The following was written on December 2013: “Police stations throughout the country have turned into ‘warehouses for human souls’, the conditions have been described as tragic, and as violating both international rules and Greek laws. The E.U. has always offered help, but the Greek State has not been willing to fully exploit it. Now the country needs to make the most of the 230 million Euros the E.U. is offering. It would be ‘desirable’ that this money be used to create modern hosting facilities, with distinctive places for criminals and the undocumented, regular access to a courtyard, natural lighting, proper food and regular medical checks. In a nowadays unacceptable status, health and safety regulations are not respected, and we often have unacceptable and arbitrary police behavior. This is exactly what is expected to happen when the State itself stacks human souls for a long time in inappropriate places, without any interest to satisfy the minimum human needs“. Is this part of the proposals on the “issue of immigration” of a progressive Greek political party? No, the above words were spoken on December 12, 2013, by the President of the Panhellenic Federation of Police Officers in the 12th National Roundtable Against Discrimination. The “police unionist” also proposed hiring immigrants in the police force, adding that “…it might be useful to try to record the situation and demands of the thousands of foreigners already detained in detention centers. To make a survey to see how many they actually are, as well as why and where they want to live. Instead of trying to persuade them to return to their country, wouldn’t it be easier to guide them towards a better opportunity in another European country where already other members of their families are living?“.
While there are radical voices within Syriza that go a lot further, the police unionist’s proposals are more or less similar to those of the dominant part of Greek institutional Left parties. If the institutional Left form the next Greek government, they might indeed shut down the concentration camps, but not necessarily as part of a politics of respect of human dignity and basic rights, but in order to harmonize Greek policy with E.U. legislation, by putting the EU money to good use, opening more proper detention facilities, and satisfying the demands of the Greek police and their more conservative voters along the way. Indeed, a part of the institutional Left in Greece is speaking in favor of the same system that radical movements throughout Europe are fighting against.
Excerpts from:
Lampedusa is not the only death zone,
concentration camps are not a nightmare buried in the past
dates and numbers in the Greek Guantanamo calendar…
https://clandestinenglish.wordpress.com/2014/02/23/lampedusa-is-not-the-only-death-zone-concentration-camps-are-not-a-nightmare-buried-in-the-past/
clandestina 