, opposition MPs, immigration experts and international officials are becoming increasingly concerned about the heavy-handed tactics Greek authorities use to keep immigrants away.

In a recent report released by Amnesty International, Greece was strongly criticised for its “deplorable treatment” of would-be refugees, especially Syrians desperate to escape their nation’s descent civil war.

Enforced deportations – highlighted by an alarming rise of migrant deaths – have spurred the criticism.

In contravention of international conventions signed by Athens, coastguard officials and police officers have waged a concerted campaign to stop thousands from accessing EU territory via Greece. Illegal pushbacks have been the focus of those efforts, according to human rights groups.

The drive has intensified as Greece – long seen as the EU’s easiest backdoor entrance – has struggled to keep its economic and social fabric together in the face of the country’s worst crisis in modern times. Since prime minister Antonis Samaras’s conservative-led coalition assumed power in the midst of the crisis last year, authorities have faced charges of violently apprehending migrants, beating them and stripping them of their belongings. Special coastguard units – often masked and dressed in black – have been accused of dumping migrants, without any consideration for their safety, in Turkish territorial waters.

“The number and scale of these alleged incidents raises serious concerns,” said Ketty Kehayioylou at the Greek outpost of the UN refugee agency, UNHCR. “We still don’t know what happened to the two groups in Praggi,” she said. “No one was ever registered at the First Reception Centre as foreseen by national law and we’ve demanded an investigation.”

The claims come as Amnesty International urged Greece to launch an inquiry into comments by the country’s police chief, Nikos Papagiannopoulos, in which it is alleged he ordered his officers to make the lives of immigrants unbearable.

“If they told me I could go to a country … and would be detained for three months and then would be free to steal and rob … it would be great,” Papagiannopoulos, the highest security official in the land after the public order minister, was quoted as telling officers during a secretly recorded meeting. “We must make their lives unbearable.” The comments were published by the investigative magazine, Hot Doc, on 19 December.

John Dalhuisen, Amnesty’s director for Europe and Central Asia, said: “If accurate, the deeply shocking statements attributed to the Greek chief of police would expose a wilful disregard for the rights and welfare of refugees and migrants seeking shelter and opportunity in the European Union.”

With allegations of torture also on the rise, two senior coastguard officials were jailed last month after a military court found them guilty of subjecting an asylum seeker to a mock execution and water-boarding.

The discovery of ever more bodies – in the Aegean Sea and around the land border Greece shares with Turkey – have also raised the alarm. The German NGO, Pro Asyl, recently estimated that 149 people had died this year – an increase attributed mostly to the enormous risks refugees were prepared to take since Greece sealed its land border with Turkey in August 2012.

Following the construction of the fence – a six-mile barricade topped with thermal and sonar sensors – traffickers have focused on ferrying their human cargo to Greek islands in the Aegean Sea.

“The shift of escape routes has led to the deaths of many people … mostly Syrian and Afghan refugees, among them many children and pregnant women,” said Pro Asyl in a report documenting the problems faced by those fleeing persecution and war. (pdf)

“The brutality and extent of violations are shocking,” it claimed. “Refugees are being brutally pushed back by Greek authorities. This is happening systematically with the complicity of other European authorities despite the fact that it is against international law.”

According to the EU border agency, Frontex, detections of illegal immigrants in the Aegean Sea have increased by 912% since the barbed-wire barrier went up.

“It is a wall of shame, a hair-raising element of Fortress Europe,” said Aphrodite Stambouli MP of the radical left main opposition Syriza party. “It is outrageous that people in need of international protection should be obstructed from getting it in this way.”

Last week, she travelled to the remote Evros region – passing signs emblazoned with the words “danger: mines” and guards posted at checkpoints – to learn for herself what had happened in Praggi.

“What we know is that 150 Syrians crossed the border because relatives they called, both in Greece and other European capitals, have confirmed that that is what happened,” she said.

“They told them clearly, ‘We are in a village called Praggi, some of us are in the yard of a church, some of us in a forest.’ The police version of events, that only 13 [refugees] were found that day does not add up and that is because they were obviously pushed back over the border.”

