THIS IS NOT MY COUNTRY

I have written several posts about children who are born here to immigrant parents who cannot get birth certificates and become illegal at the age of eighteen. See Life without Papers and If I didn’t Laugh.

To follow-up, I would like to point out a new blog started by Loretta Macauley, a founder member of the United African Women Organization. The aims of the organisation are to:

To create awareness of various issues concerning the African women and their children living in Greece.
To support and fight for the rights of especially our second generation and at all levels.
To create mutual bonds of solidarity between Africans and our host the Greeks.
To explore and incorporate the rich African woman heritage into the rich Greek heritage.
To work hand in hand with various social, NGO’s or Organizations that stand for justice, non racial and friendly society for all.

Please read Mobilization for birth certificates at the brand new blog.

Best of luck in your blogging activities. If you would like any help with it, let me know.

Technorati Tags: african, birth certificate, greece, women

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The 13th Anti-Racist Festival will take place this weekend (4th, 5th and 6th of July) at Goudi park (entrance from Katehaki metro station).

From the festival organisers

Three days against racism, with migrant communities, anti-racist organizations, concerts and migrant music groups, discussions, dance and theatre, playground, multicultural cuisine

This is the first year, I think, that the festival will have an admission charge of 6 euros which I think is a shame. I understand the need to raise money for the event but I do think the price is high. The atmosphere has always been really good with thousands of people, great music and events. I have always enjoyed being there with my family.

This year we probably won’t go for financial reasons. Pity.

Please note: Free entrance for migrants and refugees

Thank you to Paul for the heads up. I have been following the delightful exploits of Emily and Phoebe for a while now. They have been a great source of an (almost) daily giggle.

According to Phoebe, I am “a pest in the arse”

lol

Technorati Tags: greece, athens, anti-racist, festival,

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There are very few details on this news at the moment.

Bulgarian police crack sex-trafficking ring

Mon 30 Jun 2008

Bulgarian police said on Monday they had broken an international sex-trafficking ring and arrested a Greek man believed to have run the operation.

The women from Moldova, Ukraine and Uzbekistan were sent as sex workers to Greece via neighbouring Bulgaria using fake Bulgarian identity documents, police said in a statement.

Police said they had charged the Greek man with trafficking.

Surveys by Bulgarian non-governmental organisations say that sex-trafficking brings in about 1.8 billion euros (1.4 billion pounds) a year to the gangs behind it, making it the European Union newcomer’s most profitable criminal activity.

Technorati Tags: greece, trafficking, bulgaria, women, sex, trade

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Via Kathimerini

According to two separate surveys, Greece has the second highest “water footprint” in the world. At 2,389 cubic metres of water per person per year, the country is only slightly behind America with 2,483 cubic metres. In addition to that experts say that up to 50% of the water used in agriculure is wasted.

Cotton production in Thessaly, for example, consumes 21.2 to 35.6 percent more water than necessary, while for the cultivation of corn, the waste is between 38.6-48 percent. Thessaly’s potatoes get between 57.1-66.7 percent more water than they need. Too few farmers use the more efficient drip method

There are other problems associated with water wastage. Poor infrastructure means that 30-40% of drinking water is lost.

some 200,000 illegal boreholes, which deplete underground water supplies, allowing sea water to enter the water table; and the extensive use of fertilizers has polluted the water table.

As all of us who live here know, citizens are also to blame for this huge wastage of this scarce (and getting scarcer resource). Who hasn’t seen people “watering” their shutters instead of cleaning them with a bucket of water and cloths/sponges? Who hasn’t seen people hosing down their balconies (for what seems like hours on end) and then watering the pavements and streets outside their door ? The other day, we were woken by the sound of running water again ! The woman on the balcony at the back of her house was “watering” her rugs over the edge of the balcony. She had no bucket, brush or any other implement to assist in this job. Just a running hose which she had at full strength. Love of my life, who can be very diplomatic in most situations, almost blew a fuse. Quite rightly, I might add.

