AYS Daily Digest 20/05/2020 — Greece’s Authoritarian Slide
By: Are You Syrious
Tags: Digest, Migrants, Authoritarianism, Greece, Refugees

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 Are You Syrious? Follow May 21, 2020 · 9 min read

Conditions at Moria. Photo credit: Franziska Grillmeier

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.