11 August 2012
10 August 2012
Greece: illegal immigrants face deportation
6 August, 2012
The Greek government have been looking to the Gods for inspiration as they carry out plans to deport thousands of illegal immigrants.
Bestowing a touch of irony to the proceedings, officials have named the operation ‘Xenius Zeus’, the same name given to the ancient Greek God of hospitality.
Six thousand people, suspected of having entered the country illegally, were detained in Athens, nearly a third now face deportation.
[ed. Only a third??]
Thousands of police took part in the operation, rounding up suspected illegal immigrants in Athens and at the Turkish border. Fulfilling its election promises, the Greek government, currently facing its worst recession for decades, is taking back “control of the streets.”
“I honestly ask you all for your support in order to erase from Athens, the scenes that offend our civilisation and progressively erase them from all the regions across the country,” said Nikos Dendias, Public Order Minister.
A fifth straight year of recession and unemployment at a record high has helped to fuel anti-immigrant sentiment in Greece. Among their litany of perceived offences, migrants have been blamed for the rise in crime levels and for “stealing” jobs.
Anti-fascist groups said the government however, is trying to exploit anti-immigrant feeling. Tassos Anastasiades from the anti-fascist movement KEERFA said: “They (the government) are trying now to play the racist card. So that people will be distracted from what is really happening in their pockets and in their everyday life and try to blame immigrants for all the things that are going wrong in Greece.”
[ed. "anti-fascist" groups, themselves the jackboot of the left fascists, are pro multiculturalism that is destroying western civilisation, they too should be deported...]
This would explain how neo-Nazi political party ‘Golden Dawn’ (with their slogan ‘Greece for the Greeks’) became the first far-right group to enter parliament in the country’s history. Last week it was reported the party gave out free food, but only to people who could prove they were Greek citizens.
Attacks on immigrants have become more frequent since 2011, a fact which has worried the UN’s refugee agency. The UNHCR’s denounced the rise of racist violence in the country but so far, critics say little has been done by the government to tackle the issue.
[ed. They always claim there is an increase in attacks, it is likely the attacks are being dished out to local people by immigrants like in Norway, France, Sweden and the UK etc...]
All this, in a country where some 100,000 illegal immigrants are estimated to enter every year. Most of them arrive via the Turkish border around the Evros river, the main gate for illegals entering the EU. The Athens government said it has dispatched 2,500 extra police to protect the area as part of the ‘Xenius Zeus’ operation.
[ed. All the more reason to get control of the borders, now...]
France declares war on illegal migrants: Riot police smash camps and hundreds rounded up for deportation as Socialists take on gipsies
By Peter Allen
9 August 2012
French police were yesterday breaking up gipsy camps and deporting illegal immigrants found in them.
Dozens of officers in riot gear descended on a settlement near Lille shortly after dawn to oversee the evacuation of some 200 Roma living in mobile homes.
One hundred people were evicted from a site in Lyon, with similar round-ups happening in other major cities including Marseille. Caravans and huts were destroyed in the Belleville area of central Paris on Wednesday, making another 100 people homeless.
‘Many of those evicted will be flown home to Romania,’ said an interior ministry source, who insisted the deportations were aimed at ridding France of ‘illegal’ communities.
Greece has also begun a crackdown on immigrants, with Athens claiming the country faced an ‘invasion’.
The policy being pursued by France’s socialist government was formulated by former conservative president Nicolas Sarkozy, who was frequently accused of pandering to the far right.
[ed. So you label someone "far right" and the idea is automatically bad?]
His government linked Roma camps with crime, suggesting that many of the thieves and muggers operating in big cities were homeless Romanians.
Many expected the more liberal socialists to show a more relaxed attitude toward immigrants, especially those from European Union member states. But Manuel Valls, the new interior minister, said the camps were a ‘challenge’ to ‘people living together’.
He insisted the police would uphold all court orders aimed at dismantling them.
Neighbours of the camps often complained about noise and anti-social behaviour, as well as serious crimes, said Mr Valls.
Humanitarian organisations have also linked the camps to ill health, including serious diseases such as tuberculosis.
Mr Valls said everything would be done to ensure that vulnerable people, and particularly ‘children and pregnant women’, were rehoused as quickly as possible.
Mr Sarkozy started a purge on Romas in the summer of 2010, pointing to the fact that up to 15,000 were living in camps across France. Mr Sarkozy even proposed that police travel to Romania to fight trafficking and other crimes committed there by Roma.
In turn, Roma groups accused Mr Sarkozy of ‘ethnic cleansing’, pointing to the fact that gipsies had been targeted by the Nazis during the Second World War.
They said that the purge was all part of a generally racist strategy adopted by Mr Sarkozy against all foreign groups, including some six million Muslims living in France.
Romania has been a full member of the European Union since 2007, and its citizens can enter France without a visa.
But they must get residency permits if they want to settle long term and work.
Britain, like France, has transitional controls on Romanians seeking to settle in the UK.
Until next year only those Romanian migrants who have a job or can support themselves are allowed to stay in Britain.
[ed. It is only a start. Deporting 200 Romanians cannot and should not be considered the end of the fight, around the world, by any means...]
