[ALBSA-Info] Migrants maltreated in Greece

[Agron Alibali]

Positive talk on migrants a 'PR stunt'

BY KATHY TZILIVAKIS 
  
An exhausted young migrant, one of 16 Iraqi Kurds
arrested by authorities on the Dodecanese island of
Kos yesterday, sleeps on the ground.  

AROUND 150 foreigners were arbitrarily rounded up for
a check of their residency status early yesterday
morning in the northeastern Athens suburb of Agia
Paraskevi in the largest sweep operation targeting
illegal immigrants in recent months. The roundup,
which began at 6am and lasted three hours, was
criticised harshly by migrant and human rights groups.


Officers at the Agia Paraskevi police station told the
Athens News yesterday that 56 out of the 149 migrants,
all men, were undocumented and would be deported. Some
31 Albanians boarded a bus for their homeland at
midday while the remainder, mainly Bulgarians and
Romanians, are to be expelled by tomorrow. 

Police in the capital carry out regular inspections of
foreigners' papers. Advocates of migrants' rights
condemn this tactic, saying it only serves to fuel
racism and xenophobia. "We have condemned these
operations from day one," Greece's representative of
the EU Immigrants Forum, Samsi Deen Iddrisu, told the
Athens News. "We believe this is a violation of human
rights. We will continue to condemn it but I am not
sure the public order minister will ever listen to
us." 

Yesterday's crackdown came less than 48 hours after
government officials, including Public Order Minister
Michalis Chrysohoidis and Deputy Labour Minister
Christos Protopappas, addressed an Athens seminar on
migrants and refugees in Greece. The event's slogan
was "Each culture has something to offer to the
progress of society as a whole". It was aimed at
promoting diversity and tolerance in society. 

"Yesterday's sweep operation only serves to justify
what we have been saying all along," said Costas
Argaliotis, of the Coordinating Anti-racism and
Migrant Organisations. "All this talk by politicians
about migrants is just talk - hypocrisy! It is all
public relations. The sweep operations represent the
bitter reality." 

In a separate incident, police in Varkiza, a seaside
town south of Athens, arrested 25 illegal migrants,
mainly Kurds, who they discovered aboard a
privately-owned bus. Authorities said the eight men,
five women and 12 children were part of a group of 100
migrants which was left on the shores of Sounio,
southern Attica, yesterday. The driver of the bus
managed to flee before police arrived. A large-scale
manhunt was launched for the driver, the unidentified
people-smugglers and the other 75 migrants. 

Meanwhile, 16 Iraqi Kurds were arrested on the
Dodecanese island of Kos, near the Turkish coast,
yesterday morning. The speedboat they were travelling
on was spotted by the island's coastguard at 3.45am
less than two nautical miles from shore. The vessel
was sailing without navigational lights and this
aroused suspicion. The boat was forced to head to
shore after a high-speed chase. 

The 10 men, one woman and five young children were
detained by the Kos coastguard while two Turkish
nationals who allegedly tried to smuggle them to the
island were to appear before a local public
prosecutor. The accused were identified as 43-year-old
Husein Hunsu Ceyhan and Yurdakul Mercan, 28. Mercan
tried unsuccessfully to evade arrest by jumping into
the sea. 

According to the merchant marine ministry, an
estimated 3,504 illegal migrants and 133
people-smugglers have been arrested since the start of
the year. 


ATHENS NEWS , 04/11/2000 , page: A02 
Article code: C12794A022





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