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Amnesty International urges Greece not to Treat Asylum Seekers as Criminals
Posted by keeptalkinggreece in News, Politics, Society
Amnesty International urges Greece to stop treating irregular migrants and asylum seekers as criminals.
In a report issued Tuesday the human rights watchdog states that irregular migrants and asylum seekers are “routinely detained in substandard conditions, documents their treatment, many of whom are held in poor conditions in border guard stations and immigration detention centers with no or limited access to legal, social and medical aid”. The 60 pages report states further that the migrants are detained in dirty and overcrowded centers and that unaccopmanied minors are held in porr conditions together with adults.
“Asylum seekers and irregular migrants are not criminals. Yet the Greek authorities treat them as such, disregarding their rights under international law,” said Nicola Duckworth, AI’s Europe and Central Asia Program Director. “”Currently, migrants are detained as a matter of course, without regard whether such measure is necessary. Detention of asylum-seekers and migrants on the grounds of their irregular status should always be a measure of last resort.”
In a press statement to the report, AI says that “Greek law makes irregular entry into and exit out of the country a criminal offense. Detention prior to deportation can last for up to six months in Greece for asylum-seekers and irregular migrants. ”
Few asylum-seekers and irregular migrants are recognized as refugees by the Greek authorities. From the more than 30,000 asylum applications examined in 2009, only 36 were granted refugee protection status while 128 were granted subsidiary protection status.
In the vast majority of detention facilities visited by Amnesty International delegates, conditions ranged from inadequate to very poor. Those detained told Amnesty International of instances of ill-treatment by coastguards and police.
Length and poor conditions of detention provoked irregular migrants and asylum-seekers to stage protests in Venna, north-east Greece in February 2010. Likewise, in April 2010, irregular migrants went on hunger strike on the island of Samos to protest their length of detention.
“Detention cannot be used as a tool to control migration,” Duckworth said
Tens of thousands of migrants arrive in Greece each year. The vast majority of them reach the Aegean Sea islands with boats from the Turkish coast. Some enter Greece on foot via the Evros river in the North-Eastern boarder of Greece with Turkey. They are mostly Afghan, Somali, Palestinian, Iraqi, Eritrean, Pakistani and Burmese, AI states.
There has been no government reaction to the AI report so far.
Only today Greek coast guards located a boat named ”MARMARIS KAPADOKYA” outside Santorini island. Aboard were 16 men, 2 women and 2 children, all foreigners without legal papers…
Links:
AI Press Release: http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGUSA20100727002&lang=e
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