Immigration experts say blame lies partly with the rise of xenophobia in Greece, where the virulently anti-immigrant, neo-fascist Golden Dawn party is now the country’s third biggest political force.

But they add that Greek authorities are under immense EU pressure to do the “dirty work” of buttressing what is widely seen as the bloc’s most porous border. “From as far back as 1990, northern Europe’s policy has always been that the south has to assume the burden of stopping irregular migration,” said Martin Baldwin-Edwards, who heads the Mediterranean Migration Observatory in Athens. “That, growing xenophobia, and the disrespect Turkey and Greece have historically shown for migrants’ human rights account for the push-backs.”

Last week Turkey signed a deal with the EU promising to repatriate immigrants who illegally enter the 28-nation bloc in return for its citizens being granted visa-free travel across the union.

“It’s hugely important,” said Baldwin-Edwards. “Turkey is the main point of entry from Asia and the Middle East. The more it is brought into the European ambit and assumes the responsibility of managing Europe’s south eastern borders it will lessen the pressure on Greece.”

In the forlorn villages of squat one-story homes that dot the frontier’s heavily militarised zone, the push-backs have caused consternation even if residents – many hard-bitten nationalists – have welcomed the erection of the wall.

“The fence may have made us feel safer but we also know that all these people want is to pass through,” said Nikos Dollis ,who runs a cafe in Nea Vyssa, the last settlement before the frontier in one of Greece’s most secretive corners. “Their intention is never to stay here. They want to get out, go to other countries in Europe.”

Demonstrators recently protested outside the police headquarters in Orestiada, the gritty town that is the region’s biggest metropolis, in a display of outrage over the incident in Praggi. Among them was Natasa Gara, a human rights campaigner who edits Orestiada’s weekly newspaper, Methorios.

“We want to know what really happened to the 150 Syrians, whose only crime was to want to escape the war,” she said after spending days investigating the affair.

“Are the police saying that everyone in Praggi is mad, that they just thought they saw 150 men, women and children? Because if they are, they are not telling the truth.”

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/24/greeks-protest-refugees-disappear-praggi

The idea for a military operation initially appeared in an Italian proposal set forth on Oct. 24, suggesting extraordinary measures after the recent tragic events at Lampedusa in Sicily, where a boat that departed from Libya on Oct. 3 sank before reaching the island, killing 360 immigrants.

The incident sent shock waves throughout Europe and triggered a civil society dialog about European migration policy’s human cost. But many of Europe’s leaders have seen the tragedy as a reason for further militarisation of the region.

EEAS deputy spokesman Sebastien Brabant told IPS in an email interview that following the Oct. 3 incident in Lampedusa “the ‘Taskforce Mediterranean’ was created to set out proposals for immediate EU action” from which the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) proposal has emerged.

The proposal includes options for the interception of population movements towards Europe including an independent maritime operation or the implementation of extra measures within an ongoing Frontex – the EU border agency – operation in the region.

All options predict a central role for the CSDP, the key European instrument for dealing with international security crises.

The CSDP proposal as a platform for dealing with population movements that could occur as a result of destabilisation in the Mediterranean countries coincides with a pending consideration of the instrument’s future on the agenda of the European Council planned for later this month.

The EEAS will present its proposal when the heads of state discuss how to enhance defence capabilities, strengthen the defence industry and improve the effectiveness, visibility and impact of the CSDP.

The idea has provoked a backlash, with German MP Andrej Hunko, a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, saying that “Further militarisation of border surveillance will make crossings even riskier and lead to even more deaths. The EEAS even confirms this. The inhumane and frequently criticised approach taken by the EU border police, FRONTEX, is being reinforced.”

Meanwhile Frontex has already arranged to update its Joint Operations “Hermes”, launched to control illegal migration flows from Tunisia towards southern Italy, mainly Lampedusa and Sardinia, and “AENAAS”, combating illegal migration from the Ionian Sea towards Italy (mainly Apulia and Calabria) from Turkey and Egypt.

