Development & Aid, Europe, Headlines, Human Rights, Migration & Refugees, Population

EUROPE-RIGHTS: Starving Because They Cannot Settle

Apostolis Fotiadis

ATHENS, Dec 5 2008 (IPS) - Fifteen migrants woke up Friday to the 25th day of their hunger strike in Crete's second largest municipality Hania. They all have been living and working in Hania for a long time.

Greece's second largest island Crete is 157 miles south of Attiki, the Greek area where capital Athens is situated. The island has a population 600,000. Hania alone has a population of 150,000.

The migrants, all of Arab origin, went on hunger strike to demand that local authorities accept documentation proving they were in the country before Aug. 31, 2004. According to the migration law passed in 2005, migrants who can prove their presence in Greece by that date can apply successfully for regularisation.

Eight of the hunger strikers launched applications earlier, but these were turned down. It costs 2,000 euros per application.

"The rest have refrained from applying because of the high cost, and knowing their chances of success are non-existent," Markos Xatzisavvas, member of a solidarity group with the migrants told IPS.

"Local authorities have responded in an extremely rough way," he said. "But we are not surprised; this is what the spirit of the new European migration policy, which the Greek government embraces fully, dictates."

During 2008 Greece has seen an increase of migrant influx. Asylum and regularisation systems are inefficient, with acceptance rates below 1 percent. Hundreds of thousands of people remain in the country without legal status, siphoned into an aggressive informal market that capitalises on their weakness.

The pressure on them led to several violent incidents around Athens last month. A Pakistani died fleeing a police raid during a riot outside the asylum application centre.

Last week anarchists and migrants clashed with members of fascist groups at a demonstration organised by LAOS, a parliamentary populist right-wing party. Greek residents of Agios Panteleimonas and Kipseli, central districts of Athens that are rapidly developing into migrant ghettos, joined the demonstration.

The response of local leaders in Crete has also caused dismay. At the beginning of the hunger strike Hania mayor Kyriakos Virvidakis ordered the clearance of the tents of hunger strikers from the square outside his house.

After the 20th day of hunger strike, regional administrator Serafim Tsiokas said that under Greek law the migrants could stay on hunger strike as long as they liked. Asked whether this meant until they die, he replied, "to the very end."

The minister for the interior had declined to appear in parliament to answer questions on the situation of the hunger strikers. No member of the party in power, the right-wing New Democracy, has visited them.

Ironically, Greek President Karolos Papoulias stayed in a hotel right next door to the location of the hunger strikers on a visit to Crete earlier this week to mark the island's integration with Greece. And he did defy protocol by meeting the solidarity group representatives, including Abdel Wahed Hatzi.

"He sincerely asked to be kept informed about the situation and promised to look into the issue," Abdel told IPS. "But time is really short, doctors say that any moment soon they will start suffering permanent damage. All of them are semi-unconscious; when they fade away they are taken to the hospital, offered first aid and then they are brought back. Last night ten of them were hospitalised."

Abdel said the Greek media has been silent about the hunger strikers. "There has been a wall for 24 days, national television has rarely mentioned the hunger strike, and only a very few national papers said a few things. While 15 people are dying, they did not dedicate more than a single minute. Is it that this is not a marketable story, or is the government asking not to make it an issue?"

A death among them would be momentous for social relations in Greece, he said. "The day after will be very different. People and foreigners in this country are angered by what they see; they struggle to keep it inside. What will they tell you when you call them that day?"