ekathimerini.com | Greek-Italian push for EU migrant pacts
PMs promote repatriation agreements
CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (r) ushers his Greek counterpart Costas Karamanlis into the Palazzo Chigi in Rome for talks that focused on illegal immigration. The leaders also discussed cooperation in the energy sector, in the proposed ITGI and South Stream gas pipelines, prompting Karamanlis to highlight their ‘strong common interests.’
Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and his Italian counterpart Silvio Berlusconi yesterday agreed to promote the creation of a common European policy for curbing a growing tide of illegal immigrants, proposing repatriation pacts between Brussels and the migrants’ states of origin and transit countries.
Speaking after talks in Rome, Karamanlis said that Greek and Italian authorities saw eye-to-eye on many issues relating to illegal immigration. “We agreed to push forward with common initiatives in all directions including the promotion of repatriation agreements between the EU and the countries of origin and transit of the migrants,” Karamanlis said, adding that the role of the EU’s border monitoring agency Frontex should also be boosted.
Berlusconi struck a similar note, calling on all member states to contribute to efforts to make the 27-member EU the “common point of reference” so that repatriation pacts relate to the EU as a whole “rather than individual member states having to reach agreements with those on the African side of the Mediterranean coast.”
Earlier in the week the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) had criticized both Greece and Italy for their treatment of asylum seekers.
The UNHCR expressed concern over the decision by Greek authorities to raze a makeshift settlement in the western port of Patra that, until recently, had hosted hundreds of would-be migrants seeking an opportunity to sneak onto a ferry to Italy.
The United Nations refugee agency has also appealed to Greece to avoid so-called “push-backs” of migrants originating from war zones.
In a related development yesterday, Alternate Interior Minister Christos Markoyiannakis announced that an aircraft had left Athens with 90 would-be migrants from Pakistan and Afghanistan. Hundreds more migrants are believed to have been deported over the past few months.
ekathimerini.com | Greek-Spanish bid to curb migrants
Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and his Spanish counterpart Jose Luis Zapatero yesterday issued a joint appeal for tighter border controls and closer cooperation between the European Union and African and Asian states to curb a relentless influx of illegal immigrants that has placed a particularly heavy burden on Mediterranean countries.
“Tackling illegal immigration demands solidarity and common action from within the EU,” Karamanlis said following his talks with Zapatero in Madrid before boarding a flight to Rome, where he is due to meet with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi today for talks on the same subject.
Yesterday both Karamanlis and Zapatero stressed the importance of boosting the EU border control agency Frontex to stem the tide of undocumented visitors. “The need to strengthen border controls is clear and for that Frontex is essential,” Zapatero said. Karamanlis grasped the opportunity to reiterate Greece’s desire for the creation of a joint European coast guard and to prod EU candidate state Turkey to cooperate by honoring a bilateral pact for the repatriation of migrants signed by Athens and Ankara in 2001. “Turkey must realize that it has to cooperate more closely, more constructively and more effectively with the EU and with Greece,” Karamanlis said. He and Zapatero stressed the need for closer ties to be forged between the EU and the migrants’ countries of origin, chiefly in Africa and Asia.
Meanwhile in Athens Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis stressed that any crackdown on illegal immigration should not be prejudicial to migrants fleeing war zones. “The need for policing our national borders must be balanced against the need to provide asylum to refugees who have been uprooted from their homes,” Bakoyannis told a conference organized by the Greek office of the United Nations refugee agency.
timesofmalta.com - Greek police raid illegal immigrant campSunday, 12th July 2009 - 15:36CET
Reuters
Greek police raided an illegal immigrants' camp in the port city of Patras today, moving out 150 people and levelling shacks with bulldozers.
Hundreds of immigrants, mostly Afghans, had lived in squalid conditions at the camp for years, prompting protests from residents. "We evacuated the camp," Thanassis Davlouros, chief of the Patras Police, told Reuters.
"We moved about 110 immigrants to Patras hotels and other camps in Athens and 40 minors to a special centre in northern Greece. The immigrants were mainly Afghans", Davlouros said. It was not immediately clear what would happen to them next.
Around 80 police officers took part in the operation.
Police said that during the operation a fire broke out and burned the camp down, but no one was injured. Two immigrants were arrested for arson.
Immigrants, mainly from Asia, use the Patras port to pass to Italy and other European countries. Greece, is often criticised by international organisations and rights groups for its treatment of illegal migrants, including poor conditions in detention centres.
