Racist Attacks Escalate in Greece
ATHENS, Greece (AP) - The number of racially motivated attacks increased in Greece last year, as did the severity of the violence involved, a human rights groups said Wednesday.
As Greece’s economy declined over the past few years, these incidents spiraled out of control. Relying on international rescue loans to remain solvent, the country imposed deep spending cuts that sent unemployment soaring to around 27 percent.
The Racist Violence Recording Network reported 154 cases of racist violence in 2012, including 25 in which the victims said the perpetrators were police. The figures, released a week after more than 30 Bangladeshi workers suffered shotgun wounds on a strawberry farm in southern Greece during a dispute with a foreman over back pay.
Kostis Papaioannou, head of the National Commission for Human Rights, said the number of attacks recorded increased 20 percent from the previous year. But, he noted, the true numbers could be much higher because many victims fear coming forward because of further mistreatment by authorities or deportation for entering the country illegally.
Numerous reports of police, at the forefront of a government crackdown on foreigners in the country illegally, mistreating immigrants during routine document checks on the street or during detentions. The police repeatedly said they investigate all reported cases of mistreatment.
The network composed of 30 aid and human rights groups, they create records only when they speak to the victim themselves.
The 2012 figures "shows some very interesting and very worrying tendencies regarding racist violence in Greece," Papaioannou said. "We have both an increase in the numbers of attacks but also - which is really worrying too - we have an escalation of in tension over this violence."
The vast majority of attacks occurred in Athens, mainly in inner city neighborhoods. Groups of men wielding metal bars, chains, brass knuckles, broken bottles, knives, and wooden clubs set the immigrants up. The victims suffer from broken bones, damage to sight and hearing and extensive bruising, the network said.
One fatality recorded last year - a 31-year-old Egyptian man who died of head injuries 17 days after falling into a coma following a severe beating, the network said.
Reza Golami, the head of an association of Afghans living in Greece, said many migrants are too afraid to leave their homes.
"There live with fear inside them, whether it's the fear of the police or the fear of racists," he said. "They don't dare leave their homes to buy a loaf of bread. This is not something that affects men alone, but even women and small children. We have witnessed hundreds of such cases."
Authorities vowed to crack down on hate crimes in the financially struggling country. Greece is the main entry point for migrants entering the European Union illegally, and there is a surge in popular support for Golden Dawn, an extreme-right xenophobic party, as the financial crisis deepens.
The government set up a special unit within the police that deals with racist crimes - a move the rights groups welcomed but said didn't go far enough.
"The main point we would like to emphasize today is the need of the Greek state, of the Greek government, to show more willingness to (prosecute) and punish those responsible for these racist crimes," Papaioannou said.
Some signs indicate that tolerance for racism is waning.
The strawberry farm shooting caused a national outcry, and authorities moved quickly to arrest and charge the three foremen, and the farm owner with attempted murder.
"The inhuman attack of armed men and the injuries of protesting farmers ... are condemned in the most absolute way by the whole of Greek society," government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou said of the attack. "This unprecedented and shameful act is foreign to the ethos of Greeks and its handling by authorities will be swift and exemplary."
Authorities said any of the wounded workers who are in the country illegally will not be prosecuted and will be treated instead as victims of trafficking.
But rights groups say there is still much to be done. They noted that the conditions in which the Bangladeshi strawberry pickers worked under - living in disused greenhouses or makeshift shacks and being unpaid for months - was a situation that dates back several years.
Papaioannou said some of the racist incidents occurred in schools, and minors reportedly participated in some racist attacks outside of schools.
"This is a very worrying side of the racist crime phenomenon in Greece," Papaioannou said. "The fact that it is infiltrating schools, that racist groups recruit children in the schools."
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press