“Greek and foreign organisations for human rights but also, more recently, the mayor of Acharnes have reported that conditions at the Amygdaleza concentration camp are inhuman and humiliating, a fact made worse by the high temperatures,” the party said.

SYRIZA called for the immediate launch of an investigation to determine whether migrants were beaten when police units entered the facility to quell the riot .

The party also called for the immediate closure of camps and their replacement with hospitality centres for migrants and refugees needing international protection.

Meanwhile, the Greek police has denied that conditions for detained migrants at the Amygdaleza  center in Athens were unsuitable after a riot broke out on Saturday and 10 immigrants escaped from the facility, according to Kathimerini.

“We take all the necessary measures so holding conditions are respectable and that there is no chance of escape,” police spokesman Christos Parthenis told Mega TV.

Riot police were dispatched on Saturday to put down a riot at Greece’s main migrant detention camp where detainees hurled stones at officers and set fire to their living quarters, authorities said, AFP writes.

Violent riots broke out at the centre late on Saturday night and continued until the early hours of Sunday morning.

Television footage showed fires blazing at the Amygdaleza detention camp outside Athens, where some 1,200 mainly Asian migrants are kept under police guard.

Amygdaleza is one of several detention camps set up since last year to assist in the repatriation of thousands of undocumented migrants.

The police spokesman said rioting began when the detainees were told that their maximum stay in the camp would be extended to 18 months from a year previously.

According to AMNA, during a head count on Sunday, ten of the foreign nationals being held at the facility were found to be missing.

He told BBC’s Hardtalk program that undocumented immigrants in Greece were “a huge burden” and that Greece needs more EU funding and called for an agreement to share the number of migrants being accepted into European countries.

He also said the Greek immigration problem may prove even greater than the financial one, BBC reported.

He defended the Xenios Zeus program, an operation launched in August in a crack down on undocumented migrants in Athens.

In its first six months police forcibly took 85,000 foreigners to police stations to verify their immigration status. According to Human Rights Watch, no more than six percent were found to be in Greece illegally.

A report released by Human Rights Watch in June  documented frequent stops of people who appear to be foreigners, unjustified searches of their belongings, insults, and, in some cases, physical abuse with many being detained for hours in police stations pending verification of their legal status.

“It’s cruelly ironic that the authorities named the sweeps Xenios Zeus, after the ancient Greek god of hospitality,” said Eva Cossé, a Greece specialist at Human Rights Watch and author of the report.

“In fact, Operation Xenios Zeus is anything but hospitable to migrants and asylum seekers, who are regularly stopped, searched, and detained just because of the way they look.”

No more than 6 percent were found to be in Greece unlawfully, suggesting the police are casting an extraordinarily wide net.

Meanwhile, according to Greek Reporter Dendias met on June 5 with the ambassadors of the European Union to Greece, the ambassadors of Norway and Switzerland, and a representative of the European Commission Representation in Greece. to talk about the waves of immigrants overrunning Greece.

More recently, the country has become one of entry and transit for hundreds of thousands of unauthorized immigrants from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. At the same time, Greece is struggling under the weight of what is perhaps the country’s worst economic recession.

On June 26, 2013, the day after he was appointed, Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis brought back into force a regulation on the transmission of infectious diseases. The regulation, which was made public on July 1, 2013, was first introduced in April 2012 by Andreas Loverdos, the health minister at the time, but repealed in April 2013. During the year it was in force, the police used the regulation to detain people, especially those suspected of being sex workers, drug users, or undocumented migrants, for forced testing for HIV or other infectious diseases.

“It’s deeply worrying that it took the new health minister only one day to bring back a regulation that violated human rights and stigmatized vulnerable groups, and that proved counterproductive to protecting public health,” said Judith Sunderland, senior Western Europe researcher at Human Rights Watch. “If the government is serious about addressing HIV and other infectious diseases, it should focus on access to health care and public information.”

Health Regulation No. GY/39A “Amendments That Concern the Restriction of the Transmission of Infectious Diseases,” states that mandatory health examinations will be required, as well as isolation and compulsory treatment, for diseases of public health importance. The regulation includes a long list of such diseases, including influenza, tuberculosis, malaria, polio, syphilis, hepatitis, and other sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.

