Helena Smith, Guardian (Manchester), October 21, 2009
A generation of migrant children who were born and raised in Greece but never officially recognised will be granted Greek citizenship, the newly elected socialist government has announced.
The step—part of a wide-ranging overhaul of immigration policies long condemned by international organisations—could affect up to 200,000 children who though Greek in everything but name have never been afforded nationality.
“This country can no longer go on being a hell for migrants,” said Michalis Chrysochoidis, the minister in charge of the newly created citizens’ protection ministry. Human rights activists say the measure will overturn a “surreal” situation where children whose immigrant parents have legally settled in Greece are treated as “aliens” with no rights at all.
“Absurd is too light a word to describe the lot of these kids,” said Petros Papaconstantinou, a prominent anti-racism spokesman. “Even if born in Greece, even if they attend Greek schools and speak only Greek, which invariably is the case, on paper they don’t exist at all.”
Without official documentation the children were often subject to abuse, arrest and deportation at the age of 18, he said. “There are children whose parents are from Africa, Asia and countries like Albania who are enrolled at schools across Greece but who have no papers whatsoever. In Europe this is unique.”
Under the reforms, unaccompanied children held in overcrowded detention centres will also be released. In recent months there have been a series of rebellions in migrant camps on Lesbos and other Aegean islands, often led by minors protesting against poor living conditions.
While other parts of Europe have seen a decline in illegal immigration, Greece has experienced a 50% surge, with its easternmost islands bearing the brunt of the influx. Most of the migrants, who cross over from Turkey, are from Asia, Africa and countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan. “Greece remains the main entry point for illegal immigrants into Europe,” said Gil Arias Fernandez, the deputy director of Frontex, the EU border agency.
While Turkey has been criticised for failing to stop the flow, Greece has also been denounced for its “inhuman” handling of migrants. Human rights groups accused the former conservative government of illegally expelling thousands across the border into Turkey.
Following the death of a Pakistani immigrant in police custody in Athens last week, the socialists also plan to integrate immigrants into the police and place psychologists at stations nationwide.
Original article
(Posted on October 22, 2009)
Comments
Wow, it’s like a reflex with these Socialists! Let them into power and it’s the very first thing they do, almost on instinct. We’ve seen it time and time again — Labour in Britain in ‘97, Germany in ‘98, Spain in ‘04, Australia in ‘07, etc. You can’t say the Greek voters shouldn’t have known they had it coming.
“This country can no longer go on being a hell for migrants,” said Michalis Chrysochoidis, the minister in charge of the newly created citizens’ protection ministry.
He is correct - they should be removed from hell-like Greece for THEIR own good.
I guess the Turks have not killed raped and terrorized them enough yet. So they invite other nations to do it for them.
How can these people be decended from King Leonidas and other Spartans?
“Following the death of a Pakistani immigrant in police custody in Athens last week, the socialists also plan to integrate immigrants into the police …”
…………………………….
ANOTHER Pakistani “immigrant”? [Do note the PC terminology.]
That’s what happened last winter, when the, uh — “immigrant” — fell in the drainage ditch and hit his head. As a result of this outrageous police brutality, rioting went on sporadically for most of the winter.
So now there’s a change of government and another “immigrant” tragedy. Obviously it’s time to put immigrants in charge of the police. When are we going to see that here?
For about five hundred years the Greeks lived under a very brutal and despotic domination of the Muslim Turk and yet the Greek maintained their culture, religion, and ethnic cohesion intact.
NOW they invite “others” who will destroy forever that cohesion.
The Greeks, like many other ethnicities, have “lost it”, and for the wrong reasons too.
How so very sad!
“While other parts of Europe have seen a decline in illegal immigration, Greece has experienced a 50% surge, with its easternmost islands bearing the brunt of the influx.”
Hey, Greece, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Once people from the poorer countries hear about the latest government decision, they’ll be arriving in droves.
Bobster wrote: “Hey, Greece, you ain’t seen nothing yet.”
How true. When/if Turkey becomes part of the EU, there will be a mass of humanity pouring in, like nothing ever seen before, with no border controls at all.
Do note that the USA is fully in favor of this and has been promoting it vigorously. (As if it’s any of our business!)
“How true. When/if Turkey becomes part of the EU, there will be a mass of humanity pouring in, like nothing ever seen before, with no border controls at all.”
When Turkey gets into the EU, that will be the end of Europe as we have always known it.
All the Moslem countries will use it as a funnel for invasion of Europe. Europe will be up for grabs.
Greece has experienced a 50% surge, with its easternmost islands bearing the brunt of the influx.”
This is nothing less than a beach head as is the Islamic Republic of Kosovo. In WWII had the Germans kept us off the beaches, WWII would have been quite different..the Greeks, however, have let them get on the beaches, and when there are enough, RECENT history shows they will move inland.
In both cases, we are being attacked and invaded through our ill-guarded Southern flank, while our so-called “representatives” stand idly by and pretend not to notice; or else they assure us that the situation is fully under control and there’s nothing to get worried about. (And just like a back-up chorus, the media chimes in to remind us that anyone who objects is a racist and a xenophobe.)