The conservative Greek government said this month it would get tougher on illegal immigration. It said that it had arrested about 47,000 immigrants who came from Turkey last year.
Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis will visit Spain and Italy next week to discuss among other issues the illegal immigration problem.
ekathimerini.com | New law increases threat of deportation
An amendment to Greece’s existing legislation, which could be passed through a reduced summer session of Parliament later this week, may lead to foreigners living in the country legally as well as those who are here illegally being deported over misdemeanors even if they are not convicted.
With immigration becoming a pressing political issue, the government has embarked on an effort to adopt a series of measures that will stem the flow of illegal migrants arriving on Greek shores.
Sources told Kathimerini that the amendment would allow authorities to classify as “dangerous for public order and safety” any foreigner who is charged with committing a crime that carries a prison sentence of three months or more.
This means that the person can then be deported to his homeland before even standing trial, as long as that country has signed a bilateral repatriation agreement with Greece.
The provisions of the proposed law have prompted a backlash from human rights activists.
“It is totally unacceptable in a just state for someone to face devastating consequences before it has been established in a fair trial whether he is guilty and before he has exercised every legal right to defend himself,” said an organization called Greek Action for Human Rights.
“It is absurd for foreigners who have been in the country for a long time, including those from the European Union, to face the danger of deportation simply if they are charged with minor infractions,” said the www.diavatirio.net site lawyer Vassilis Chronopoulos, who foresees a backlog of cases building up in the courts.
Greece arrests 126 sea boat immigrants - UPI.com
Published: June 15, 2009 at 10:09 AM
Greek authorities said Coast Guard boats and the French Zeppelin ship intercepted four vessels with 126 illegal immigrants in the Aegean Sea close to Turkey.
Boats of the Greek cost guard and European Union countries' ships are operating within the joint Frontex initiative to contain surges of illegal immigrants attempting to enter Western Europe from the sea, the Athens News Agency reported Monday.
During the weekend, the French Zeppelin ship and Greek boats stopped a boat with 32 immigrants, including four women, off the northern coast of Lesbos island, northwest of the Turkish port of Izmir.
In the sea northwest of Lesbos, the Greek boats intercepted two synthetic dinghies with oars that were carrying 60 people -- 45 men, seven women and eight children. A motor-boat with 34 people -- 24 men, four women and six children -- was stopped in the nearby area.
The illegal immigrants underwent medical checks and then were transported to the Greek Pagani immigration reception center, ANA said.
The report did not specify the nationalities of the immigrants.
ekathimerini.com | Undercover officer explains how he trawls border looking for immigrants
Evros area has become Europe’s ‘hottest zone’ for illegal migrants looking to use Greece as a stepping stone
By Vasilis Kyriakoulis - Agence France-Presse
A veteran of Greece’s anti-immigration police, “Nick” has driven thousands of miles posing as a Turkish trucker, dodged an Albanian killer and was nearly shot by Greek border guards.
It’s all in a day’s work for the undercover officer who operates on Greece’s northeastern border with Turkey, a major smuggling route through which thousands of clandestine immigrants slip into the country every year, seeking a better future in the European Union.
ANA
A migrant gazes out at the port of Patras. A large number of illegal immigrants enter Greece at the Greek-Turkish border in the northeastern Evros region.
EU border watchdog Frontex calls the region delineated by the Evros River, Greece’s natural boundary with Turkey, “the hottest area of illegal immigration in Europe.”
Over 50 percent of some 82,000 migrants who crossed onto the continent last year came through this region, Frontex deputy executive director Gil Arias said during a joint border exercise on the Evros in May.
For the past five years, “Nick” has made this area his second home, clocking thousands of hours behind the wheel of police-issued freighters, posing as a long-haul trucker trying to score a little extra income.
He carries seven different cellphones – which ring incessantly – and assumes various Balkan nationalities to throw smugglers off the scent while brokering deals to transport migrants aboard his truck.
Big profits
“Sometimes I pretend to be Bulgarian, Albanian, Georgian or Turkish,” the officer said. “It can take up to six months to close a deal. I usually ask for 1,500 euros ($2,100) and the deal closes at 1,000-1,200 euros.”
Smugglers have a different price list: Africans and Asians pay around 8,000 euros ($11,000) on average for the trip to Greece, while migrants from China are charged 13,000 euros, though the cost is lower by sea, he said.