The problem is that most people do not look at the whole picture. They do not see that their actions are part of a problem that affects us all. One of the most common reactions that we hear when we have mentioned to people that they are wasting OUR water is “but how else can I clean my balcony/rugs/car/the pavement outside my house ? Well, there is that brilliant invention called a bucket. Another one is the mop. We also have brooms and dustpans, sponges and cloths. And my all-time favorite: “don’t water the pavement and the road”

From EcoFuss

Washing a sidewalk or driveway with a hose uses about 50 gallons of water every 5 minutes

Clean the car using a pail of soapy water. Use the hose only for rinsing - this simple practice can save as much as 150 gallons when washing a car. Use a spray nozzle when rinsing for more efficient use of water. Better yet, use a waterless car washing system; there are several brands, such as EcoTouch, which are now on the market.

Use a broom, not a hose, to clean driveways and sidewalks

25 water saving tips for your home and garden at EcoFuss

Please also see How to keep cool without running air conditioning

One tried-and-true method is to wet your wrists and other pulse points with cold water, and then keep those spots cool by holding an ice cube wrapped in a face cloth against them. The relief is immediate, and this method will cool down the entire body—by as much as three degrees Fahrenheit—for upwards of an hour.

Yes, it works.

Be cool and stay cool.

Καλό Μήνα (Have a good month)

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From the Athens News

THE INTERIOR ministry announced on June 17 that non-European Union nationals in Greece who are in the process of renewing their residence permit may travel to their homeland this summer as long as they leave after June 20 and return before September 19.

Immigrants will be allowed to re-enter the country on or before September 19 if they have a document (veveosi) verifying they have submitted an application to renew their residence permit.
As is the case each year, bureaucratic delays in the renewal of permits would have forced tens of thousands of immigrants in Greece to spend their summer holiday separated from friends and family in their homeland.

Immigrants with valid permits may travel abroad and re-enter Greece any time they wish.

Happy Holidays.

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I took this on Monday while I was out on my travels. A great example of the graffiti I DO like to see.

The caption beside the figure at the bottom reads “Long live mice on the metro”

Technorati Tags: greece, graffiti, street art, athens

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From Kathimerini

[The links are mine]

The Greek office of the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) yesterday expressed serious concerns about the situation of “dozens of unaccompanied minors” being detained at a substandard migrant reception center on Lesvos.

Many children are said to be in a “poor psychological state,” with some reportedly threatening to go on hunger strikes.

The UNHCR highlighted a series of “problems and shortcomings” with standards of hygiene and facilities at the center. “Clearly there is a need to replace this detention center with other facilities that meet minimum international standards,” an official statement said.

The UNHCR’s Greek office had pushed for the closure of a detention center on the island of Samos that had provoked the outrage of visiting Euro MPs. A new center opened early this year on Samos, while the old one was shut down.
The UNHCR is pushing for priority treatment for unaccompanied child migrants. It has also asked the Interior Ministry to ensure that migrants who lodge asylum applications are not detained until the outcome of appeals, which can take months.

Update on the hunger strikes here

There is also the detention centre on Chios that needs closing down.

Technorati Tags: greece, migrants, detention centres, asylum

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THIS IS NOT MY COUNTRY was born on June 22nd 2005 at 6:15pm.
Posts to date: 941
Hits to date: 176537
Comments to date: 4833
Most visitors on line: 77

Today I am celebrating three years of blogging. Every year I have written a summary of the past year. I see no reason why I shouldn’t carry on the tradition. WARNING: This is a long post but hopefully worth reading in full. For new readers, my yearly summaries are a good place to start if you would like to get a quick picture of THIS IS NOT MY COUNTRY.

A Year of Blogging
Two Years of Blogging

My greatest achievement this year was taking part in a photography exhibition with 15 of my pictures from the Roma settlements in Votanikos. The feedback was extremely positive and I am considering doing a larger exhibition if I can find the space, the money and the backing. Keep your fingers crossed.

