Greece discriminates EU/Non-EU schoolchildren visiting Acropolis, other sites

School trips are a key part to education in Greece. The visits are regular and schoolchildren do not pay to enter the archaeological sites and museums. However, a recent decision by the ministers of Finance and Culture demands that schoolchildren from non-EU countries will have to pay an entrance fee – 50% reduction of regular price – even if they attend a school in Greece. A decision that clearly discriminates children based on their nationality. And if this is not enough, the Acropolis asked teachers to prepare lists with the children’s names and nationality.

Schoolchildren go on them regularly, visiting Greece’s archaeological sites and museums, giving them an understanding of the country’s history and culture.Schoolchildren don’t pay to enter archaeological sites. Or at least that’s what one teacher thought until she started organising a visit to the Acropolis for one of her secondary school class, as an Irish journalist, Damian Mac Con Uladh, writes on Twitter.

According to Mac Con Uladh, some days ago the Acropolis site called the teacher to know how many non-EU citizens were in the class as they would have to pay entry (50% of regular ticket), unlike GR/EU classmates, who get in for free.

The teacher has been on many school tours but had never heard that certain students (that is, third-country nationals) attending Greek schools had to pay admission, discounted or otherwise, to state-owned archaeological sites

When she said it was news to her that non-EU children had to pay, the teacher was told that they do under a new decision of the culture ministry. The Acropolis official also sent her the relevant government gazette dated 31. October 2019.

There, among those entitled to free entry are “Children and young people up to 25 years of age of the Member-States of the EU with a police ID or passport confirming their age and country of origin” (paragraph 2.1.a).

However, par. 1.1.a states that “Children and young people aged 6 to 25 from countries outside the EU with their passport showing their age and country of origin” can avail of a 50% discount, i.e. not free entry.

This rule applies to all archaeological sites and would seem to be based on the wording of an earlier ministerial decision of the previous government dated 1. July 2019

As the Acropolis official explained to Mac Con Uladh’s teacher friend, it means all non-EU schoolkids must pay, even if they live in and attend school in Greece.

Thousands of children with Albanian citizenship, many of them born and bred in Greece, attend Greek schools. These new rules mean they and other “third country” students living in Greece will have to pay to enter archaeological sites run by the culture ministry, notes the Irish journalist.

The official reportedly asked the teacher to make a list of all the students participating in the tour, indicating their citizenship, so that the site would know whom to charge admission. The list was to be signed and stamped by the school director.

When the teacher asked if this procedure of differentiating schoolchildren on the basis of citizenship was “racist”, the Acropolis official said: “No, as it could also involve a child from Switzerland and Australia just as much as a child from Albania.”

The teacher replied that everyone knows that there are hardly any children from Switzerland and Australia in Greek schools, but thousands from Albania.

As the Irish journalist pointed out on Twitter, the reality now is that an Irish schoolkid attending school in Ireland gets free entry to the Acropolis while an Albanian kid born and raised in Greece who hasn’t obtained Greek citizenship (for whatever reason) must pay half the admission price.

After discussing it with her colleagues, the teacher decided that she could not participate in the discrimination of her non-EU citizen pupils and cancelled the visit to the Acropolis. They will now visit another cultural institution that does not discriminate in this way.

Maybe this is a case of a bureaucrat misinterpreting the directive? This is unlikely. Another,  Twitter user reported that a teacher in Kalamata was asked by the Acropolis Museum to  provide a list of her students showing who was an EU citizen and who wasn’t. She refused, too.

Διαβάστε το θρεντ! Οδηγία του υπ.πολιτισμού με άρωμα ρατσισμού. Πριν λίγες μέρες σε δασκάλα σχολείου της Καλαμάτας ζητήθηκε ακριβώς η ίδια διαδικασία όταν επισκέφθηκαν το μουσείο της Ακρόπολης την οποία τελικά και αρνήθηκαν να ακολουθήσουν. https://t.co/crI1wQpkhF

— Ναυσικά (@nafsika712) December 4, 2019

The whole legislation by Finance and Culture Ministers as published in the Official Gazette is here (in Greek)

PS Discrimination was also the reason why some thoughts to have Greeks enjoy charge free entrance to sites and museums during the crisis years or have tourists may more on public transport means were never implemented. And now this!