However, the regulation specifies certain groups as a priority for testing, including people who use intravenous drugs and sex workers, undocumented migrants coming from countries where such diseases are endemic, and people living in conditions that do not meet “minimum standards” of hygiene, including the homeless, according to HRW, adding that the regulation also states that the government will respect international human rights conventions and protocols, which very strictly limit the use of mandatory testing, isolation, and compulsory treatment.

“The regulation does not specify how the mandatory testing will be carried out.It gives police the authority to assistin enforcing isolation, restriction quarantine, hospitalization,and treatment. Forcible testing is a violation of bodily integrity and autonomy. Although detention on public health grounds is permitted in certain circumstances, people should not be detained solely to conduct forced medical procedures, including testing for HIV,” HRW said.

The initial introduction of the regulation in April 2012 resulted in the roundup of dozens of women alleged to be sex workers, who were then forced to take HIV tests. Those found to be HIV positive were arrested and charged with causing intentional grievous bodily harm, a felony, or attempted bodily harm, for allegedly having unprotected sex with customers while HIV positive.

The police and media outlets published and broadcast the women’s personal data, photographs, and information from their medical records of their HIV-positive status. Many of the women arrested during the 2012 crackdown were detained pending trial for months before they were finally acquitted by the courts, who found no strong evidence for the charges. The final five were released in March 2013 from pretrial detention after being acquitted.

In May 2012, Human Rights Watch, Positive Voice – Greek Association of People Living with HIV, and the European AIDS Treatment Group, wrote a joint letter to the UN special rapporteur on health about abusive practices in Greece with respect to public health. The issues included the arrest, criminal prosecution, and compulsory HIV testing of sex workers, and the separate law still in force that provides for the administrative detention and compulsory medical testing of migrants and asylum seekers based on their health condition.

Independent organizations in Greece have told Human Rights Watch that the 2012 arrests and public health regulations have deterred people at risk of HIV from seeking testing and services. In a joint report published in January, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the Fundamental Rights Agency of the European Union urged Greece to investigate thoroughly and promptly the actions taken against migrants, intravenous drug users, and alleged sex workers with respect to forced HIV testing and publication of personal data. The report said Greece should always consider and mediate to avoid potential negative public health consequences in future policy formulation directed at populations vulnerable to HIV, such as irregular immigrants, intravenous drug users, or sex workers.

“The decision by Minister Adonis Georgiadis to reimpose the regulation used for forced HIV testing is a big step backward for human rights and public health,” Sunderland said. “Addressing infectious diseases such as HIV, hepatitis, and tuberculosis requires investing in health services, not calling the police.”

A second letter, referring to a previous note sent via post on May 17 to the Muslim Association’s head offices in Neos Kosmos informs Muslims that this is not a provocation, that this is an actual threat and Muslims will see the results soon.

“The Muslim Association of Greece as always will take all the necessary legal steps and will cooperate with all relative authorities in order to deal with this blind direct threat against citizens of Greece by anonymous groups,” MAG said in a statement.

“The Muslim Association of Greece has no intention to get involved in any criminal conflict that has as its target to destroy the relations between Greek, Arabic & Islamic World for some filthy political interests,” it added.

On May 17, a letter sent to MAG threatened Muslims with bloodshed giving them month ultimatum to evacuate the country.

Naim El Ghandour, president of the Muslim Association told Alyunaniya.com at that time concerning the note that the letter is “99 percent a provocation but who can guarantee the remaining 1 percent?”

The hard copies of the letters obtained by Alyunaniya.com were typed in Greek, English and Arabic. Both letters were unsigned but carried the emblem of the extreme-right Golden Dawn party on it.

Alyunaniya can’t verify the authenticity of these letters.

Golden Dawn, whose logo is reminiscent of a swastika, gathered enough votes to win almost 20 seats in the Greek parliament. Members of Golden Dawn have been accused of carrying out acts of violence and hate crimes against immigrants.

Meanwhile HRW called on Greece’s government to move quickly to adopt measures to combat hate crimes and protect victims, Human Rights Watch said today.

A bill on hate speech and racist violence has yet to be submitted in parliament because of disagreement among the three parties in the ruling coalition over its scope.

According to media reports, the bill would outlaw incitement against people because of their race, religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation, and impose jail sentences of up to six years on offenders.

MPs would not be excluded and parties that receive public funding would see it suspended if their leaders publicly denied the Holocaust, took part in racist attacks or used Nazi salutes or symbols in parliament.

“With people being attacked on the streets, Greece urgently needs to beef up its criminal justice response to hate crimes,” said Judith Sunderland, senior Western Europe researcher at Human Rights Watch.