Italy has also put in place a national patrol operation named “MARE NOSTRUM” coordinated by the Italian military. An internal European paper issued on Apr 18 demonstrated the serious concern among European leadership about the possibility of Libya collapsing into sectarian war.

The paper was a blueprint for a civilian integrated European Union Border Assistance Mission (EUBAM), aiming to help establish and train a new territorial and maritime border guard in Libya. EUBAM, which is ongoing now, is also a CSDP mission.

EUobserver reported on Nov. 18 that elements in the internal EU paper indicated that the “civilian” EUBAM to Libya was in fact designed to also train “paramilitary forces, amid a wider European and U.S. effort to stop Libya becoming a ‘failed state’.

Militarisation of the central Mediterranean would complement earlier restrictions put in place in the southeastern part of the sea. In the spring of 2012, Greece adopted tough control policies, including deploying security forces to its borders, building a fence along its land border with Turkey, and detaining irregular migrants for up to 18 months.

As a result incoming flows shifted to new routes through the Western Balkans or revived older one in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia.

Meanwhile Spain has initiated project CLOSEYE, a multi-million euro border control project that will see drones and other means of surveillance being deployed over the southwestern Mediterranean.

The European Commission not only has bankrolled many of these operations but also has not effectively restrained member states from violating refugee and human rights, and even the principle of non-refoulement, against the expulsion of persons who have the right to be recognised as refugees.

Martin Lemberg-Pedersen, Assistant Professor at the Centre for Advanced Migration Studies, University of Copenhagen and an expert on the securitisation of European immigration policy told IPS that the question is why is the EEAS still proposing such options.

“Two reasons come to mind: Firstly, the Arab Spring brought with it the fall of dictators, who up until that point had been key allies funded by the EU, containing sub-Saharan and Middle Eastern migrants before they could reach European territory.” Since then, he said, “it seems that the EU has been looking to establish similar systems of control.”

“Secondly, it is important to note the timing of the EEAS’ proposals: they have been put forward just when the new EUROSUR [border] surveillance system is about to become operational. The EUROSUR system, which has been developed in close cooperation with the European arms industry, stresses exactly those goals listed in the EEAS options,” he said.

EUROSUR, which became operational on Dec 2, predicts a key role for Frontex in creating a border control coordinator. It initially involves 18 member states, and aims to gradually achieve increased intelligence sharing, improved situational awareness, increased surveillance capacity, search and rescue missions, and integration of third countries security and law enforcement systems.

Source: http://greekleftreview.wordpress.com/2013/12/03/europe-sending-armies-to-stop-immigrants/

Indeed the contradictions involved in the process cause complications since there are not only white people who come as tourists in Greece. So plenty of non-white tourists were brutally detained and beaten up by the Greek police since August 2012 that ‘Xenios Dias’ started. Moreover, the mainstream Greek perceptions of Europe and the West these days are shifting once again, since Greek government officials and their corporate media often blame the evil North Europeans for the austerity. Indeed the same governmental officials make also statements about the benefits of austerity.

Within such confused socio-cultural context, since the 1980s, the ideological elevation of a ‘Europe-ness’ took place, peaking in the 1990s in the name of the so-called European integration. Under this slogan on the one hand, the policies of European integration correctly led to a loosening of the internal borders for people living within the EU. On the other hand, this was accompanied with the militarisation of the external European borders leading to ‘Fortress Europe’, a continent where non-Europeans are often condemned to death for their effort to cross the sealed common border. Frontex, national borders police forces, and coastguards are just some of the apparatuses dedicated to the militarization of the European border.

So along the so-called ‘Europeanization’ of Greek state’s institutions we had the ideological upgrading of the Greek borders into European ones. Greece was located very much on the margin of that undetermined Europeness as the most south-eastern EU (and previously EEC) member country. Surrounded by non-members for decades. So it became the favoured territory for the application of at least two xenophobic projects: the Greek one and the European one, often in tension with each other, but usually in collaboration. This process in ideological level was confirming a much desired admission of Greece to the European family and even worse as a significant player in the European securitisation project.

