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The
Greek government initiated three years ago a legalization procedure
for the country’s 600,000-1,000,000 undocumented migrants. In
principle, it was supposed to be a liberal procedure aiming at
rationalizing the situation. The country’s economy needed a large
number of migrant labor and the authorities were ready to admit it and
set regulations for the migrants’ residence in Greece. As a result,
Greece, last among its EU partners, was going to finally acquire a
coherent migrants’ policy.
Three
years later, it is safe to conclude that the experiment failed. Most
migrants remain undocumented. A large number of those who at least
attempted to legalize their presence in Greece have gone through
humiliating experiences. For many, the effort to regularize themselves
ended up in a failure even tough they seemed to have both the
prerequisites and the goodwill: what they lacked was the cooperation
of the Greek authorities. Others, successful at first, found
themselves later "de-regularized" through arbitrary
procedures that have given the impression that the authorities have
now adopted an unannounced policy of minimizing the number of
documented migrants. Another group still holds tight on the legal
documents which they have to show to policemen during frequent,
blanket, humiliating and racist "random document checks." At
the same time, the - in principle bona fide - effort of the
authorities to fight corruption in state hospitals has included an
inhuman dimension: migrants who show up for treatment may face the
policemen before having consulted the doctors.
One
thing is certain. Greece still has no migration policy, no
comprehensive legislation on the rights of the legal migrants, and no
measures to secure their smooth integration into Greek society. What
follows are only highlights of the problems, as our NGOs have only
recently started systematic work on migrants in Greece. One dimension
of that work is certainly the cooperation with the Ombudsman’s
Office that has shown, on this as in every other issue, a commitment
to lobby the administration so that the latter respects and implements
not only Greek laws but also international human rights principles.
Migrants and Roma are, in Greece as in most European countries, the
victims of most human rights violations. The attitude of the Greek
authorities has been described by the Ombudsman, in its Annual
Report 1999, with strong words that no NGO has ever used:
"Human
rights violations by the administration (…) can be codified with
the words arbitrariness-indifference-bias-impunity; they take
their most acute form when applied on vulnerable social groups.
Often the administration arbitrarily uses public interest as an
excuse to restrict individual rights or shows illegal idleness
when there is a constitutional obligation to protect human rights.
These phenomena will not be eliminated as long as existing
disciplinary procedures remain idle (p.
18). (…) The administration, reproducing the most backward
reflexes of our society, often shows its worst face when dealing
with members of minority groups (p. 70). (…) The
pathology of human rights in our country is mainly a problem of
implementing existing constitutional and legal provisions rather
than lack thereof (p. 69). (…) It is common wisdom that
in the administration prevails a feeling of impunity, that in some
cases favors occasional illegal actions, or in other cases it
perpetuates a status of generalized anomy and corruption (p.70)."
The
following are relevant excerpts from the Annual Report 1999 of
the Greek Ombudsman (pp. 89-95):
"With
respect to legal treatment and social acceptance it is very hard
for a foreigner to be treated equally with a Greek due to the fact
that traditionally there is mistrust towards foreign nationalities
by legal orders. It is characteristic that the principle of
equity, as stated in the Greek Constitution article 4 par.1,
grants that right only to Greek citizens. Social rights are also
granted in principle only to Greek citizens, as according to
article.4, par.5 of the Constitution, they are the ones who
contribute to the public charges and hence the duty of social and
national solidarity of article 25, par. 4 exists only for them.
However,
the free development of personality is granted to all those living
in Greece including foreigners. Unfair discrimination against
foreigners by the administration is violating the principle of
good management and contradicts the international conventions for
the protection of human rights.
The
legal and social treatment of foreigners in a society is a very
sensitive area where the respect of human rights as well as the
principle of equity is intensively tested. In our country,
foreigners have to deal with unfair discrimination in many areas
of their economic and social life.
By
issuing presidential decrees 358/97 and 359/97 the government has
tried to deal with the problem of illegal immigration by
registering and legalizing the foreigners who were illegally
residing in the country. However, OAED (Employment Agency) which
is not the sole competent authority, but has been entrusted the
responsibility to manage the process of legalization, proved
unprepared to cope with the increased demands and consequently
fundamental rules of the administrative procedure have been
massively violated."
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