While most of the attention on Greece is over its crushing economic crisis, the country is suffering another one: how to deal with an influx of immigrants, rising racism, and the failure of the European Union (EU) to do more to help.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that The Steki Metanaston in Athens, which opened in 1997 to help fight racism and give immigants legal assistance and programs to help them educate themselves is shifting its emphasis to language classes in German, English and French, showing that many immigrants want to leave on their own.
The report highlighted the government’s concentration on rounding up suspected illegal immigrants as part of a sweep called Xenios Zeus, while the EU has tried to provide some help to counter the numbers of illegal immigrants trying to enter the country’s borders with Greece.
The Journal also questioned why the EU hasn’t done more, although it has a patrol program called Frontex. The EU could see scores of millions more immigrants in the coming years as people flee other countries in search of freedom and job opportunities.
The 2003 Dublin Regulation—which requires that immigrants be processed in the country of arrival and sent back there if caught elsewhere—seems to be the guideline of preference in Europe. This, despite a recent decision by the European Court of Human Rights that returning refugees to Greece constituted a civil-rights violation. Greece takes in more than 90% of Europe’s illegal immigrants.
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