AYS Daily Digest 20/05/2020 — Greece’s Authoritarian Slide
More people in distress in Central Mediterranean///Bosnian government accuses own embassy in Pakistan of visa fraud///Malta forced boat in distress to go to Italy, survivors reveal
FEATURE
Greece’s Authoritarian Slide
Reporters at Peace Data put together an exposé chronicling the growing state violence and authoritarian tendencies of the Greek government ever since the election of the current ruling party in 2019. This will come as no surprise to people who have been following the treatment of people on the move in Greece.
Greece has had a turbulent recent history, and many fear a return to the days of the military junta in the mid-20th century or the violent repression of the anti-austerity protests in 2008 that culminated in the killing of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos. The close ties between the police and the extreme right wing have never been severed and the institution was never reformed. Police are using similar tactics of torture, beating, and sexual humiliation that were used during the junta. Of course, most accounts of police violence, no matter how well-documented, are dismissed by the government as “fake news.”
Almost anyone who criticizes the government too vocally, including prominent directors, professors, and doctors, is subject to repression. However, the police are especially cracking down on youth groups and anarchists. They’re targeting student demonstrations, squats like Exarchia, and groups working in solidarity with people on the move. The spate of arrests and violent treatment of volunteers and NGO employees recently is part of a growing trend of intolerance and right-wing authoritarianism.
Of course, it’s people without papers who are among the most vulnerable during this authoritarian turn. They’re the ones crowded into disgusting camps like Moria, where trash is piling up in the heat, making people sick despite residents’ best efforts to clean it. They’re subject to illegal pushbacks and face gunfire at the borders. The brutality has been so jarring it’s even been condemned by The Wall Street Journal — an institution that can hardly be accused of having a leftist bias or trafficking in “fake news.” Recently, the restrictive pandemic measures made it impossible to move around freely, forcing many people with irregular status to rely on mutual aid programs to survive.
Just this week, there have been endless examples of the authoritarian way Greece treats people on the move. After Monday’s evictions in Exarchia and subsequent protests, the police bussed people to Eleonas camp. Many refused to move into the shipping containers that pass for housing there and returned to Exarchia, where a temporary housing solution was found. The violence is coming from a legislative level, not just a police level. The Exarchia raid may have been a trial run for similar brutality on a much larger scale. Mitsarakis plans to evict 10,000 people from their accommodation by the end of May, which many activists fear will lead to widespread homelessness.
In a particularly harrowing incident, police in Heraklion, Crete, brutally attacked a Greek citizen. They shouted racial slurs for Pakistani people at him, accused him of having a gun, and hit him several times. After he said that he would file a complaint against this brutal treatment, they unlawfully arrested him and tortured him at the police station, threatening him with more violence if he spoke to a lawyer. If this is how a Greek person who only looks like a foreigner is treated, how are people who are actually foreign and don’t have access to legal retaliation, treated?
That does not mean people on the move and Greek leftists will go down without a fight. The Rosa Nera squat in Chania, Crete, dropped a banner reading “Hospitable to the rich, racist to the poor,” criticizing Greece’s treatment of foreigners. The media continues to fight back against government lies — Astraparis, a local Chios paper, published photos and metadata proving beyond a reasonable doubt that people on the move landed on the island on April 30th and were pushed back illegally. Self-organized groups like Moria Corona Awareness Team are continuing their work to bring some sort of humanity to conditions in the camp, such as by organizing bottle recycling programs. NGOs like Mobile Info Team are continuing to provide vital resources and information for people on the move. Here, they have resources for victims of sexual violence, available in English, Farsi, Arabic, Sorani and French.
There are many people fighting to protect justice and human rights in Greece, but they are up against monumental forces of authoritarianism. Again, the full report on Greece’s violent turn can be found here, on Public Data’s website. It’s highly recommended, although sobering, reading.
There is some irony in the Greek government cracking down on foreigners so hard. Farmers are saying that without loosening the restrictions against migration, this year’s crop may rot where it grows without the labor of foreign workers from Albania and other places. People with refugee status are not allowed to work, despite pleas from many integration groups and the farmers themselves — the government claims they “mostly are not suited to farmwork” or are unwilling to work. This is a transparent attempt to make people on the move seem lazy or stupid, othering them even further in the Greek consciousness. Will this policy have to change for this year’s harvest? If it does, will the notoriously terrible working conditions for foreign laborers on Greek farms improve?
SEA
Almost 200 People in Distress in Central Mediterranean
On Wednesday, two new boats were spotted in the Mediterranean, between Malta and Lampedusa. One boat, with 135 people on board, was rescued by the Italian Coast Guard and taken to Lampedusa. Allegedly, Malta sent a MAREN ship to rescue the second boat, containing about sixty people. We will be monitoring the situation with the remaining boat closely, given Malta’s recent track record with rescues at sea.
SERBIA
Serbian Defense Ministry Is Buying Razor Wire For Reception Centers
In a public procurement announcement published on its website, the Serbian Defense Ministry announced that it will be buying almost 2.5 tons of razor wire to surround reception centers and camps for asylum seekers.
The Ministry did not answer journalists’ questions asking why razor wire is necessary and what camps specifically were going to be fenced with it. The posting on its website only said the wire is needed due to “extenuating circumstances.”