June/July/August
I went to England for almost a month over June and July so my blogging was fairly light or non-existent. I enjoyed being offline so much that it was very hard to get going again once I returned home. We then began the process of moving house so my telephone/internet connection was cut. A very long and tedious process that didn’t really get sorted out until the end of August.

The main issue for me in July was whether to reveal my identity after being hounded and threatened again by people who had “found” me. After much thought and the help and support of friends, I decided against it.

The main subject of August were the devastating forest fires that took the lives of 63 people, destoyed whole villages and vast areas of forest. Surprise, surprise even writing about this tragedy sparked a controversy that reeked of racism and the “usual blame game”.

On a side note: Over this period, THIS IS NOT MY COUNTRY was featured in several mainstream newspapers and the Roma Series received a great deal of attention as a result.

September
Even complaining about being without a phone for 6 weeks brought calls from people for me to get out of the country. It has got to the point where it doesn’t matter what I write, good or bad, there will always be some people who don’t want me here. It only makes me more determined these days.

I was shocked and saddened to find out that my friend Teacher Dude was beaten up by the police for taking pictures. He is an outstanding photographer and I always look forward to his latest postings. He (and he’s not the only one) did not know that it is illegal to take pictures of the police here in Greece. A simple request would have been sufficient to inform him, rather than this…

I have a dislocated left shoulder, painfully put back into place by three hefty guys, a fractured nose, and multiple bruising. all because some manic idiot couldn’t control himself

Teacher Dude was recently featured in a documentary on police brutality here in Greece. His complaint against the attack is still ongoing with little progress being made (in the comments). After writing about the incident, Teacher Dude was attacked with insults and nastiness on both his blog and here. There were strong responses against that nonsense (again, in the comments)

October
I had major problems with the template I was using so decided to change it for the current one. People seem to be happy with the funky orange style. As always, feel free to contact me if you spot any problems with viewing this blog.

There was yet another blow-up about immigrant integration in Greece. The comments are a fairly typical example of the arguments that happen here on a regular basis. While real and violent racist attacks were on the rise in Greece, people who became regulars here were also being attacked and insulted on a regular basis. So much so that I had to close comments on several threads.

November
I took part in NaBloPoMo which involved posting every day this month… and I won a prize. Little DD, my handmade baby yeti, arrived just after the new year 2008.

THIS IS NOT MY COUNTRY was one of the blogs featured in this wonderful video by Sudy of A Woman’s Ecdysis

I wrote about an incident that occurred in my own local supermarket. The women in the story has since been promoted.

I gave my testimony in the illegal eviction of the Roma community at Votanikos. Unfortunately, the video I posted is unavailable now but Suheir Hammad is worth looking up.

The most amount of comments received on a single post this year (77) was in this month on Life without Papers. Born in Greece to a Nigerian father and a Cameroonian mother, Catherine Ananois has waited 20 years for her adoptive country to even acknowledge her existence. The young dancer is one of thousands of second-generation immigrants who feel Greek, speak Greek and pursue a Greek education but are helpless against a state bureaucracy and laws that still deny them Greek citizenship.This is not a new story but it’s still heart-breaking to read personal experiences of living without papers. In her own words, Catherine explains her position here in Greece and how she is affected by its archaic laws.

When I was 16, I had to obtain a certificate to enroll in a school exam. That’s when I realised I’m a person without a country. I have no papers, not even a birth certificate.

She cannot travel outside the country. She cannot get a driver’s license. She cannot even open a bank account. I cannot begin to imagine how it feels to be living in such a precarious position in the country you were born in.

I managed to get a document, of sorts, that helps with police checks and is supposed to entitle me to a temporary residence permit. But even that’s not sure, and I’ve had enough of this business

It seemed that all my racist friends from past and present came out to play on that one ! The controversy continued here.

December
Yet another racist attack in Greece, this time leaving one man critically injured in hospital. I urged people to:

WAKE UP

This is now.
This has to stop.
The authorities have to be forced to do something. This goes beyond starting a discussion about racism (which seems to be a non-starter here because denial is the first response). We are talking about people being violently attacked in their homes.

