Illegal immigrants: Greece’s unorthodox “secret weapon” in order to remain in the Eurozone
Some months ago I presented to you five big problems that Greece is currently facing and foreign journalists are not really aware of. You can find the text here.
A major unseen problem
On a daily basis, Greek media is occupied with stories about illegal immigrants who have killed / caused problems to / stolen Greek citizens. There are more than 1.000.000 people in Athens alone, but no one knows the specific number. The total is estimated at circa 2.000.000 souls. They come from Africa (Somalia, Ethiopia, etc.) and Asia (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, etc.) having paid some thousands of dollars to criminals to arrange their transfer. They get abandoned (or manage to arrive) inside the Greek territory and, according to Dublin II pact, Greece has to make sure that they will:
· Not continue their trip to Western Europe;
· Be recognized as citizens of a specific country (many of them deny it, in order to not be identified and sent back);
· Obviously be treated with respect, according to all international treaties for human rights;
· Be sent back to their country of origin;
Even if an illegal immigrant manages to exit Greece, reaching Sweden (for example) and will be caught there, he will be deported back to Greece, not to his country. It will be Greece’s problem to send him back home.
This problem causes billions of losses to the Greek State’s budget as well.
The difficult reality
Greece has some thousands of kilometers of sea frontiers to patrol, while Turkish “people specialized in this operation” are in the hundreds and use all means to aid them in this very profitable business. (Despite the fact that 95% of all these people come through the Turkish borders, Turkey denies admitting these people back).
Lately the European Union provided financial resources to Greece so as to create some “camps” where arrested illegal immigrants should be kept until they are deported. Few of these camps are open while more are under development. So some thousands immigrants will be treated in a civilized manner and sent back home. But what about the rest 2 million people blocked in Greece?
They have to “survive somehow”, living in horrible conditions. Their plan is to leave Greece, but they cannot, plus they have no papers or legal place to live in. So imagine what is going on in several neighborhoods of Athens, Patra and other Greek cities…
During the summer, the Greek society was shocked by the incident of a Pakistani immigrant who beat and raped a 15 year old Greek girl. As we speak, the girl is still in the hospital fighting for her life. But since that event it seems that now immigrants have problems as well. Lately the Greek media report stories of immigrants being beaten or killed in “unknown circumstances”.
It is not by coincidence that the “Golden Dawn” extreme right party has become one of the strongest ones in Greece during this year. They favor aggressive action against the emigrants and a serious part of the Greek society listens to their arguments. Last year in September they have 0,2% in the polls. In May and June they entered Parliament with 7% and nowadays they have become the 3rd strongest party in the polls, with 9 – 10%.
2 European concerns…
The new Greek government is the first one which seems to really act on this issue. The police have stopped being idle, law starts to be enforced and the State tries to regain control over the situation.
But the problem is complicated, expensive and difficult to resolve. Europeans are afraid of 2 possible consequences, especially if Greece will be expelled out of the Eurozone:
1. Without financial support, the Greek State will collapse and as Greece will exit the Euro zone, immigrants will not be stopped from reaching Germany, France and their other final destinations any more.
2. With Greece left on its own and the State without resources, illegal mobs will be “having a party”. The risk is that the extreme right and extreme left parties will probably become the majority in the society (remember Germany in the 1930s, before Hitler took the power through elections)
Greece: A complicated problem
No one says that Greeks have not made thousands of mistakes. They did, maybe millions, not just thousands. But nowadays the majority of Greek society is suffering much more than anyone else in the Western world. So far Germany and the other decision makers were thinking about the impact that a “GREXIT” would have on the European and world economy. Nowadays the illegal immigrants should also be taken into consideration. At the end of the day, who wants some hundreds of hungry Pakistani and Somali guys in his country, trying to survive? It is sad but cheaper to keep Greece alive in order to resolve the problem by itself, isn’t?
This is why the Greek problem is very complicated. It is not about money anymore, it is mainly politics. Maybe it was always like this, since the very beginning…
What is your opinion?