“In Greece, migrant smuggling is a business more profitable even than drug trafficking. Networks can earn up 120 million euros a month,” he said.
Most of the migrants say they want to get to France and Scandinavian countries, mainly Finland, “Nick” said.
The police made over 53,000 arrests in northern Greece last year, including some 500 caught as a result of “Nick’s” undercover activities. He hands the migrants he carries to the police, but helps fellow truck drivers evade arrest or land lighter court sentences to maintain his contacts inside Turkey.
Things are not always smooth. Once he didn’t go home for three months after hearing that an Albanian convict had put out word he wanted him dead. On another occasion, he was nearly shot by Greek border guards.
“Because of a cross-department blunder, I found myself lying on the ground with Greek border guards aiming their guns at my head,” he said.
“I tell you, by the time I could convince them that I’m a police officer, my heart had nearly leaped out of my chest.”
Around a year ago, senior police officers began discouraging the arrest of illegal immigrants because the country is running out of space to detain them.
The Greek Interior Ministry says it has spent over 10 million euros in the last four years to build a dozen new migrant holding centers for 3,800 people.
Yet more than 146,000 migrants were caught in the country last year, some of whom may have been in Greece for several years. This was higher than the 122,000 arrested in 2007 and a huge spike over the 45,000 arrested in 2004, according to Interior Ministry figures.
The problem is compounded by Turkey’s refusal to readmit migrants that crossed into Greece from its territory, despite a protocol signed between Athens and Ankara in 2001, the ministry says.
ekathimerini.com | Calls grow to curb immigration
PM to push issue at EU summit this week, as opposition ups the ante and coast guard struggles
Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis yesterday telephoned his counterpart in the Czech Republic, which currently holds the European Union presidency, to press for greater EU support in curbing a seemingly relentless influx of illegal immigrants.
According to government spokesman Evangelos Antonaros, Karamanlis told his counterpart Jan Fischer that Greece cannot shoulder the burden of protecting the EU’s southeastern border. The PM is due to broach the issue at a summit in Brussels later this week.
Meanwhile, Athens Mayor Nikitas Kaklamanis called for municipal council members to forge a united front to tackle the capital’s burgeoning migrant population which is being blamed by some for spiraling crime that has led to a spike in far-right sentiment. Kaklamanis said swift consensus on this issue was crucial, “even if we must all compromise on some of our convictions.”
The leader of the main opposition PASOK party, George Papandreou, seemed less compromising in an article published in Sunday’s Kathimerini, in which he outlines an eight-point plan for “zero illegal immigration.” Papandreou condemns the government for having a “nonexistent policy” for immigration which has marginalized second generation migrants and failed to make a distinction between economic migrants and refugees.
Responding to criticism from other opposition parties, describing the military facilities slated for use as migrant reception centers as “concentration camps,” Antonaros said the ruling conservatives were being treated unfairly. “Two-and-a-half years ago we were being condemned by international bodies for having too few reception centers,” he said.
Meanwhile, the coast guard on Lesvos, where a reception center is full to bursting, detained a total of 126 illegal immigrants this weekend. The migrants were intercepted in four boats that had been heading toward the island from neighboring Turkey.
ekathimerini.com | Focus on immigrationFocus on immigration
Responding to growing pressure to tackle a burgeoning problem with illegal immigration, Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos yesterday heralded the imposition of tougher sentences to discourage human smugglers and the creation of reception centers where undocumented migrants would be held for up to 12 months until their fate is decided.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis sent a letter to Jan Fischer, his counterpart in the Czech Republic, which currently holds the European Union’s rotating presidency, asking for the union’s full support in curbing the migration flows that have hit countries like Greece, Italy and Spain particularly hard.
“The big issue that Greece and other EU countries face is the uncontrolled entry of illegal immigrants at Europe’s borders, mainly through people smugglers,” Pavlopoulos said after yesterday’s Cabinet meeting, noting that traffickers would face felony rather than misdemeanor charges which carry heavy jail terms.
The minister added that he would press EU officials at a summit next week for the signing of repatriation agreements with migrants’ countries of origin and urge Turkey to honor a bilateral pact with Greece for migrants’ repatriation.
Pavlopoulos added that the government would push ahead with stalled plans to build a mosque for the capital’s Muslims in the central Votanikos area and a Muslim cemetery in Schisto, western Attica.