There is no racism in Greece ?
How about you go and talk to the victims ?
Can you imagine the fear that the immigrant population here feels knowing that they could be a target and that nothing is being done to protect them ?
That the police and authorities still refuse to take their allegations seriously ?
That there is no official data on hate crimes so it is easy to ignore that it happens ?
That there is no serious nationwide anti-racist programs in place ?
That there is no serious anti-racist education in schools and colleges ?
That there will be a expression of “shock” that will be forgotten tomorrow because Greece doesn’t really have a problem with racism ?

What else can I say ?

JUST

WAKE

UP

The usual and obvious response followed in the comments.

Far-right “historian” Mr Plevris went on trial over his anti-semitic book, Jews: The Whole Truth. The verdict came in on the 13th December.

Plevris was found guilty of inciting hatred and sentenced to 14 month (suspended pending appeal) prison sentence.

Much gnashing of teeth and foot-stamping over freedom of speech followed. Many of my regular readers and myself tried to be as clear as we possibly could over and over again…

Again, I repeat… the trial was not an issue of freedom of speech but about the issue of incitement to violence. We have freedom of speech laws that protect people who want to say (to me) totally unacceptable things but we must have laws that protect us from people that would do us harm

Sometimes, having trolls and stupid comments on your blog are really worth it. Thanks again to the wonderful Sudy for giving us a laugh at their expense.

The kid broke his leg just before Christmas. Poor baby. He’s all better now. No lasting problems and is back playing basketball as before. His team have played outstandingly well this year. He’ll be going for medals and awards very soon. Well done, kid.

January
Arguments raged on in the Plevris Trial posts and in a post about Women on Mount Athos. I personally did not have the energy or inclination to wade into much of the debate. 2008 had been unkind to my family so far. The messages of love and support that followed that post were genuinely heartwarming and I believe they helped lead to this. Update on my mum: She recently tripped down some steps and broke her foot. She’s in plaster but that hasn’t stopped her and my dad taking a trip in their mobile home around Europe for three weeks. She’s an amazing woman, my mum.

February

I got worn-out and angry by the horrible comments left here…

I am not going to either answer the insults or justify this blog.

Some of you just filled up one sand-pit with rubbish and when I closed it, you found another one to play in. Very silly. You are not addressing the issues or discussing anything actually. Just seeing who can shout the loudest.

I don’t have the time or the inclination to babysit this constant bickering.

I AM CLOSING ALL COMMENTS ON ALL POSTS UNTIL EVERYONE CALMS DOWN.

This is the first time in two and a half years that I have ever had to do this. Those who think that you are going to derail this blog, think again. I will still be posting as regularly as always and my readers will still be following. You just won’t have the opportunity to attack people here. You are not as clever as you think you are.

Please email me if you have any valid comments or any links/articles that I might be interested in. There is a contact form at the top of the page. Thank you.

and changed my comment policy. I have less comments here now but also less headaches.

March
Asylum issues in Greece came to the forefront after Norway followed by several other countries refused to send asylum seekers back to Greece (as defined under the Dublin agreement).

Same sex marriage became another important issue here. This marriage was blocked but the mayor of Tinos took up the torch and married two couples in early June.

An argument over who can call themselves lesbians also broke out. That case is in court at the present time and I will update you on the outcome as soon as I hear.

April
This was not a good month for women of colour bloggers. Two of our favorites blackamazon and brownfemipower closed down their blogs. It was a long time in coming and a complicated history that led to them deciding to shut up shop. I am extremely happy to report that both of them have re-opened. Both of them are as strong and as inspiring as they always were. Both of them are actively working to make the world a better place both on and offline.

Another heated discussion started on the Hijab/Mandila post. I wrote i am human in response to the “fights” that happen here on this blog and elsewhere.

May
May was a busy month for me outside my blog. As I said at the beginning of this post (way way back there!), I showed some of my Roma photographs at an exhibition here in Athens. You can veiw all the pictures on the Images page at the top of the blog.

