Residents and local authorities of Vilia showed the ugly face of xenophobia towards a group of refugees who were relocated from reception camps to a local hotel. Just two hours after the refugees’ arrival, a mob gathered outside the hotel reportedly hurling stones and petrol bombs, with some to have barged into the people’s rooms.
Some 100 locals gathered outside the hotel to protest the presence of 80 vulnerable refugees, among them also many children.
The locals chanted slogans against the refugees and some of them even threw stones that broke down the glass door of the hotel entrance. the new comers were watching in fear the raging mob outside the hotel.
Despite the police presence, some protesters reportedly not only threw also petrol bombs byt they also entered the hotel and caused damages to some rooms and scared to death the refugee families still inside.
Attacks on #refugees in #Greece continue:
The Alarm Phone was contacted today by a group of people that was attacked by a mob outside Athens. With #Greek police presence, the mob used petrol bombs, stones and batons to attack the whole group – men, women and children. pic.twitter.com/vuwJVkDy8i— Alarm Phone (@alarm_phone) March 15, 2019
According to @Alarm_Phone, “The man in the video was in his room when three men broke the door. They rammed a fire extinguisher into his chest and scared his children. The group reached out to Alarm Phone because none of them dare to step outside the hotel. They are asking for help and protection.”
Protesters were reportedly citing a decision of the local municipality council that had decided against the refugees’ relocation in the village in West Attica.
Citing police sources, daily efimerida ton syntakton, reports that among the protesters were the mayor of Mandra and other members of the local council.
Some 80 refugees were relocated to hotel Veroni on Friday under the program Filoxenia implemented by the International Organization for Migration (IOM.)
The program Filoxenia has been implemented since autumn 2018 and concerns the temporary hosting of vulnerable asylum-seekers who have come form the islands to the mainland.
A total of 6,000 people are being hosted in hotels across Greece.
