A Greek policeman was caught on camera slapping a migrant while brandishing a knife, on the island of Kos. The policeman was in charge of new arrivals, while the migrants were forming queues outside the administration building in order to check lists of names eligible for travel documents.
Associated Press correspondent Dalton Bennett captured with his camera the moment when the cop hit one of the migrants, a young man from Pakistan.
#Greek cop brandishes knife and slaps terrified #Pakistanis and #Syrians as they wait for papers. Welcome to #Kos pic.twitter.com/doDrJocRp6
— Dalton Bennett (@DDaltonBennett) August 10, 2015
Dalton Bennet reported that the incident happened as the migrants were moving back and forth in order to queue so that they can check a list of 200 names whether they were eligible for travel documents.
Video: the policeman speaks to migrants in Greek: “Where did I say? Here!”, he pushes them. he shows them with a knife where they have to stand.
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Bennett wrote also on his Twitter account that “another police officer also prevented me from filming placing his hand over my camera once he realized what I had witnessed.”
Bennett’s story was picked up by the Greek media and triggered public anger with the result that the slapping cop was suspended from duty just hours after the publishing of the picture and video. An official inquiry on the incident is pending.
According to Mega TV Prime Time News, the 45-year-old policeman claimed that he did not slap anybody and that he was trying to put some order. Before assigned to Migration building, the cop was serving at the Kos Airport.
A question-mark remains on the knife the policeman is holding. The policeman claimed it had fallen from some migrant.
@Diakogiannis @nikosft Here is another shot. Looks like a combat knife to me. No? pic.twitter.com/rool2a2Djz
— Dalton Bennett (@DDaltonBennett) August 10, 2015
On the island of Kos more than 6,000 migrants and refugees face a huge humanitarian crisis. Some 1,000 undocumented people arrive daily on the island, men, women, children and elderly, authorities are not able to host them properly, residents, Greek volunteers and also foreign tourists help however they can.
With the Syrian crisis on its peak, refugees daily also on other islands of the Eastern Aegean islands and in some occasions tension turns …explosive.
Everybody is overwhelmed by the situation, while the European Union watches from afar, declaring it will pour funds for those people with the dropper.
see also: AP story
why do you call them migrants? they are refugees.
because some of them are migrants and others are war refugees
Until a formal legal process of determination, they cannot be more than asylum-seekers anyway. About 70-80% of the inflows in Greece are thought to be with serious claims to protection, what is known as mixed flows. The correct description of their status is migrants (or even irregular migrants, but NOT illegal migrants).
When you see this sort of thing, I do wonder what is it with the police throughout the world?
I can imagine in the USA it would have probably exploded into a more serious incident with someone being shot.
That seems to be everyday news now. It heartening that the Greek public were angery over the treatment.
Are we sure this is a police man ?
An officer of the law !
It certainly looks like a man out of control, agitated, abusive & handy with a knife.
Is a knife part of standard weapons issue for the police in Greece ?
if you look closely, the knife doesn’t seem to belong to police equipment
Now ITALIAN coast guard had to come to help out and assist the Turkish and Greek coast guard in rescue-operations but not any of Gabriel’s “humanitarian aid” has been seen.
Food and other supplies for the hundreds of refugees that try to survive in the Pedion Areos Park can be brought to Tsamadou Street 10-13 in Exarchia, also in Volos and Corinth there are collections for refugees; more details can be found on Indymedia.