So that’s my summary of three years of blogging. It’s been a difficult year at times personally. The good news is that my family are all doing well (despite the broken foot) and things are looking up for all of them. I recently celebrated 14 years with the love of my life. What could be better ?

Thank you to all the friends of THIS IS NOT MY COUNTRY. You helped me through a very difficult period in my life. I hope you will keep on dropping by and leaving your words of wisdom. I’m looking forward to another year with you all.

Thank you to everyone who supports me from behind the scenes too. Not everyone feels comfortable commenting publicly and I completely understand that, so thank you for taking the time to contact me via email. Your words and support mean so much to me.

I’ll leave you with this post that I wrote for Bloggers for Human Rights

i am just one person.
i am just one small voice
i am just one mum
i am just one daughter
i am just one sister
i am just one blogger
i am just one woman
i am just one human being

but i speak to another single person
i join a chorus of other small voices
i speak with hundreds of other mums
i stand with every daughter
i support and respect all my sisters
i write alongside thousands of other bloggers
i move with millions of other women
i am with every other human being

Today is Bloggers Unite for Human Rights.

THIS IS NOT MY COUNTRY is almost three years old and I am more convinced than ever of the power of this medium. My blog IS my commitment to Human Rights. I will continue to speak out even when I feel it is pointless or I feel vulnerable or I feel threatened or I feel alone.

Because if we don’t keep alert and we don’t speak out, we will lose our hard-won rights and others will never have them. My commitment continues…

Technorati Tags: blog, blogging, human rights,

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Today is World Refugee Day.

Take some time to educate yourself

From Human Rights Watch

Refugees and Displaced Persons

Who
A refugee is someone with a well-founded fear of persecution on the basis of his or her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion, who is outside of his or her country of nationality and unable or unwilling to return. Refugees are forced from their countries by war, civil conflict, political strife or gross human rights abuses. There were an estimated 14.9 million refugees in the world in 2001 - people who had crossed an international border to seek safety - and at least 22 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) who had been uprooted within their own countries.

What
Enshrined in Article 14 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the right “to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.” This principle recognizes that victims of human rights abuse must be able to leave their country freely and to seek refuge elsewhere. Governments frequently see refugees as a threat or a burden, refusing to respect this core principle of human rights and refugee protection.

Where
The global refugee crisis affects every continent and almost every country. In 2001, 78 percent of all refugees came from 10 areas: Afghanistan, Angola, Burma, Burundi, Congo-Kinshasa, Eritrea, Iraq, the Palestinian territories, Somalia and Sudan. Palestinians are the world’s oldest and largest refugee population, and make up more than one fourth of all refugees. Asia hosts 45 percent of all refugees, followed by Africa (30 percent), Europe (19 percent) and North America (5 percent).

When
Throughout history, people have fled their homes to escape persecution. In the aftermath of World War II, the international community included the right to asylum in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 1950, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was created to protect and assist refugees, and, in 1951, the United Nations adopted the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a legally binding treaty that, by February 2002, had been ratified by 140 countries.

Why
In the past 50 years, states have largely regressed in their commitment to protect refugees, with the wealthy industrialized states of Europe, North America and Australia - which first established the international refugee protection system - adopting particularly hostile and restrictive policies. Governments have subjected refugees to arbitrary arrest, detention, denial of social and economic rights and closed borders. In the worst cases, the most fundamental principle of refugee protection, nonrefoulement, is violated, and refugees are forcibly returned to countries where they face persecution. Since September 11, many countries have pushed through emergency anti-terrorism legislation that curtails the rights of refugees.

How
Human Rights Watch believes the right to asylum is a matter of life and death and cannot be compromised. In our work to stop human rights abuses in countries around the world, we seek to address the root causes that force people to flee. We also advocate for greater protection for refugees and IDPs and for an end to the abuses they suffer when they reach supposed safety. Human Rights Watch calls on the United Nations and on governments everywhere to uphold their obligations to protect refugees and to respect their rights - regardless of where they are from or where they seek refuge.

