Angry residents of Patras, in North-Western Peloponnese, and supporters of extreme-right Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn) tried to storm an old factory where dozens of immigrants take shelter. Local media report of five people injured as protesters clashed with police, with the one side hurling stones and wooden sticks and the other firing tear gas. Among the injured are two policemen who were attacked with wooden sticks, and one GD member.
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For a second day, Patras residents and GD supporters fathered outside the old factory of Piraiki-Patraiki to protest the fatal injury of 30-year old Thanasi Lazanas by three immigrants of Afghan origin.
Protesters enter the factory
Late on Tuesday afternoon, 200 residents and GD supporters tried to storm the old factory. Police was on the ground and soon the clashed between the protesters and and police started.
Unconfirmed report claim that a group of GD attacked a policeman on a motorcycle, the response by the police was immediate.
Latest reports from the area say that a group of residents attempted to enter the factory with a bulldozer.
Seven riot police squads are due to arrive to Patras from Athens
Chrysi Avgi MP Attacked
Tension is extremely high among several society groups in the area.
Arvanitidis after the attack
Local news portal dete.gr reported that Chrysi Avgi-MP Michalis Arvanitidis was attacked by a group of some 30 young people while he was leaving the studio of local Super B television together with one journalist. Arvanitids has been punched in the face, while the attackers tore his clothes.
Residents of the Greek port city call for a solution to immigration problem.
Thanasis Lazanas was found heavily wounded near his home in Ities village at dawn on Saturday. He was stabbed at least 6 times with a knife in the chest and ribs. He was transmitted to the hospital but he died due to the heavy injuries. Two Afghan men, both 17 years old, have been arrested by police.
See also our Wednesday report on the issue HERE
I live in Patra and all I can say is about time. We are too scared to walk our own streets, get mugged in broad daylight and our kids can’t even ride their bikes. i have rental property near the factory that cannot be rented out because people are afraid of the Afghans. My mum had to move into the centre (rent a house when she has her own home) because she was too afraid to live in our own property. Enough is enough. If the Afghans cannot respect our town, they can leave. They are visitors here and should repsect that. It’s a disgrace to see such a small town in ruins.
No, they cannot leave. Because they are not permitted to, due to EU legislation.
The Afghanis themselves wouldn’t want anything more than to leave Greece; but the Greek state is obliged by the Dublin II Convention to prevent them from doing so. Even if they manage to leave and go e.g. to Italy, then the Italian police are obliged to send them back to Greece if they arrest them.
So attacking Afghanis will not help. What we should all do is ask for the abolition of the Dublin II Convention.
“Because they are not permitted to, due to EU legislation.”
Blah blah.. EU blah blah..
They where not permitted to enter the country either but still they managed, so leaving shouldn’t be that big of a problem too…
Of course they can leave. They can go back to Afghanistan!
Ah wait, but in Europe you get free money, food, and shelter, for the rest of your life… And you can even prey on the infidels, whose women you can call whores, whose men you can spit in the face, and whose children you can abuse. Surely this must be paradise.
Well, except if you are Greek of course. I’m still surprised no government officials or bankers have been killed in that country, but the year is far from over…
Of course they can go back to Afghanistan!
Ah wait, but in Afghanistan you get free bombs, shooting, torture and death by an invading army, including Greek troops.
…and not all Afghans are …Afghans
I believe that there’s no cohesive or comprehensive policy in Greece to deal with the influx of hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens. There is one thing for sure, that the problem of illegal immigration in Greece can’t be fixed easily. We hear politicians and activists from Golden Dawn using one-liners, some citizens commit violent acts, some propose easy,ear-pleasing, effortless and inexpensive solutions to this problem. In my opinion some of these people are opportunists, dangerous, untrustworthy and demagogues. Some Greek people might be truly against illegal immigration, but others are buying cheap imitations of brand name products or unknowingly purchasing stolen goods from them. Some Greeks illegally employ aliens who are picking fruits from their orchards, give work to undocumented nurses in public hospitals, use them as carpenters, plumbers, construction workers, and others have unprotected sex with undocumented prostitutes.