The government’s proposals attracted strong opposition criticism. George Papandreou, the leader of Socialist PASOK, described the measures as “sketchy and inadequate” and proposed instead an eight-point plan foreseeing the boosting of border controls and a drive to upgrade parts of the capital that have turned into ghettos for migrants. The Communist Party accused the government of seeking to imprison migrants in “concentration camps.”
Speaking to reporters after the Cabinet meeting, Pavlopoulos insisted that the new measures were not a reaction to the government’s losses in last Sunday’s European Parliament elections and to the gains made by the far-right Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS).
Greece to toughen policy on migrants
2009-06-11 19:07:02 -
ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Greece will toughen its policies on illegal immigration to combat a surge in trafficking from Turkey, the country's interior minister said Thursday.
Traffickers will face tougher penalties, and more detention centers will be created allowing authorities to detain illegal immigrants for up to 12 months, up from the current official limit of three months, Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos said.
Pavlopoulos said a sharp increase in illegal immigration had been worsened because Turkey, with which Greece shares a border, was not adequately enforcing an agreement to take back migrants facing deportation from Greece.
In 2008, Greek authorities arrested more than 146,000 illegal immigrants, a 30 percent increase from the previous year and a 54 percent jump from 2006, according to figures from the Interior Ministry.
The measures announced Thursday follow the surge in support for a rightist party in European Parliament elections last Sunday, as well a violence protest on May 22 by Muslim immigrants in central Athens, protesting the alleged defacement of a Quran by a Greek policeman.
Earlier this week, police clashed with rival groups of demonstrators near the center of the capital, when local residents tried to block mostly Asian immigrants from entering a public playground.
ekathimerini.com | Plan for migrant units, returns
Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos is expected to take advantage of today’s Cabinet meeting to propose the creation of temporary reception centers for the capital’s burgeoning population of illegal immigrants in disused military camps on the outskirts of Attica as well as closer cooperation with foreign embassies to arrange the repatriation of migrants where necessary, Kathimerini has learned.
According to sources, a chartered aircraft left Athens for Islamabad late last night with an undetermined number of Pakistani migrants aboard.
Apart from the sensitive issue of possible deportations, Pavlopoulos is also expected to broach the controversial issues of the construction of a mosque and cemetery for the capital’s Muslims. Also on the agenda is the intensification of police sweeps in central Athens, where hundreds of illegal immigrants live in filthy squats and are drawn into crime rings, and the recruitment of hundreds more border guards to keep out additional would-be migrants.
The news came following a tense Tuesday night in the central Athens district of Aghios Panteleimonas where self-styled anarchists clashed with residents alleged to have locked the entrance to a local park, ostensibly to keep immigrants out. According to police, locals tried to intervene when a group of the protesters turned up and tried to break a padlock on the gate to the park. A scuffle broke out between the two sides though no injuries were reported. Later that night, the self-styled anarchists clashed with riot police, who had been dispatched to the area to restore order, leading to five arrests. The large population of immigrants, mostly from Afghanistan, living in Aghios Panteleimonas has led to escalating tensions in the area in recent months, with many residents calling for the foreigners to be removed and supporters of extreme-right groups taking advantage of the situation. A makeshift mosque in the area was torched at the end of last month.
ekathimerini.com | UNHCR slams bill for stricter asylum law
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) yesterday criticized a draft bill under consideration that it fears will compromise the fair examination of asylum applications in Greece, the first port of call in Europe for thousands of migrants.
According to the UNHCR, the draft presidential decree, which foresees a reorganization of the asylum-processing system, “would deprive asylum seekers of access to an effective remedy as required by EU law.” The bill also gives no guarantee that “non police bodies” will have an effective role in the process, the UNHCR said. Greece has one of the lowest rates for asylum application approval of all EU countries, with only 344 appeals accepted last year out of 19,884 applications submitted in 2008. Authorities reportedly have a backlog of 30,000 appeals lodged by asylum seekers whose initial applications were rejected.
ekathimerini.com | Migrants take to the streets again
PANTELIS SAITAS/ANA
Immigrants holding banners saying ‘Stop racist attacks; no to Islamophobia’ staged a passionate but largely peaceful demonstration in central Athens yesterday. The rally came exactly a week after a similar demonstration degenerated into violence when a small group of protesters vandalized storefronts and traffic lights.