“This draft law contains some good provisions and should be improved in parliament rather than delayed further.”

The incident occurred when some 200 workers allegedly demanded six months’ worth of unpaid wages from their employer and then became involved in a dispute with three Greek foremen, at least one of whom fired at the migrants with a shotgun, according to ekathimerini. According to local media 4 of the migrants shot are in critical health condition.

Police have reportedly arrested two suspects and are looking for two more, according to SKAI.

The incident occurred near the village of Manolada about 260 kilometers west of Athens.

Today almost 90 percent of the country’s strawberry production comes from that area. Greece and Russia are among the major consumers, though in the last years Greek strawberries are exported to many European markets too.

Meanwhile, the incident has caused a social media uproar with users calling for the boycott of strawberries from Manolada.

This is not the first time that immigrants in Nea Manolada have protested against harsh working conditions.
 In 2008, immigrants  staged a two-day strike to protest against harsh working conditions.

In a statement late Wednesday, left SYRIZA opposition condemned the incident as a “criminal, racist act.”

Based on more than 650 interviews conducted over a two-year period in Jordan Lebanon, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, the study Tricked and Trapped: Human Trafficking in the Middle East sheds light on the situation of trafficked adult workers in the Middle East, the complex processes by which they are ‘tricked and trapped’ into forced labour and sexual exploitation, and the constraints that prevent them from leaving.

It also examines the responses to human trafficking recently put in place by governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations and other stakeholders and provides regional policymakers with recommendations to help them effectively counter the phenomenon.

The Middle East hosts millions of migrant workers, who in some cases exceed the number of national workers substantially. In Qatar, for example, 94 per cent of workers are migrants, while in Saudi Arabia that figure is over 50 per cent. In Jordan and Lebanon migrants also make up a significant part of the workforce, particularly in the construction and domestic work sectors.

“Labor migration in this part of the world is unique in terms of its sheer scale and its exponential growth in recent years,” says Beate Andrees, Head of the ILO’s Special Action Programme to Combat Forced Labour. “The challenge is how to put in place safeguards in both origin and destination countries to prevent the exploitation and abuse of these workers.”

Although data is scarce, the ILO estimates that there are 600,000 forced labor victims in the Middle East.

The report singles out the Kafala (sponsorship) system – which governs the lives of most migrant workers in the Mashreq and GCC countries – as “inherently problematic” because it creates an unequal power dynamic between the employer and the worker.

It points to deficits in labour law coverage that “reinforce underlying vulnerabilities of migrant workers” as well as significant gaps in national legislation that “restrict the ability of migrant workers to organize, to terminate their employment contracts and to change employers.”

It notes that the lack of inspection procedures maintains the “isolation of domestic workers in private homes” and heightens their vulnerability to exploitation. It also highlights the “real” risks of detention and deportation for workers who are coerced into sex work in the entertainment industry.

Reforming the Kafala system would significantly improve labor migration governance in this regard.

The report proposes empowering ministries of labor to oversee recruitment processes, to handle complaints by migrants and employers, and to verify allegations of mistreatment and respond accordingly as a viable alternative to the Kafala.

It highlights the need to extend legal coverage and equal rights to all categories of workers, revise standard employment contracts, end wage discrimination, improve recruitment systems, strengthen legislative frameworks, and enhance labor inspection.

“We are ready to open the ovens. We will turn them into soap … to wash cars and pavements. We will make lamps from their skin ,” Alexandros Plomaritis, 44, a deputy candidate in Greece’s parliamentary elections last summer, is heard saying in the film.

The film titled “The Cleaners” was shot with the full knowledge of the members, according to Channel 4, although a statement from Golden Dawn claims the members were unaware that they were being filmed.

The documentary, can be viewed on the Channel 4 News website, but comes with a warning that it contains highly offensive and racist language.

Golden Dawn spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris described the video as “tragicomic” and the opinions expressed as “laughable.”

In a related development, Golden Dawn MPs have told supporters of the far right party that it will create privately-run nursery schools for Greek children.

Speaking at an event in Crete last week, lawmakers Ilias Panagiotaros and Ilias Lagos, announced the party’s intention to open its own nursery schools.

The extremist party’s deputies launched an attack on the Greek left, claiming it had caused children to learn a warped version of the country’s history.

Golden Dawn, the extreme right-wing party in Greece, won 18 seats in the country’s last election.

