excerpted from devious diva
The article posted below was brought to my attention in the comments on the previous post. Almost 600 people are on hunger strike at a detention centre in Samos over the recent clampdown on immigrants. Hundreds are being transported from the cities to these remote places before deportation.
The article also talks about the problems facing documented migrants too. According to the law, an immigrant family who wishes to stay in Greece now must prove that the breadwinner earns 20% more per year than an unskilled worker. An almost impossible task for most immigrant families and utterly unfair. If a family who has been living here legally can show that it is supporting itself on whatever little money is earned and is paying taxes, what business does the government have to say that they cannot stay ? That they should be earning more than many Greek families in order to have the right to live here ?
The government has made up its mind to rid the country of the majority of immigrants and is doing everything it can to achieve that goal. It is doing this by illegally evicting people, rounding up undocumented people and forcing them into remote detention centres ready for deportation, denying asylum to 99% of people applying and taking away the right to appeal, bringing in unfair harsh new laws that put even documented people in danger of expulsion.
I was chatting with a fellow blogger online the other day. We were talking about the depressing nature of these recent developments in Greece and wondering about our own futures (relating to these issues and other personal dilemmas). He felt that it is important that we are here and are able to report on this dangerous escalation of anti-immigrant sentiment. I have to agree with him. It seems to me that this is the only positive way to look at the situation. Keep talking about it. Reporting it. Getting the word out. Because the people that are caught up in this nightmare for real have no voice at all. They are just numbers. 600 here on hunger strike, hundreds arrested and shipped off to detention centres, who knows how many somewhere else awaiting deportation, thousands of others worrying about their families future and whether they will be allowed to live here legally.