Hundreds of immigrants and leftist sympathizers took part in an anti-racism rally in central Athens yesterday, a week after a similar demonstration prompted by the alleged defacement of a miniature Quran by a policeman escalated into clashes with riot police.
Clusters of riot police had been stationed around the city center yesterday due to fears that the migrants would clash with some 250 far-rightists who staged their own demonstration a couple of blocks away near the Athens Cathedral in protest at the growing influx of immigrants into the capital. By late last night, there had been no reports of any clashes between the two groups. One minor scuffle reportedly broke out between some migrant protesters who wanted the rally to end and others who wanted it to continue. There were reports of some minor damage to a couple of storefronts but it was unclear whether this was the work of migrant protesters or leftists who joined the rally.
Organizations representing the country’s immigrants did not participate in yesterday’s demonstration, saying that they did not want to fuel tensions or have their members branded as troublemakers. “We do not want the presence of immigrants in Aghios Panteleimonas to be linked with outbreaks of violence in the center of the capital which is also our city,” the Muslim Union of Greece said in a statement, referring to a central Athens district with a large immigrant population.
In its statement, the union also reiterated its calls for the creation of a mosque for the capital’s Muslims, something authorities promised years ago but have failed to make good on following protests by the Orthodox Church and residents at the proposed locations
ekathimerini.com | Our migrants and the others
By Paschos Mandravelis
Any discussion on migration inevitably includes the wave of Greek migration abroad in the 1950-70 period and the discussion normally ends with the aphorism: “Yes, but our migrants behaved differently.”
Though containing a grain of racism, this is mostly true. “Our” migrants did indeed behave differently. Why? Are Greeks genetically endowed with good behavior? If so, why does this only come out abroad and not on the streets of Athens?
On February 3, 2006, an Islamic organization held a rally outside the Danish Embassy in London in protest at the controversial sketches published in Denmark of the Prophet Muhammad. Their placards read chilling messages like “Death to the infidels” and “Remember 9/11,” yet not a single incident occurred. Not a single stone was thrown, not a single fire lit nor store window smashed. In contrast, during the protests in Athens last Friday against a similar event – an insult to a symbol of Islam – there were no scary banners but stones were thrown, shop windows smashed and fires lit.
So, here we have two rallies by people of the same religion, against a similar incident but with very different results. The London protest was a very British affair – sharp words, no violence – and the Athens protest was typically Greek – resulting in chaos.
What this tells us is that, to a great degree, migrants adopt the behavior of their host country. Greek migrants of the past had their own distinct identities but, in contrast to how they would behave in their own country, they would never litter the streets of their host country. They knew the law stood for them as much as it did for the locals. In a country like Greece, where lawlessness is pretty much the norm, the migrants here adapt accordingly and therefore contribute to the problem. Their trash in the street is no different to ours, they simply increase the volume. The only way to solve many of the problems that migration brings is to enforce the law, and not just on migrants but first on the Greeks.
ekathimerini.com | Help with immigration
Netherlands to improve asylum process; archbishop slams mosque attack
Greece and the Netherlands yesterday agreed to work closely to curb a growing influx of illegal immigrants entering the European Union, and lighten the burden on Greece as the bloc’s southeastern gatekeeper.
The Netherlands’ Deputy Justice Minister Nebahat Albayrak, on an official visit to Athens, told Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos that her country was prepared to help Greece improve its procedure for processing asylum claims so that migrants whose lives are not at risk can be repatriated. But, in an interview with Kathimerini, Albayrak said migrants should not be allowed to leave Greece. “This would be catastrophic for Europe... as the message we would be giving out is that, if they make it to Greece, they can go on to the rest of Europe,” said the minister, who is of Turkish origin.
Pavlopoulos said he and Albayrak discussed ways “to facilitate legal migration and avert illegal immigration,” adding that a priority was to boost the role of Frontex, the EU’s border management agency. Meanwhile in Brussels, European Commission Vice President Jacques Barrot said that the EU executive body had increased pressure on Turkey to honor a bilateral pact with Greece for repatriating illegal immigrants.
Albayrak, who later yesterday toured a migrant reception center on Samos, said the creation of an efficient system at the country’s land and sea borders to monitor migrants and determine which merit asylum would greatly reduce the pressure on Greece. “I believe if proper procedures are in place, only a small proportion will be granted asylum,” she said. The minister proposed that Greek authorities cooperate with the Dutch state translation agency and the EC’s directorate-general for translation to ensure that all incoming migrants undergo an interview, a test to determine their age and receive basic aid until their fate is decided.
