GANGS ARE regularly attacking immigrants with impunity across Greece and authorities ignore or discourage victims from filing complaints, advocacy group Human Rights Watch has said in a report.
Greece is a major gateway into the EU for undocumented migrants from Asia and Africa. Illegal immigration has become a hot-button issue as the country struggles through its worst economic crisis since the second World War.
A fifth year of recession and unemployment at a record high has helped to fuel anti-immigrant sentiment, with migrants blamed for rising crime levels and accused of eating into a shrinking pot of subsidised services from the state.
“Migrants and asylum seekers spoke to Human Rights Watch of virtual no-go areas in Athens after dark because of fear of attacks by often black-clad groups of Greeks intent on violence,” the report said.
“While tourists are welcome, migrants and asylum seekers face a hostile environment, where they may be subject to detention in inhuman and degrading conditions, risk destitution and xenophobic violence.”
Human Rights Watch said the true extent of xenophobic violence in Greece was not clear as many victims did not report the crime and since government statistics were unreliable. It said it interviewed 59 people who suffered or escaped a racist incident between August 2009 and May this year. That included 51 serious attacks, while two of the victims were pregnant.
Most of the attacks took place at night in or near town squares and were committed by groups of attackers in dark clothing, their faces obscured with cloth or helmets, Human Rights Watch said. The perpetrators were known to have wielded clubs or beer bottles or just use their bare fists, it said.
The victims consistently told the group that police discouraged them from filing complaints and that some were even warned they would be detained if they insisted on an investigation. Many victims gave up after being told an investigation would be pointless if they could not identify the attackers or being told either to accept an apology or fight back, the group said.
Human Rights Watch also said there was evidence to suggest the perpetrators were members or associated with local vigilante groups and Golden Dawn, an extreme-right party elected to parliament this year – the first such development since the fall of a military junta in 1974.
The group said it had found no evidence that violent attacks were directed by the party, which denies it is neo-Nazi, but that Golden Dawn members had been implicated in specific attacks. It quoted residents and a police officer saying party members were involved in beating migrants and noted allegations of collusion between police and Golden Dawn members. – (Reuters)