Greece cracking down hard on illegal immigrants

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
8/8/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Large-scale deportation drive ongoing as some fear influx of Syrian refugees

The European nation of Greece has always been seen as a stopping point for those fleeing turmoil in Asia and Africa, who hope for a better life in the west. Now, the financially strapped nation is cracking down hard on illegal immigrants. Greece currently has very little room for extra mouths to feed.

The Greek ultra-nationalist party Golden Dawn, an extreme right-wing organization has seen its membership roll grow due to anti-immigrant anger among the public.

Facebook Delicous MySpace

Twitter Stumble Digg

More Destinations

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The Greek authorities are rounding up thousands of suspected illegal immigrants. Up to 6,000 people were detained this past weekend in Athens and more than 1,600 are scheduled to be deported in the next few days.

With too few jobs to go around and new austerity measure cutting life here to the quick, Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias said Greece could not afford an "invasion of immigrants." Dendias blamed mass migration for bringing the country "to the brink of collapse.

"The country is being lost, what is happening now is [Greece's] greatest invasion ever," he said. "Whoever is arrested will be held and then deported."

Asian and African refugees have been streaming into Greece at a steady clip. There are renewed fears that there could soon be an influx of migrants fleeing the Syrian civil war.

The Greek ultra-nationalist party Golden Dawn, an extreme right-wing organization has seen its memberships roll grows due to anti-immigrant anger among the public.

Up to 80 percent of all migrants heading into the EU come via Greece. Some 100,000 illegal immigrants are estimated to slip into the country every year and up to a million are believed to live in Greece, which has a total population of about 11million.

These roiling social conditions have been coupled with a spike in crime and have contributed to the rise of the Greek far-Right political party.

Golden Dawn gained nearly 7 percent of the vote in recent parliamentary elections and has won support from young Greeks who blame migrants for their lack of job opportunities.

This sentiment is being felt in this summer's Olympics. Before the games started, Greek triple jumper and Golden Dawn supporter Voula Papachristou was banned from the Games for posting a racist tweet about migrants.

The Greek office of the U.N. High Commission for refugees said that while Greece has the right to carry out checks on immigrants, it must ensure that vulnerable groups do not suffer.

"It is very difficult for asylum seekers to apply for protected status, and we are concerned that among those arrested there may be people who want protection but were unable to submit their requests because access to the relevant authorities is practically impossible," Spokesman Petros Mastakas says.

� 2012, Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

- - -

Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: Greece, illegal immigants, crackdown, Golden Dawn

NEWSLETTERS »

Rate This Article

Was this helpful to you? Very Helpful Somewhat Helpful Not Helpful at All

Would you be interested in more articles like this? Yes, I am Interested No, I am not Interested

Rate Article

1 - 3 of 3 Comments

Jorge
9 months ago
I have been to Greece myself two years ago and I can confirm the immigration influx has greately damaged the country, not just economically, but also socially, religiously, culturally, contributing like no other factor to destroy greece. The greek people are fed up of the weak immigration laws that allowed this disaster to happen. muslim immigtration in particular has had a devastating effect in greece, france, holland, UK, germany, spain and elsewere. muslim immigration should be totally prohibited and any one who tries to deffend these millions of jihadist beggars should be judged and arrested for treason.we should give preference to non-muslim imjmigrants of all races and cultures, but totally prohibit muslim immigration of any kind..this is positive discrimination and will save greece and europe from the current disastrous and apocalyptical islamification, that was created thanks to unrestricted massive muslim immigration to europe.
magyart
9 months ago
Vote AGAINST the politicians that support ILLEGAL migrants, over LEGAL residents.

Nations the world over are learning that ILLEGAL migrants are harmful to society. Greece and Israel are building border fences. Even China has a border fence on it's Korean border.
Fences make for good neighbors. The city state of the Vatican protects it's border with well armed guards and doesn't permit ILLEGAL migration.

ILLEGAL migration is harmful to the safety and security of the LEGAL residents and all nations have a duty to protect it's own people.
George
9 months ago
The Greek state has every right to deport these South Asian and African mainly Muslim immigrants. Turkey is deliberately sending these third world Muslims to Greece to destabilize Athens economically and demographically. Turkish authorities charge them anywhere from $1500-$3000 Euro each to get them to Greece and tells them that once you reach Greece ask for asylum. Greece suffered 400 years of oppressive Muslim Turkish occupation and Islam is an enemy of Christianity. Greece must defend its identity and religion. The EU must do more to help Christian Greece.

Comments submitted must be civil, remain on-topic and not violate any laws including copyright. We reserve the right to delete any comments which are abusive, inappropriate or not constructive to the discussion.

Though we invite robust discussion, we reserve the right to not publish any comment which denigrates the human person, undermines marriage and the family, or advocates for positions which openly oppose the teaching of the Catholic Church.

This is a supervised forum and the Editors of Catholic Online retain the right to direct it.

We also reserve the right to block any commenter for repeated violations. Your email address is required to post, but it will not be published on the site.

We ask that you NOT post your comment more than once. Catholic Online is growing and our ability to review all comments sometimes results in a delay in their publication.

Name *

Email *

Comment *

Send me important information from Catholic Online and it's partners. See Sample

Post Comment