In a related development yesterday, Archbishop Ieronymos condemned Tuesday’s arson attack on a makeshift mosque in the central Athens district of Aghios Panteleimonas, home to thousands of Muslim migrants. “The peaceful coexistence of people of different faiths... is a basic prerequisite for social cohesion,” he said.
ekathimerini.com | Migrants clash with police in central Athens
YANNIS KOLESIDIS/REUTERS
A Muslim immigrant shouts in front of a row of riot policemen during a rally in central Athens yesterday. Hundreds of Muslims marched through the center to protest the alleged defacement of a copy of the Quran by a Greek policeman.
Police clashed with hundreds of Muslim immigrants in central Athens for a second day yesterday in an escalating protest at reports that a policeman had defaced a copy of the Quran during a routine inspection earlier this week.
An estimated 1,500 demonstrators, mostly immigrants from Syria, Pakistan and Afghanistan, hurled sticks and stones at police officers in full riot gear who had been stationed outside Parliament yesterday afternoon. Police responded with tear gas and stun grenades. In the escalating unrest, which saw several store facades smashed, parked cars overturned and traffic lights vandalized, one officer and four protesters were said to have sustained minor injuries. More than 15 protesters were arrested. The demonstration followed a less violent protest that broke out near Omonia Square on Thursday in the wake of reports that a policeman had torn up a copy of the Quran and then stamped on it during a routine inspection conducted on four Syrian migrants in the city center. After word spread about the alleged incident, local migrant groups organized the protest. Later on Thursday an Afghan national was arrested in the run-down Athens district of Aghios Panteleimonas after allegedly throwing a firebomb at a police station, causing limited damage but serious injury to himself.
The Muslim Union of Greece, which represents thousands of immigrants in the capital, said that it had taken legal action against the unidentified policeman alleged to have defaced the Syrian’s copy of Islam’s holy book. Police said an internal investigation had been launched.
Meanwhile, in a related development, Athens Mayor Nikitas Kaklamanis welcomed a proposal by Athens Prefect Yiannis Sgouros to purchase the building of the old Athens appeals court in the city center where hundreds of illegal immigrants have been squatting for the past six months.
ekathimerini.com | Greece grappling with terrorism, illegal immigration and recession
Director of Greece’s National Intelligence Service (EYP) Ambassador Ioannis Corantis speaking on the threats of international terrorism and illegal immigration.
ATHENS– With international terrorism thriving, Greece should be prepared to tackle new and more potent forms of terror, exchanging intelligence information with other nations and combating illegal immigration, Greece’s Director of National Intelligence said Friday.
Ambassador Ioannis Corantis made the remarks during an unprecedented conference staged on the sidelines of Athens International 2009, an exhibition focusing on defence, security, energy and civil aviation in Southeast Europe.
“Terrorism remains the main international threat, but it is continuously evolving, with new methods of operation that require new means of response,” Mr. Corantis said. “Greece must be prepared to react [because] the magnitude of prospective attacks may increase.”
The head of Greece’s National Intelligence Service (EYP) did not elaborate, but he underscored the growing threat of radical Islam spreading across Europe, encroaching also on the Western Balkans, including Bosnia, Albania, Serbia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
He said there were growing trends of European-based militant jihadists returning to Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq for training, while radical religious leaders in Europe and the Internet were facilitating the growing reach of religious extremism.
“The Internet has become an ideal means for spreading radical Islam,” Mr. Corantis told an audience of Greek and foreign diplomats, defence officials and politicians. “It is a cheap and undetectable tool terrorists use to disseminate their propaganda.”
With growing numbers of people fleeing Iraq, Afghanistan and the Caucasus, Mr. Corantis stressed the need for Greece to grapple with the rising tide of illegal immigration.
“We are doing everything to guarantee that those coming in are nothing more than what they claim to be: illegal refugees seeking a better life,” he said. “It’s not an easy task. But that Greece remains safe and untouched by radical forms of Islam bears proof of our hard and effective work.”
Earlier this month, the US State Department expressed concern over the “drastic increase” of illegal immigration, suggesting that Greece “could become a transit route for terrorists traveling to Europe and the United States.”