This anti-migratory dogma did not limit itself to the borders; it was soon matched with the ongoing process of the militarization of public-space policing in European cities. The case of the Greek border guards symbolizes perfectly this extension of border-control security tactics to urban spaces; in 2010, it was reported that out of the 510 border guards employed in the country, 473 were, in fact, serving in Athens.6 Indeed, deployment of border guards in cities has become standard practice these days; for example, in the summer of 2013 UKBA organized a large-scale operation in London’s underground stations stopping and checking migrants and people of migratory origin. So security and military techniques developed supposedly to protect the borders of a nation-state from a military attack (from the organized army of another nation-state) have been applied against unarmed migrants on the borders or on the city centres.

It is not simply the deployment of border guards in the cities; the urban policing itself targets the ethnic Other. In the case of Greece, the semi-military police operation ‘Sweep’, in the early 1990s, targeted migrants in the Omonoia7 area of central Athens and elsewhere. However, this paled in comparison to what was to follow. In 2005, operation ‘Polis’ led to over 200,000 people across the country being stopped and searched, and although the emphasis was on youths and migrants, they were not the only victims. Today the ongoing operation ‘Xenios Zeus’ has resulted in over 84,000 migrants being detained between August 2012 and February 2013, targeting everyone who appears to be foreign.[2]

Such operations imply and apply a state-directed exclusion of the population of the cities, which takes spatial characteristics since it displaces people from where they live and locks them in police stations temporarily until their documents are checked or detention camps if they are arrested. The Other is gradually exiled or declared as undesired from parts of the city and more generally public spaces. Officially, this phenomenon is not based explicitly on racial criteria – as neo-Nazis demand; rather, the formal state authorities’ claim is that they are trying to tackle the ‘crime’ of living without proper permission. In the case of UKBA operations or the operations of the respective French police, some of the officers stopping and searching non-white passers-by are themselves non-white, precisely because the European state authorities are aware of the racism involved in the process, and there is the hope to give the idea that it is not racist since non-white people are the physical agents of racism.

However, as Kassidiaris’ case [3] suggests, you do not have to be white in order to apply fascism. By extension, as the example of police and border police forces physically targeting migrants en masse implies, you do not have to be explicitly and openly a neo-Nazi state apparatus in order to apply policies of racial discrimination in the streets and pave the way for the actual neo-Nazis. The cases of migrants who have been stopped and checked for their papers by Golden Dawn members, often in order to be beaten up afterwards, are not rare. The distance between anti-migratory policing in Athens and the Golden Dawn’s ban of migrants from certain public spaces was not that long.

by Dimitris Dalakoglou

A longer version of this article was published as: Dalakoglou. D. (2013) ‘From the Bottom of the Aegean Sea’ to Golden Dawn: Security, Xenophobia and the Politics of Hate in Greece. Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism: Vol. 13, No. 3

Notes

[1]: One of the main slogans of Anarchists in Greece is ‘On the mines of Evros River (the river that marks the land border between Greece and Turkey) and on the bottom of Aegean Sea is built the security of each European’ (‘Στις νάρκες του ′Eβρου, στον πάτο του Aιγαίου, χτίζεται η ασφάλεια του κάθε Eυρωπαιου’).

[2] Given that this operation was implemented, ostensibly, with the intention of tackling crime level (implying a direct link between migrants and criminality) it has had very poor results indeed, as scarcely any of those detained was guilty of any offence other than lacking proper documents. Then the approximately 5,000 (by 9 September 2013) migrants who were arrested as part of Xenios Zeus have been transferred to and locked in new detention centres that were opened by the debt-ridden state. It is worth noting that another big public work completed by Greece during 2012 was the fence along the Turkish-Greek border in order to prevent migration.

[3] When the extreme-Right online forum ‘Stormfront’ published his photograph, in August 2013, setting the question to its users whether they felt he looked like a white man. Kassidiaris’ fellow Nazis were quite vocal on the subject; most of them concluding that he does not look like a white man.