Updated on
Summary Rights groups warned on Tuesday about increasingly violent racist attacks on migrants in Greece.
A network of 23 non-governmental organizations working together to document such incidents said Tuesday they registered 87 racist attacks between January and September, but that the true number was much higher because many victims were either afraid to report cases or were actively discouraged from doing so by police.We are showing only the tip of the iceberg, said Kostis Papaioannou, part of the network and former head of the Greek National Commission for Human Rights. There are hundreds of victims and hundreds of attacks.Of those attacks, 50 resulted in serious injuries, while the vast majority 85 were carried out by more than one attacker. Greek authorities do not collect statistics on hate crimes, and the network was formed to plug the hole.Rights groups say many attackers are suspected of being tied to the extremist right-wing Golden Dawn party.The group, which denies it has neo-Nazi beliefs, has had a meteoric rise in popularity during Greeces financial crisis.A fringe group just a few years ago, the party won nearly 7 percent of the vote in June elections, earning 18 seats in the 300-member Parliament while campaigning on an anti-immigrant platform.What we have seen is that there is a dramatic increase both in numbers as well as in the tension and the danger created by these attacks, Papaioannou said. Today we are sounding the alarm.Migrants who are in the country illegally are often afraid to report attacks to the police, and if the cases ever get to court, they face repeated delays, the groups said. The Greek judicial system is plagued by long delays, and many cases take years to be resolved.I would say that unless there is a clear decision to face this issue by arresting people, by putting people in courts, by giving them the sense that they are not under the protection of impunity, things will get worse, Papaioannou said.The groups noted that police sometimes actively discourage victims from reporting the attacks, while there have been several allegations of police themselves attacking migrants and others during arrest procedures.Police have said all allegations are duly investigated. In an announcement Monday, they said new allegations of police violence against immigrant detainees in a Piraeus police station were being investigated by the Internal Affairs squad.