Mr. Corantis said Greece was open to exchanging intelligence information with allies but denied any existence of Al-Qaeda terror cells in the country.
“The concern may be there, but there is not a single kernel of proof, that militant Islamists have either entered the country or that Muslims residing here are turning radical.”
Last year, more than 140,000 illegal immigrants arrived in Greece, mostly via Turkey, up from 118,000 in 2007 and 96,000 in 2006.
Thousands more are said to arrive undetected.
Once caught, however, undocumented migrants are fingerprinted, held for a few days in overcrowded detention centers and then released with orders to leave the country within 30 days.
Most, though, end up in the Greek capital because Turkish officials no longer respect a bilateral agreement to return illegal refugees, according to Greek police officials.
“We need a concerted effort of cooperation among various agencies to grapple with illegal immigration,” Mr. Corantis told the conference.
Organized in cooperation with the Constantine Karamanlis Institute for Democracy, the Andreas Papandreou Institute of Strategic and Development Relations (ISTAME) and the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP), the conference touched on a range of security and defence-related issues.
A keynote speaker, Deputy Defence Minister Yannis Plakiotakis underscored the need for regional cooperation in Southeast Europe.
“The Balkans are no longer the powder keg of Europe,” he said. “Still, the state of affairs in the region is fluid and volatile.”
“We believe that regional cooperation and joint action operations can afford tangible solutions to a string of problems plaguing the region; it can help countries focus on a host of issues that unite rather than separate them.”
Earlier, Louka Katseli, the shadow finance minister of the socialist opposition PASOK party, warned of the need for “qualitative government reforms” to safeguard stability, security and development in Greece.
“The need for quality government is so much more pronounced now within this period of economic turmoil,” she told the conference. “Swift and efficient government intervention is the only way out the crisis… enabling social cohesion and promoting social prosperity.”
Mrs. Katseli also called for measures to improve Greece’s competitiveness, including investments in innovative “green projects,” and restructuring of the nation’s defence industry.
“With the necessary planning, Greece’s defence industry can focus on new and select activities and markets that can guarantee financial gains and a competitive edge,” she said.
Drastic spending cuts and a new regulatory system in defence procurement projects were also required, Mrs. Katseli said, to increase spending in social security, education and investments.
Held at Athens International Airport’s Metropolitan exhibition center, Athens International comes at the height of Greece’s 2006-15 military procurement programs.
Defence spending in Greece runs at around 3 percent of GDP, one of the highest levels in the EU and NATO, partly because of a policy to keep an arms balance with neighboring Turkey.
Though both NATO allies, Greece and Turkey remain at odds over air-and-sea boundaries and flights in the Aegean Sea.
Despite longstanding differences, relations between the two countries have improved significantly in recent years, cementing strong energy links with the creation of the Greece-Turkey-Italy Interconnector, a project that entails the creation of a pipeline that will transfer natural gas from Caspian countries to Western Europe, Minister of Development Kostas Hatzidakis told the conference.
Athens International kicked off last year focusing almost exclusively on defence. It has since then come to encompass Greece’s key infrastructure industries, including energy, security and civil aviation.
The exhibition runs until Sunday.
Athens Muslim group attacked in wake of violent protests | Europe | Deutsche Welle | 23.05.2009Crime | 23.05.2009
At least three people were hospitalized in Athens on Saturday morning after a firebomb attack on a shop used as a Muslim prayer center for immigrants.
Police said unknown assailants smashed the shop's windows and poured gasoline inside before igniting it.
The attack came a day after clashes between more than 1,000 Muslim protesters and Greek police in central Athens, after the police allegedly desecrated a copy of the Koran.
The march was organized by leftist, immigrant and anti-racism groups. Violence broke out after the rally when a group of protesters began throwing projectiles at police.
Immigrant groups allege that an Athens police officer tore apart and stepped on the Koran of a coffee shop customer during a police check in central Athens on Thursday. Police said they have launched an investigation into the incident
Some 46 protesters were arrested Friday during the clashes, while seven Muslim immigrants and seven policemen were hospitalized for treatment. More than 70 cars and around a dozen businesses were damaged in the clashes, which sent tourists running for cover in nearby hotels.
A day earlier an even larger crowd of around 1,500 Muslim immigrants rallied before the march degenerated into violence. Police used tear gas to disperse the crowds.