Since then support for the party has doubled as it pushes tough new anti-immigrant laws, including banning non-ethnic Greeks from the military and police.

Stricken by a typhoon of austerity measures, facing titanic hurdles of unemployment, poverty and desperation, Greek society is literally between the hammer and the anvil. However, apart from the burning wave of anger, fury and sadness, among the citizens caused by the financial crisis, Greece is also torn by an explosion of xenophobic even racist responses.

These strong sentiments seem somehow justified. Every now and then, articles are published, blaming immigrants for the crisis, television shows are exposing sinning foreigners, illegal immigrants, dangerous criminals.

Motos such as “you are not becoming a Greek, you are born a Greek “, “proud to be a Greek” are becoming popular especially among the young. All of a sudden, Greeks have been transformed to a nation without memory, selectively forgetting their own past, present and unfortunately future as immigrants, as foreigners in a strange land.

From police operations with the awfully sarcastic title “Xenios Dias” to raids of the ultra-right party “Golden Dawn” and people who admire their political agenda to working immigrants and foreigners, that have resulted to major injuries even deaths, discrimination, racism and hate are becoming more and more tolerated by the society. A society that stays still, like a speechless theatre audience watching passively, the escalating violence and brutality.

Violence is not limited to the physical or verbal abuse. Violence is also the discrimination, the blockage, the exclusion of any dignity, security and respect the integration within the society might offer. How this integration is achieved for a foreigner? Only by his legal status, his naturalisation as a proud to be citizen of the country that has become his adopted homeland.

In Greece is very difficult to obtain legal status as an immigrant or a refugee. Most people are caught in a maze of bureaucracy, frustration and fear. It is almost impossible to obtain naturalisation status unless you are married to a Greek citizen and having Greek children. An excruciating, exhausting process has to be followed including language and history tests, high fees and often a specialist’s highly paid advice, with ambiguous results.

Greece is facing a “painful” truth that was resting for decades to oblivion. Immigrants do exist on its soil, they do obtain legal status eventually, and they do raise a family, children that will eventually go to school, will participate actively in the society. These children do follow the fate of their parents, being denied naturalisation. They will always remain strangers, foreigners, outcasts. Their residence, affiliations, taxes, contribution to society as workers is simply ignored, is non-existent. The state simply does not consider all of the above as sufficient for naturalisation; they do not prove alliance with the country. What does?

This is certainly a rhetorical question in a country where an American citizen of Greek descent can be naturalised even if he or she is completely alienated from the country, but due to his bloodline retains the right to be naturalised. Although Greeks do take pride of their fellow citizens of the world, they cannot tolerate the presence of foreigners on their land. Giving the chance to immigrants to naturalise would only benefit the country. Would create a homogenous population, contributing positively to society by paying taxes, studying, working, being grateful for their residency rights. Instead what is created is a house divided against itself; that house will not be able to stand.

In spite of it, Golden Dawn lawmaker Ioannis Lagos asked the Education and Interior ministers why state institutions and schools commemorate the remembrance day, which is marked on Jan. 27 each year — the day in 1945 when the Soviet forces liberated the Auschwitz death camp. What is more, the party’s member Michaloliakos, called Hitler “a great personality of history” and said that the Holocaust never happened. He also denied supporting Nazi tenets, but Mein Kamp is on display at party headquarters, stated Greek reporter Andy Dabilis.

Several times, when walking in Syntagma trying to protect myself from gas, fire and fear, I refused to utter a question that continued to linger in my mind: how long will it take for these people to turn into haters? I was ashamed of myself, as racial hate is something I could not imagine possible in Greece, but times are changing; Golden Dawn emphasis on biological racism and violent street tactics seem to please part of the Greek population.

British historian Mark Mazower must have felt a similar emotion when he visited the American College of Greece on the 26th of February and stated:”Greeks must not underestimate the threat of Golden Dawn if they accept it as a legitimate, mainstream political movement.”

An expert on Greece and the Balkans, who teaches history at Columbia University, he argued: “There is commonality of approach,” speaking of Golden dawn and the Nationalist socialist (Nazi) party of the 1930s. “Unfortunately the Greek state does not seem to realize the urgency of the situation,” he concluded.

