POPULATION-GREECE: Europe’s Gateway For Illegal Immigration

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Wes Jonasson

ATHENS, Jan 26 2000 (IPS) - Over the years, Greece’s beautiful sunny shores and its tolerant governments have served as a welcome mat for many of the Middle East and Africa’s political refugees.

Arabs on the wrong side of repressive regimes; Palestinians or Lebanese fleeing upheaval; Iranians who wanted no part of a revolution; and Ethiopians who were caught up in civil strife — all found a home in Greece.

The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) helped many thousands adjust to their new status as refugees. After a sympathetic interview, an identity card, inexpensive lodgings and a small stipend awaited all but the most unlucky. The well- educated would then make the rounds of the various embassies in the hope of gaining admittance to one of the advanced countries in the West – the U.S., Canada, France, or Sweden.

The less qualified would seek out jobs as waiters, servants, or, most anything, as weeks became months and the need for documents approving permanent domicile loomed large. More often than not, they then turned to “fixers” who are in contact with the aliens police or to the police themselves — who, over the years, have established a thriving cottage industry which sells residence permits for a fee.

Many simply disappeared into the back streets of Athens where some 5 million people live spread out over a sprawling metropolitan area.

However, since the collapse of communism in eastern Europe, and the process of globalisation which is causing economic change and much uncertainty throughout the Third World; Greece is being flooded with thousands of economic refugees who view the country as the gateway to western Europe and to a better life.

Of the 600,000 asylum seekers in Greece — half are Albanians. For them, it’s easy to cross Greece’s rugged, but open, northern border. Mountain trails wind everywhere and Greece’s border patrols seemingly are stretched to the breaking point.

This past weekend, labour ministers Miltiadis Papaioannou of Greece and Makbule Cecu of Albania met to discuss the problem. But, meetings such as this have been held many times in the past with very little result.

Since the beginning of the new year, incidents involving illegal immigrants have occurred with their usual regularity.

The Greek coast guard rescued 275 Iraqi Kurds from the storm tossed seas off of Naxos when a small passenger ship floundered in gale force winds. They were to have been put ashore on the mainland.

Six Iraqi Kurds died and 30 were injured when a truck which was transporting them overturned on an icy road in north Greece. The driver, who fled on foot, was thought to be a Turk. The Iraqis had each paid 1,500-2,000 U.S. Dollars to be smuggled into Greece. Some 50 others were Pakistanis.

A Romanian woman and a Ukrainian woman died of exposure in the mountains of eastern Greece and 20 others suffered frostbite after their illegal border crossing adventure turned tragic in cold temperatures and heavy snow. They had walked for three days in light clothing with little or no food or water after a Bulgarian procurer for an Athens nightclub failed to make contact.

And there are even those who will risk the heavily mined military border separating Turkey and Greece. There, from time to time, illegal crossers are killed while trying to negotiate the Evros River.

But, still they try on foot, by boat — locked up in dark and dank cargo holds, by truck — oftentimes stuffed into metal shipping containers where some have died from a lack of oxygen, or in the summer from the stifling heat. Men, women, and children — the young and old alike!

Illegal immigration into eastern Greece rose an estimated 15 percent in 1999. Figures out of Albania are simply unavailable. While many remain in Greece to work at whatever jobs they can find; others attempt to travel on to Italy which shares a common border with France, Switzerland, and Austria. This is the most sought after goal of all — but sometimes also the most dangerous.

In December 1996, 283 Indians, Pakistanis, and Sri Lankans were deliberately drowned after a Greek ship owner and a Lebanese captain had conspired to ram a Panamanian-flagged vessel between Sicily and Malta.

Earlier this month, Greece’s minister for public order flew to Italy to sign a crime fighting accord with Italy and Albania. A similar agreement is expected to be executed between Greece and Turkey later in the year.

Those familiar with the ongoing traffic in illegal immigration say that agreements on paper fly in the face of reality. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of citizens from eastern Europe, North Africa, the Near East, and Asia would try to get to the West if they thought they could. And, transportation is always available for a price.

As a member of the European Union, Greece has become an attractive entry point for many who are seeking a better life.