The Serbian government has already been criticized for using the army to guard reception centers, something many groups are calling an excessive show of force.
BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA
Bosnia Accuses Embassy in Pakistan of Forging Visas
In a new addition to the strained relations between Bosnia and Pakistan, the Bosnian State Prosecutor’s Office accused its own embassy in Pakistan of visa fraud. The troubles began a few weeks ago when the Security Minister accused the Pakistani embassy in Bosnia of refusing to cooperate by identifying its nationals who are in Bosnia. The Bosnian government has now accused its own ambassador and his embassy of committing visa fraud and issuing too many visas. The Security Ministry claimed that approximately 3,000 Pakistani nationals with suspicious visas who are in Bosnia are a “security threat.”
The Bosnian ambassador denies the accusations and is asking his government to apologize. Bosnia has ramped up border security and violence recently, which has led to the abuse of vulnerable people, diplomatic tensions with foreign governments, and now a bizarre political spat with one of its own representatives abroad.
The Care Center for Refugees in Tuzla published its weekly digest. They reported a large number of arrivals from Serbia, requiring distribution of food and humanitarian aid. Most of those people are either sleeping rough in the rain or were directed to go to Sarajevo by the police — on foot if they could not afford a bus ticket.
MALTA
Maltese Government Forced Boat in Distress To Go To Italy, Survivors Say
The repercussions of the deadly Easter weekend, largely caused by Maltese pushbacks and inaction, are still being brought to light. In damning new reports, people who arrived in the Italian town of Pozzallo said that they were told to go there by the Maltese army.
Their boat encountered ships belonging to Maltese Armed Forces, but instead of being rescued, they were “turned away at gunpoint.” Video footage also shows a boat cutting through the water, creating waves and passing dangerously close to people who had started swimming towards it, thinking they would be rescued. Instead, people on the dinghy were given gasoline, a new engine, and an AFM vessel accompanied them towards Italy after initially threatening to send them back to Libya. The incident has only come to light now because survivors were quarantined for several weeks and couldn’t reach AlarmPhone to share their story. Not only does this violate international law, it also shows an extraordinary disregard for human life.
Malta already has a strained relationship with Italy and it is likely that this incident will hurt their relationship even more. It could also land the state in more legal trouble. Relatives of some of the 12 people killed during Easter weekend’s illegal pushbacks are suing the Maltese government. Could another lawsuit for this incident be in the works?
Malta is also being harshly criticized for its treatment of over 160 men detained on Captain Morgan cruise ships offshore, some of whom are going on hunger strike to protest the conditions they are being held in. A statement condemning the treatment was signed by many NGOs, and some even organized a “socially distant demonstration” demanding that the Maltese government does the right thing.
GERMANY
Pandemic Hurts Integration Into German Society
The pandemic has hurt education and integration programs for people on the move in Germany, both children and adults.
Children are hurt by the inequalities in homeschooling. Those from refugee or immigrant backgrounds are often from poorer households, with technology that is not up-to-date (or nonexistent), so they are less able to keep up with lessons. They have less support than German children because their parents cannot help with homework and nonprofits that normally help with integration had to stop programming due to the virus. Many educators fear that homeschooling will only leave poor children of all backgrounds further behind.
The pandemic is also affecting the education of some 220,000 adults who were taking integration and language courses. The German government has spent forty million on online courses. However, only 83,000 people are participating — less than half of those who were affected. This can delay people’s applications for regularization even further as integration courses are mandatory, and mandatory exams in the German language and integration have been delayed.
Sixty-five residents at an accommodation center in Frankfurt have tested positive for coronavirus, in addition to two employees. Some of the infected people have been moved to a different hotel, while the rest will be transferred on Friday. The remaining residents have to quarantine inside the center and wear masks outside of their rooms. For weeks now, residents of accommodation centers across Germany as well as NGOs and even a German local court have said these centers make it impossible to social distance properly and are dangerous during a pandemic.
AUSTRIA
Militia Deployed to Austria’s Borders
Since Monday, 270 members of Austria’s militias joined police in patrolling the border with Slovenia. Militia members are deployed at official border crossings, where people entering Austria undergo temperature checks and present their paperwork. They are also patrolling in between official crossings 24/7, equipped with night-vision goggles and heat detectors. This is the first time in the history of the Second Republic that the militia was called on to patrol the borders. Clearly, the so-called reopening of the “Balkan Route” that has already caused consternation in Northeastern Italy and Slovenia has led to increased border security and militarization by the Austrians as well.
GENERAL
Syrians Stuck in Turkey Selling Organs to Survive
This week, CBS broke the story of a web of organ traffickers preying on Syrian people on the move living in Turkey. Many are finding it impossible to make ends meet financially and are resorting to selling their organs on the black market in order to survive. The traffickers often cheat them out of the money they were promised and don’t provide them with care post-surgery or pain management. You can read the whole, harrowing story here, on the CBS site.
In a more cheerful story, Imix rounded up eleven stories of people on the move helping their new communities. The examples range from a pop-up restaurant in Wales donating meals to the NHS to an educational blog on pandemic safety in Angola. You can read the full list here (although we’d like to remind our readers that people on the move don’t need to be superheroes or saints to deserve human rights).
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