It might be worthy recalling how Golden Dawn swept into the Greek parliament in last year’s elections, campaigning on an anti-austerity, anti-immigrant platform that preyed on the fears of Greeks who have seen the country flooded with immigrants amid a terrible recession. However, as expected, Golden Dawn officials deny any Nazi, or Fascist affiliation, saying they are Greek nationalists as any far right-wing party would do.

Recently, articles on several Greek and International newspapers reported that Golden Dawn party has been actively indoctrinating students aged 6-10 on matters of ‘national awareness.’ Golden dawn admitted that more than 20 children took part in a tutorial at the party’s offices on Feb. 23, and were shown educational videos, taught the virtues of the Christian faith and Greek Orthodox Church.

Some church leaders have openly supported the party. On the contrary, teachers at a primary school in the Athens suburb of Nea Philadelphia accused Golden Dawn of trying to interfere in their work. It seems there are elements of truth: one of the party’s MPs asked the Education Ministry to investigate on an art project assigned to children at the school which was titled ‘Refugees Facing Migration.’

Where is Greece going?

Intimidation, attacks against immigrants, indoctrination, exaltation of nationalism, all signs of social fear; which is translating the inability to face the reality of a country that is changing while facing a cruel economic recession.

The game has been witnessed again, and again: a handful group of fanatics brings a rotten philosophy to a country and the government underestimates it, people find even some sympathy for those men who might bring back work, and social order. As a result, nobody stops them. What follows, and it always does as an old play, has assumed different names depending on the occasion and the country: Fascism, Nazism, and more, as many have been those who took power hiding behind the golden rays of nationalism.

The step from nationalism to a totalitarian state, which is able to impose civic laws discriminating entire groups of the population, is an easy one. It is generally called by a state of emergency, which then translates into a state of exception able to justify even the physical elimination of its citizens, when not fitting into the state’s vision of the future.

I simply ask here: Are the Greeks ready for a state of such kind? Are they able to accept the denial of the democratic principles, and forget their own history? A history that involves also migration, and longing for the lost motherland; let us not forget the number of Greek immigrants, whose work and presence enrich today so many European countries.

I might represent a minority, but I refuse to believe that what Golden Dawn envisioned for Greece represents the Greek population, certainly not the one who has grandfathers who died fighting the Italian Fascists, and then the Nazis; or fathers and mothers who were tortured by the Colonels in the 1970s.

Xenophobia has soared in Greece, a country in the midst of a deep economic crisis and on the front line of immigration into the European Union. The upsurge of violence this year has left migrants and asylum seekers—many of whom have fled war zones—afraid to walk the streets of Athens at night for fear of being attacked.

Saleh Ibrahim, a 26-year-old Somali who acted as an interpreter for Human Rights Watch during research for this report, was chased down the street in Athens by five men in June 2012. They caught him and beat with a piece of wood. His hand was broken when he tried to shield his head from the blows.

Ibrahim did not report the crime because he believed the police would not help him. But hopefully in the near future, other asylum seekers will trust the police to investigate their cases and hold their attackers accountable.

During the research of the report, “Hate on the Streets: Xenophobic Violence in Greece,” HRW spoke with dozens of migrants and asylum seekers, including two pregnant women who had experiences like Ibrahim’s.

Greece has become a major gateway into the European Union for migrants and asylum seekers from the Middle East, South Asia and Africa. Most travel across Turkey to reach Greece, where they seek a better life and a safe haven. At a time when Greece is struggling with its debt, the increase in immigrants has fanned support for the far-right Golden Dawn party, which was voted into Parliament last June.

Violence against these migrants has surged, yet in July, when the report was issued , the Greek police had no strategy to prevent attacks or protect immigrants. They had yet to prosecute a single person under a hate crimes law passed in 2008 to deter racial violence. Instead, authorities had taken a “blame the victims” approach–even going so far as to charge victims €100 to report a crime. Some police told victims they should learn to fight back and that undocumented migrants would be detained if they insisted on an investigation.

Meanwhile, groups of dark-clad, masked attackers have continued to target migrants and asylum seekers on Athens’ streets.

“We are encouraged by the government’s response to our demands that it step up and stop the violence. But the problem is far from resolved. We will monitor the situation to make sure Greek officials follow up these promises with action,” HRW said.

“ We are asking authorities to make clear that they will investigate and prosecute these crimes, deploy officers to hot spots for violence, and offer police and prosecutors training on how to prevent and respond to xenophobic violence. We want to ensure that undocumented migrants will never face detention or deportation for reporting a crime, a key reason why so many do not seek help from the police.”