Muslim hardships
Many Muslims in Athens use abandoned factories and converted coffee shops as makeshift prayer houses. Some Muslim groups have complained of police brutality and poor treatment by officials in the past.
Athens is the only European capital which does not have a proper mosque or cemetery to serve its Muslim population. There are more than 300,000 Muslims living in Athens, mainly from various parts of northern Africa and Pakistan.
At present, the only operating mosques in Greece are in the north-eastern region of Thrace, home to some 100,000 Muslims.
dfm/dpa/AFP/Reuters
Editor: Andreas Illmer
ekathimerini.com | EU offers help to detect migrantsGreece is getting high-tech assistance from the European Union border agency Frontex to track illegal immigrants crossing into its territory from Turkey.
It was revealed yesterday that Frontex officers are helping to train Greek border guards while also providing them with the latest technology to detect migrants hiding in trucks.
Frontex has sent 40 officers from 20 countries to work with 165 Greek border guards as part of an eight-day exercise. They are using equipment that detects heartbeats and carbon dioxide as well as heat cameras to scan the vehicles that pass through the Evros border post. Surveillance aircraft and helicopters are also being used to monitor the area.
Twelve migrants were reportedly detained during yesterday’s operations.
“This border region is the hottest area of illegal immigration in Europe,” Gil Arias, Frontex’s deputy executive director, told The Associated Press.
Greece has been asking the EU for help for some time in dealing with the influx of illegal immigrants, which has been rising steadily over the last few years.
Almost 150,000 people were arrested trying to enter Greece illegally last year, up by 30 percent on the previous year. More than 2,200 suspected traffickers were apprehended.
The presence of the Frontex officers came as residents and local officials in the Evros region of northeastern Greece, including Prefect Nikos Zambounidis, called for more measures to be taken to prevent illegal immigrants reaching Greece.
The prefecture has begun efforts to build a new reception center on a 2-hectare site to ease the overcrowding at the existing center, where conditions have been slammed by the Council of Europe and the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR.
Zambounidis said that he is struggling to find funding for the project.
On Monday, following a visit to the port of Patras, main opposition PASOK leader George Papandreou accused the government’s policy on illegal immigration of being a “complete failure.”
ekathimerini.com | Gov’t accused of failing on migrants
PASOK leader George Papandreou yesterday slammed the government’s immigration policy as a complete failure, as Alternate Interior Minister Christos Markoyiannakis heralded the creation of a separate body that would oversee the management of the center of Athens, which a growing number of illegal immigrants are making their home.
Papandreou was speaking in Patras after visiting the coast guard at the local port, close to where hundreds of migrants have set up a makeshift camp as they wait for the opportunity to board ferries for Italy.
“In Patras, we can see the complete failure of the government’s policy on illegal immigration,” said the PASOK leader.
He accused the government of lacking a clear policy on who should be granted asylum, of failing to develop a coherent policy on how to assimilate migrants in Greek society, of not ensuring the proper protection of the country’s borders and of being unable to reach bilateral agreements to secure the repatriation of some migrants.
“This problem can be solved by a more serious government that is capable of working with the European Union,” said Papandreou.
The government responded by announcing that it would be adopting a plan put forward by Athens Prefect Yiannis Sgouros to create a body that would coordinate the work of various services, including the police, in the so-called historic center of Athens.
Markoyiannakis gave no further details about how or when this body will operate but he told Skai Radio he has plans to increase the police presence around Omonia Square, where the crime rate has reached alarming levels. It is also the site of an abandoned court building where over 500 migrants are squatting.
Markoyiannakis added that there are plans to move a methadone center from the area, which many locals believe is the cause of the drug-related crime in the neighborhood.
ekathimerini.com | UNHCR slams bill for stricter asylum law
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) yesterday criticized a draft bill under consideration that it fears will compromise the fair examination of asylum applications in Greece, the first port of call in Europe for thousands of migrants.
According to the UNHCR, the draft presidential decree, which foresees a reorganization of the asylum-processing system, “would deprive asylum seekers of access to an effective remedy as required by EU law.” The bill also gives no guarantee that “non police bodies” will have an effective role in the process, the UNHCR said. Greece has one of the lowest rates for asylum application approval of all EU countries, with only 344 appeals accepted last year out of 19,884 applications submitted in 2008. Authorities reportedly have a backlog of 30,000 appeals lodged by asylum seekers whose initial applications were rejected.
Posts
