Posted: 7 September
Country: Greece
Police in Greece stopped and questioned over 15,500 people, mostly immigrants and asylum-seekers, as a part of the operation officially named Xenios Zeus which started on 2nd of August. 2,000 people have been arrested pending deportation in the context of the operation targeting suspected migrants.
The campaign against suspected migrants introduced by Greek authorities has triggered a condemnation and strong reactions of the international human rights organisations. However, most of the media including some of the major newspapers like The Guardian and The Independent, have described it as an operation against “illegal immigrants”.
“They also seem to have reproduced verbatim police reports which claim that indiscriminately pouncing on immigrants is a way to crack down on all sorts of criminal behaviour, from drug use and prostitution to breaches of health regulations in shops”, writes blogger Yannis Hamilakis.
The official codename for the operation is ‘Xenios Zeus’ or ‘Hospitable Zeus’. The name of Zeus, usually invoked only by hoteliers and the Greek tourist board, has struck many people as an odd choice, especially with the epithet xenios, which denotes his role as the god of hospitality, the protector of foreigners. “Some critics thought it outrageous, offensive sarcasm, a direct and blatant provocation. Others thought it unintentionally ironic”, says LRB blog.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that “xenophobic violence in Greece has reached alarming proportions, with gangs regularly attacking migrants and asylum seekers”. “Greece should not discriminate based on race or ethnicity and should not subject migrants to arbitrary detention, inhuman and degrading treatment or to summary removal without due process of law”, said HRW in a statement.
“Actual fascists in actual black shirts are actually marching around Athens waving swastikas and burning torches, and maiming and murdering ethnic minorities, and world governments appear frighteningly relaxed about it as long as the Greek people continue to pay off the debts of the European elite”, wrote the British columnist Laurie Penny in The Independent.
Public Order and Citizen Protection Minister in Greece, Nikos Dendias, insists that there are no racial criteria. “We do not care about the nationality, colour or religion of the illegal immigrants,” the minister said at the press conference. “Our only criterion is the observance of legality with absolute respect of the human rights.”
Commenting on the operation’s controversial name, Dendias has explained that Xenios Zeus may actually protect immigrants. Speaking on Skai TV, he said that the operation gives immigrants a chance to regain their human rights: “They have been subservient to people who exploit them and cram them into basements – 40 or 50 people at a time – without any sanitation standards.”
On 23rd of July 2012 the rape and attempted murder of a 15-year-old girl on the island Paros by a Pakistani worker outraged the public. In a wave of attacks against foreigners that followed the event, an Iraqi migrant was beaten and stabbed to death by five hooded youngsters.
Since 2005 Greece has become the main influx point for undocumented migrants, with more than 80 percent entering Europe coming from Turkey through the Aegean Sea or the Northeast mainland boundary of the river Evros.
The vast majority of these migrants hope to move towards Northern Europe. However, the distance to other European countries as well as clauses in the Dublin II regulation that dictates the return of asylum seekers to the European country they first entered, have effectively condemned scores of immigrants to remain stuck in limbo in Greece.