A comprehensive policy that could reduce the influx of illegal aliens in Greece should have some of the following elements: 1) Better protection of the Greek borders with all the neighboring countries. 2) Imposing stiff penalties on Greek employers who knowingly employ illegal immigrants, 3) Expedite the creation of new detention centers, 4) Accelerate the process of granting asylum to qualified applicants, 5) Speed up the judicial expulsion process, 6) Increase the presence of police units to instill a sense of safety and security among Greek citizens, 7) Request funding from the EU to tackle this serious Greek/European problem.
8) Install a big slingshot somewhere near the eastern border and send everyone entering illegally back whence the came.
Whoever said that getting a foot into a country automatically grants the right to stay indefinitely?
Excellently and sensibly addressed Nicholas. Thank you for your words of logic. I have met several illegal immigrants from Pakistan and on talking to them find that they are not here because there is no work in their home country , but simply because they can earn more money here.
WHY IS IT THAT WHEN GREEKS ARRESTS ALIENS FOR TRADING ILLEGAL GOODS WE ARE RACISTS BUT TAKE A LOOK AT THIS QOUTE FROM THE NIGERIAN GOVERMENT.
“Nigerian law bans foreigners from the retail trading.Local immigration chief Emmanuel Brisca Ifeadi described the Chinese as “scavengers” and said the arrests were part of a wider crackdown.Those who are economic scavengers they will be deported to their country,” he said.”For Chinese to come to our country and be selling textiles in our market will not be allowed. And we will continue checking them; arresting them and deporting them to their country.”
He said all foreigners found to be trading illegally would be targeted in the crackdown, not just Chinese.
lol.
maybe it’s just a Nigerian spam government?
Seriously: as Greece cannot provide any facilities to illegal immigrants it “allows” black market trade so that they can financially support themselves. Just a thought…
I won’t allow extreme comments here.Beware with your language. Thank you.
Greece is for many migrants a stopover to other places. But the Greek government doesn’t let them go. The discussion on migrants based on migrant’s entitlements on food and medicine is too polemic in order to take it seriously, and if, can anybody blame them? Or would anybody want to live in one of the biggest Refugee camps that is in Pakistan due to the war we have waged on many countries in Asia. European citizens have to leave their imperial attitude and finally confront with reality that these people, migrants, are here because of the negative impacts of economic globalisation which include war, economic austerity, climate change.
Let them go? where? back to their country of origin? back to Turkey where the majority of them comes from, while Turkey refuses to accept them? Greek government shoul ddo anything not to let them in, in first place.
Where? I will tell you where: where they want to. E.g.: Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway … That’s where.
It’s easier said than done. That’s because it features thousands of islands and islets along the Greek sea border with Turkey, a 12.5 km stretch diverging from the river Evros which marks most of the 160 Km long Greek-Turkish border. Furthermore, there is a porous mountainous Greek-Albanian border from which nearly 40% of the illegal immigrants entering Greece annually. In addition, there’s the Greek sea border with Albania which is used by both drug traffickers and human smugglers. Illegal immigrants are taught to abandon their boats, jump in to the sea and force the Hellenic Coast Guard, Limeniko Soma, to “rescue” them. They are also taught to destroy their identification papers to force the Greek police to issue a temporary ID giving most of them one month to leave Greece.
The Hellenic border guard forces and Frontex are simply overwhelmed by the shear number of illegal immigrants entering Greece yearly. In 2010 they have arrested or surrendered to them more than 140,000 undocumented immigrants. How many of them simply crossed the borders undetected is hard to estimate. Human smuggling has allowed our Turkish neighbors to kill three birds with one stone. Namely, to benefit financially, to create civil disorder and to destabilize the Greek economy.
REJECT DUBLIN II AGREEMENT IMMEDIATELY
It’s mind boggling that the MAT units of the Greek police have managed to protect those living in the facilities of Piraiki-Patraiki but made little or no effort to ascertain if they live in Greece legally. I don’t condone violence and destruction of property. It’s reprehensible to damage police busses and motorcycles and to attack and injure police officers by hurling stones and Molotov cocktails. But, I strongly believe that some Greeks are simply fed up with unfulfilled promises to act decisively and with the incompetence of both local authorities and their own government to deal with undocumented immigrants.
Some Greek citizens feel abandoned, unprotected, they are scared to go out late at night, afraid they will become victims of violence, robberies, rapes and even murder. The increased number of crimes committed in Greece are backing their fears. I’m afraid that if in the near future things don’t change for the better, more and more Greek citizens will take the law in their own hands.