Visit Human Rights Watch Greece
Visit The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) Greece
Visit Refugees International
Explore blogs covering World Refugee Day
Join World Refugee Day on Facebook
Read about Refugees and Displacement from Reuters Alternet
Find out how you can help. There are many other resources for advocacy, education or donations online. Just do a search.

UPDATE: Please watch this YouTube video about refugees in Greece from BBC reporter Malcolm Brabant.

Technorati Tags: world refugee day, refugee, human rights, asylum

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My blog guru, vegankid, has updated my wordpress to the latest version so I am spending a bit of time this week tweaking and adding useful plugins. This is what I’ve done so far…

I have reinstalled Gravatar. This puts a small icon beside your comments if you have one. If you don’t have one and would like to, please go to the Gravatar website here. You only need an email address. You sign up using that address and upload your image. That’s it. Once you’ve done that, your icon will appear on all gravatar enabled blogs. if you would like this plugin for your own blog, please go here.

I have added ClickQuote to the comment section of this blog. If you want to quote a paragraph from either the post or from the comments, simply hover over it until it is highlighted and then click. The selected text will then appear in the comment box. No more messy html. If you would like this plugin for your own blog, please go here.

If you have any suggestions for additions you would like to see here or cool plugins that you use, please let me know in the comments.

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It’s a gorgeous day and I am looking forward to having a leisurely lunch with a very good friend. I love summer especially when it’s cooler in the evenings like it is right now. Summertime for blogs is a different matter. People go out more, spend less time at their computers tapping away. That’s a good thing. I love to think of my regulars taking trips, sitting on beaches, visiting friends and generally having a life. For dedicated bloggers it can be a slow and sometimes frustrating time, with fewer visitors and fewer comments. It can seem like no-one is reading the important stories that you are posting.

So, I’ve decided to look at this positively and try an experiment here. An open thread ! It’s not a new idea. Lots of bloggers do it. It’s a free for all post. Pop in to say hello. Bring up something that’s on your mind. Drop me a link that might be of interest. Promote your own blog or particular posts. Sing a song. Pull a face. Whatever you like.

[My blog rules still apply though. If you are not sure that you should post something, you probably shouldn't.]

I’ll kick off this thread by saying I was very sad to see Greece knocked out of Euro 2008. Yes, I was rooting for the Greek team ! And I am even sadder to hear that the very dishy Antonis Nikopolidis (the George Clooney of footie) is leaving international competition.

From the International Herald Tribune

Time is merciless _ this moment comes for everybody. I had hoped for something better at this tournament, but I had taken the decision to retire before it started

He is 37 and in sporting terms, that’s old. I know what he means by time being merciless ! I am sure he will continue to have a great career coaching or perhaps he will take up something completely different.

I wish him all the best in whatever he decides to do.

Bet you didn’t know I was a bit of a football fan !

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From Kathimerini

New legislation that would give unmarried couples the same rights as married ones, is on its way towards parliament. However, these rights will not be extended to gay and lesbian couples.

The brainchild of Justice Minister Sotiris Hatzigakis, the draft bill would allow unmarried couples to acquire all the tax, insurance and social benefits currently only enjoyed by married couples simply by signing a standard notarial contract. Children born to unmarried couples – around 120,000 or 5 percent of the annual total of births – will also have all the rights, hereditary and otherwise, of children born to married parents.

The bill was given the thumbs-up by top ministers in a session chaired by Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis.

Hatzigakis stressed that the law would only apply to heterosexual couples, apparently laboring the point to quell speculation about the possible extension of this right to homosexual couples following the civil wedding ceremonies of two gay couples on the island of Tilos last week.

The Holy Synod of the Church of Greece, whose reaction to last week’s gay weddings had been somewhat muted, yesterday emerged from its session to express its opposition to gay unions, stressing that they go against the teachings of the Church.

It was unclear if the announcement had been timed intentionally to coincide with the government’s debate of the cohabitation law.

The bill drafted by Hatzigakis – titled “Reforms for the Family and Society” – is not restricted to the cohabitation law. Among its additional provisions is one that foresees a swifter process for issuing divorces. If approved, married couples who file for divorce will have to wait only two years for the decision to be final, as compared to four years now. Another provision aims to accelerate the process for would-be parents seeking to adopt children.