Meanwhile, the Afro-Islamic hordes keep pouring in.
I read recently about Athens getting its first mosque since the end of Ottoman rule about 170 years ago. It clearly wont be the last.
Well, that’s democracy. What’s the point in saving white culture if we destroy all of the freedoms and guarantees it’s created in order to do it?
“Greek in everything but name.”
This “legalization” of non-Greeks is technically in violation of the Greek Constitution. Greek Nationality Law clearly stipulates that only people of Greek descent can attain citizenship (i.e. jus sanguinis). Attempts made by the PASOK government to subvert the Constitution by implementing jus soli policies will only prove that the socialists care more about their idealized fantasies involving the Other rather than the livelihoods of hard-working Greeks.
It is important to note that the PASOK government received nearly the same amount of votes it did back in the 2004 elections. No one denies that Jeffrey Pappandreou secured roughly 44% of the “Greek vote” (i.e. “legalized” Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Albanians, Romanians, Bulgarians, Chinese, Turks, Kurds, etc.) and won 160 seats in the Greek Parliament. However, no one cares to notice the fact that voter turnout was lower than in the last parliamentary elections (i.e. disgruntled Greek natives). In other words, hundreds of thousands of Greeks acted on their disgust with the political establishment by not voting. This shouldn’t come as a surprise given the fact that polls showed approximately 80% of the native Greek population distrusts the parliamentary system (Greek mostly trust the military and the Greek Orthodox Church).
Even though the socialists are dominant, their power has not increased in absolute terms despite the presence of other socialist groups in the Greek Parliament (the KKE or Communist Party of Greece led by “proletariat Papariga” actually lost votes; the SYRIZA party, led by pro-Other/anti-Greek politicians Tsipras and Alavanos, was almost disbanded and was saved only as a result of intervention from “parliamentary forces”). The reason for this dynamic is simple: 1) average Greeks punished the New Democracy Party for its incompetence regarding national issues, 2) the leader of the New Democracy Party, Karamanlis, had already planned to surrender power to Pappandreou, because it is the PASOK party’s “turn” to govern Greece (since 1974, the country has technically been ruled by two very large mafia-like families, the Karamanlis/Mitsotakis clan of New Democracy and the Pappandreou/Simitis clan of PASOK).
Despite Greece’s current grim circumstances, there is still hope (I mean actual hope, not the kind of “hope” perpetuated by Jeffrey Pappandreou’s socialist penpal, Obama). Many Greeks have resisted and are still resisting the barbarians along with their supporters, the “Jannisaries of Multiculturalism” (i.e. Greek traitors who have no sense of kin and country). If you look at places like Agio Panteleimona, Plateia Attikis, Vathylakko (near the city of Thessaloniki), and Patras, you will see Greeks literally up in arms. And this is just the beginning if the PASOK party fails to deliver on its promises (which it will since it is just as pathetic and corrupt as the New Democracy party).
It is true that there were many Greeks who voted for PASOK (perhaps out of desperation), but their support for Jeffrey Pappandreou began to significantly dwindle the minute they saw hundreds of barbarians cheering in the streets after the elections. PASOK used to have a slogan: “Greece belongs to the Greeks”. Now, the slogan that everyone (including Greeks who voted PASOK) chants is: “Greece belongs to the Pakistanis” (or whichever barbarian lot “legally” resides in Greece). The socialists will do their worst, but their blatantly anti-Hellenic actions will only galvanize the Greeks’ innate sense of patriotism (in fact, many patriotic grass roots organizations in Greece are gaining more support as the economic crisis continues and the barbarians are taking jobs and wages away from Greeks).
On a sidenote, don’t believe everything you read from mainstream Greek media outlets since they have a tendency to brand anything that does not coincide with their pathetic New Age philosophies as “racist”, “fascist”, and “xenophobic”. Moreover, the notion that Greeks are “lazy” or that they “rely on poor illegal immigrants to do jobs they refuse to do” is complete propagandistic hogwash (i.e. Greeks had jobs before the 1990s; once the borders were opened by the hapless ND/PASOK forces in government, unemployment has been steadily rising because of the constant influx of cheap unskilled labor; most government figures regarding unemployment are either exaggerated or completely false).
Hellenism will ultimately prevail, because this is not the first time that dark forces (substitute the Ottomans for “multi-culti PC warriors”) have threatened to destroy it. The Greeks have a right to preserve their ethnic and cultural identity in their own homeland. Those that disagree can go lick Archimedes’s “screw” for all I care.
Like Metaxas, I say “Ohi!” (No!) to the soulless hordes that preach about “human rights” while imposing their tyrannical will upon the Greeks in their attempts to fully transmogrify the home of Western civilization into a hellish pit. At the end of the day, either the barbarians will be expelled en masse (a possibility) or the Greeks will fight until their country is theirs again (a certainty).
Archon
P.S. For those of you who are curious, Greeks are indeed the genuine descendants of their ancient forebears according to anthropological and genetic sources. Go to the “Articles” section on the right-hand section of Dienekes’ Anthropology Blog and enjoy.
