Thread: Getting rid of problem people (Greece and illegals)

Sounds like the predictions made in that book "Camp of the Saints" aren't exactly coming true.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IB28Ak05.html

Getting rid of problem people
By Fazile Zahir

FETHIYE, Turkey - On a dark winter's night, the boat cut its engines and went to silent running. Crowded on every deck, the passengers stared desperately across the water, hoping to see lights from the shore and dreading seeing any lights at sea.

A whisper of excitement went around as a tiny light gleamed solidly from the coastline. They'd made it, and their perilous sea journey squashed into a tiny, squalid boat with a rude and bullying



crew was over.

The European Union and a new and better life lay just in front of them, and the thin light was a welcoming beacon. Men hugged their wives and friends slapped each other on the back, the damp cold of the night air temporarily forgotten. The small ship swung into the remote cove and everyone crowded excitedly to the ladder to disembark.

About half of the men were off the boat when cutting through the chilly clear air came the sound they had all feared. The searchlight swung out of the darkness as a harsh voice barked through an amplifier and the people on the boat, only moments ago so elated, sank back and cowered, trying to make themselves as small as possible in the beam's accusing glare.

The dream was over: the Greek Coast Guard had been waiting for them, and there would be no landing on a quiet beach on Chios. What none of the migrants had yet realized was that their nightmare was just beginning.

According to statements from the 40 passengers, the Greeks handcuffed them and took them off the small ship and put back to sea in their own vessel. They then turned their boat around until the bow was pointing in the direction of the Turkish coast. By early morning the coast guard boat was deep enough into Turkish waters to see the faint outline of Karaburun Point near Izmir, and then when they were about 400 meters away, they pushed the illegal immigrants off the boat into the cold seawater. The only favor they did them was to take their handcuffs off and give the two women life-jackets.

The villagers of Kucukbahce on the Turkish coast explained how they were awakened at 4:30am by their dogs barking wildly. As they wondered about the cause of the animals' disquiet, they heard the forlorn cries of "Allah" coming from the sea as the boat people tried hopelessly to swim to shore.

The reaction was immediate, and a flotilla of small craft and fishermen set out to pull the bedraggled Lebanese, Iranians, Palestinians, Tunisians and Algerians from the water. Thirty-one people were rescued, six are known to have drowned, and three are missing and presumed drowned.

The Greek authorities deny the accusations leveled at them. But this is not the first case of its kind. The Turkish government has sent evidence to Athens of two others, one last year and one in 2004.

On July 13, 2004, a Turkish security helicopter filmed a Greek Coast Guard boat, Aimenko 070, as it took 35 illegal immigrants from a Greek island and deposited them on Turkish shores at Kusadasi. Despite repeated attempts by the helicopter to contact the boat, there was no response.

On May 27, 2006, at 6:20am, Turkish land forces saw a Greek Coast Guard boat speeding toward the Turkish coastline. Seven hundred meters from land, the boat stopped and a rubber dinghy was lowered hastily into the water. Six Afghan immigrants were thrust into it. The coast guard boat then turned tail and shot back toward international waters. The Afghans, who were not provided with oars, attempted to paddle to shore using their hands and were rescued by a Turkish helicopter.

According to Turkish security forces, the Greeks started dumping illegal migrants on Turkey's shores in serious numbers in 2003 and to date have rid themselves of 5,800 problem people in this way. Although the Turkish Foreign Ministry protests to Greece about this unethical behavior, there are no sanction mechanisms that Turkey can take to prevent the illegal release of refugees in its waters.

The problem is recognized as an international one, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has personally involved himself over the latest incident, calling both Turkish and Greek officials. Turkey is recognized as a key transit country on the path that human smugglers use from Asia, Africa and the Middle East to Europe, and illegal immigrants are detained on a daily basis.

Early last year Turkish police director General Gokhan Aydmner said more than 500,000 illegal immigrants and 6,113 human traffickers had been captured in the previous decade, and some organizations estimate that there may be up to a million illegal immigrants in Turkey today. The problem is so serious that in 2003 Turkey introduced an action plan and launched a national task force to try to cope with the issue.

In Greece the policy seems to be "hear no evil, see no evil", with the Greek government claiming that it does not have an illegal-immigrant problem.

Amnesty International Turkey chairman Taner Kilic, a refugee-law expert, says Greece does not have the right to deport illegal immigrants secretly into Turkey's territorial waters and that to do so is a violation of refugee and human-rights laws. Amnesty has drawn attention to Greek behavior before, with a damning report in 2005 stating that Greece had a discriminatory policy against asylum seekers, immigrants and refugees.

"Asylum procedures are not properly carried out in Greece," Kilic said. "According to the official figures in that country, the number of asylum requests accepted is 1%. There is no such ratio in the world. This shows that discrimination is an official policy."

Turkey may give illegal immigrants short shrift, often refusing asylum applications and returning migrants to their home country, but Greece, it seems, is not prepared to give them any shrift at all.

Fazile Zahir is of Turkish descent, born and brought up in London. She moved to live in Turkey in 2005 and has been writing full-time since then.

Turkey may give illegal immigrants short shrift, often refusing asylum applications and returning migrants to their home country, but Greece, it seems, is not prepared to give them any shrift at all.

Well I don't blame Greece for wanting to enforce their immigration laws. Of course they may be a little inhumane, but who wants to see the old Greek ruins turned into mosques? I'm sure the Greeks don't!