Yet another aspect of the bill is geared toward protecting children from sexual abuse and issuing stricter penalties for convicted child molesters. Additional support would be granted to institutions offering support to children.

Technorati Tags: greece, unmarried couples, civil union, gay rights

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It’s Thursday.
It’s time for DD live.
It’s a good day for a chat.
If anyone feels like meeting up tonight, I’ll be there.

Please see under DD live if you want to join the chatroom.

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From an article today at BBC News entitled Asylum seekers ‘abused’ in Greece

Allegations that Greek police are abusing, threatening and torturing asylum-seekers are clearly taken very seriously in Athens.

The man responsible for the treatment of immigrants, spokesman for the Public Order Department of the Interior Ministry, Athanasios Andreolakos, offers the BBC more than an hour of his time, is well-briefed with specific details to refute claims of mistreatment and is eager to defend his country’s international reputation.

He denies any mistreatment took place - “there is simply no evidence to support this, the allegations are provocative to Greece” - before going on to admit that “no system can be perfect. Any allegations we will certainly pursue, we have zero tolerance for any abuses of this sort”.

The BBC’s Paul Henley spoke to Rodi Suweini about his experience of shocking police brutality and abuse in Greece.

Rodi Suweini is from Baghdad. A serious gunshot wound to his chest and shoulder is testament to his narrow escape from civil war in Iraq.

They tied my hands and my ankles with a rope and pulled me up so that I was suspended from the frame of a window

Other injuries to his face and neck are, he claims, a permanent reminder of his time in the custody of Greek police.

Having crossed the border from Turkey on foot, he was immediately captured and, he says, abused by officers who paid no heed to his claim for asylum.

“First, one of them kicked me in the stomach”, he told me, “and then three of them continued beating me up.

“They hit me across the face, they put a wooden stick to my neck and started to strangle me.

“They accused me of being a people-trafficker. They tied my hands and my ankles with a rope and pulled me up so that I was suspended from the frame of a window and they left me there all day.”

Berit Lindeman works for the Norwegian Helsinki Committee and has visited some of the detention centres here. She described what she saw as appalling and inhumane.

What we saw in Greece… we see in other countries we would not want to be compared to… we are talking about regimes that torture people. We cannot accept this in the middle of Europe

The authorities reaction to this claim is to say that Berit Lindeman is “gullible” (where have I heard that before?). Asylum lawyer Spyros Rizakos is outspoken about that response.

He thinks it a ludicrous idea that his government does not know that some migrants are being mistreated.

“Of course they know,” he says, “because there have been so many reports from organisations like the UNHCR, from the Greek ombudsman and from NGOs like Amnesty and the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE).

“To ignore them is a sinful policy, something tragic. And I am doing my best to denounce it and to stop it.”

The article goes on to talk about the fact that asylum issues are a European problem not just a Greek one and that Greece deals with more than its fair share of asylum seekers because of its position in Europe and its extensive shoreline. This should not be confused with being an excuse to abuse asylum seekers.

There is also a brief mention of racism in Greece. Maria Kagkelidou, a journalist for the Athens News newspaper is quoted as saying

Some people are inherently racist here. Therefore, I would not say they would condone mistreatment of immigrants by the Greek police, but they would not be particularly surprised by it. And they would certainly not be up in arms about it

A sentiment I have heard many times here on this blog. You can read the full article here.

Technorati Tags: greece, asylum, abuse, torture, detention, racism

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From The Guardian

An attempt to stop homosexual women calling themselves lesbians begins in Athens today with a court hearing that comes amid growing national debate over gay rights in one of Europe’s most socially conservative countries.

The hearing has been initiated by plaintiffs on the Aegean island of Lesbos, who say they are unhappy that gay women have “usurped” a term that locals claim should have only geographical connotations

Read the whole article about gay rights in Greece and this current court case.

Technorati Tags: greece, lesbian, gay rights,lesbos, court

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