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GREECE / ASYLUM SEEKERS
STORY: GREECE / ASYLUM SEEKERS
TRT: 5:32
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: GREEK / ARABIC / DARI / SOMALI / ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: MAY - JUNE 2010, GREECE
1. Various shots, Turkey-Greece border
2. Various shots, Greek police recovering bodies from Evros river
3. SOUNDBITE (Greek) Georgos Salamangas, Police Commissioner, Orestiada Island, Greece:
“Recently our country receives a very big wave of illegal migration. These people are being smuggled in by Turkish smugglers in plastic boats. They do not hesitate to put on board small children and women, and this is the result as you have witnessed today, 3 young people lost their lives.”
4. Various shots, asylum seekers in detention facility
5. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Milad, Palestinian refugee:
“It was very very difficult to move when we got on the river. Those of us who know how to swim, avoided death. We saw death close up, if we hadn’t been able to swim we would have died. Those who could not swim did die. They drowned.”
6. Various shots, coast guard at work and asylum seekers in dinghy
7. SOUNDBITE (Greek) Pavlos Vogiatzis, Prefect, Island of Lesvos, Greece:
Nobody has ever said that he wants to come to Greece in order to stay. I believe that the European Union finds it convenient to use Greece as a shield. But this is not right. The way refugees are being treated today does not honour anybody, neither us as Greeks or the EU.”
8. Various shots, inside detention facility
9. Various shots, Vali playing with football
10. SOUNDBITE (Dari) Vali, 10, Asylum Seeker:
“I do not feel very good here, because I think that if I were in another country, I would have been given an asylum. So I don’t feel good because I can not see a future for me here.”
11. Various shots, asylum seekers in public park
12. SOUNDBITE (Somali) Ado Mohamed, Asylum Seeker:
“We were sleeping here and some thieves attacked us and we were injured. You can see my injuries here on my face and my back. I was hit with a stick and this is a stabbing.”
13. Various shots, Ado Mohamed in park
14. SOUNDBITE (Greek) Spyros Vougias, Deputy Minister of Citizen Protection, Greece:
“There are negative and positives. The negative challenges are the disruption of social cohesion leading to racism and xenophobia. The positive side of the challenge is the current Government is obliged to address this problem in a more human manner. To create new policies regarding the reception of these people, both migrant and refugees. And also to mend asylum procedures and to give citizenship to those who deserve it.”
15. Various shots, asylum seekers outside police station
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Miriam, Asylum Seeker from Cameroon:
Nobody has asked you about your story. Nobody wants to know anything about you. You come here for an interview and they give you rendezvous upon rendezvous upon rendezvous, you can end up like spending over a year here. You don’t even have the pink card that is needed to go around the country. It is really very difficult for us coping and living in Greece.”
17. Various shots, dilapidated building where some asylum seekers are staying
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Giorgos Tsarbopoulos, Head of UNHCR office in Greece:
“Until these changes are really implemented and mean something concrete for the everyday life of an asylum seeker, European countries should not return asylum seekers back to Greece.”
19. Various shots, Greek police recovering bodies from Evros river
River Evros separates Turkey and Greece. This 200 kilometer stretch of river is the unofficial gateway to Europe for thousands of migrants and refugees.
Recently the Greek police recovered the bodies of three young African migrants from their wet grave. Their dream of a better life lost forever.
So far this year, nearly 10,000 migrants and asylum seekers tried to cross this river, four times more than a year ago.
Greece’s economic crisis has left authorities struggling to handle the influx.
SOUNDBITE (Greek) Georgos Salamangas, Police Commissioner, Orestiada Island, Greece:
“Recently our country receives a very big wave of illegal migration. These people are being smuggled in by Turkish smugglers in plastic boats. They do not hesitate to put on board small children and women, and this is the result as you have witnessed today, 3 young people lost their lives.”
Hundreds of Afghans, Iraqis, Georgians, Somalis, Palestinians, and Eritreans come to Greece despite the dangers.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Milad, Palestinian refugee:
“It was very very difficult to move when we got on the river. Those of us who know how to swim, avoided death. We saw death close up, if we hadn’t been able to swim we would have died. Those who could not swim did die. They drowned.”
On the Aegean Sea, the Greece Coast Guard has seen a drop in the number of boat people coming from Turkey, but still they continue to arrive.
To avoid being pushed to the Turkish side, smugglers urge the migrants to jump into the sea or pierce their boats giving the coastguard no other option but to rescue them.
Greece gets some help from its European partners. This coast guard vessel is from Romania, but for the prefect of the island of Lesvos, it is not enough.
SOUNDBITE (Greek) Pavlos Vogiatzis, Prefect, Island of Lesvos, Greece:
Nobody has ever said that he wants to come to Greece in order to stay. I believe that the European Union finds it convenient to use Greece as a shield. But this is not right. The way refugees are being treated today does not honour anybody, neither us as Greeks or the EU.”
To try and cope, in 2008, local authorities opened a centre for minors, unaccompanied youngsters, fleeing their homeland.
Most like Vali want to go to another European country.
SOUNDBITE (Dari) Vali, 10, Asylum Seeker:
“I do not feel very good here, because I think that if I were in another country, I would have been given an asylum. So I don’t feel good because I can not see a future for me here.”
Caught in the system, many asylum seekers end up in urban centers.
Abdo Mohamed has been sleeping in a public park in Athens for a year and a half. He wears the scars of xenophobia and social tensions on his face and body.
SOUNDBITE (Somali) Ado Mohamed, Asylum Seeker:
“We were sleeping here and some thieves attacked us and we were injured. You can see my injuries here on my face and my back. I was hit with a stick and this is a stabbing.”
Now he sleeps with a wooden club for protection.
The current Greek government acknowledges that it needs to do more.
SOUNDBITE (Greek) Spyros Vougias, Deputy Minister of Citizen Protection, Greece:
“There are negative and positives. The negative challenges are the disruption of social cohesion leading to racism and xenophobia. The positive side of the challenge is the current Government is obliged to address this problem in a more human manner. To create new policies regarding the reception of these people, both migrant and refugees. And also to mend asylum procedures and to give citizenship to those who deserve it.”
Hundreds line up outside the Aliens’ Police Station in Athens. For asylum seekers like Miriam, who prefers to stay hidden, the current process is frustrating.
SOUNDBITE (English) Miriam, Asylum Seeker from Cameroon:
Nobody has asked you about your story. Nobody wants to know anything about you. You come here for an interview and they give you rendezvous upon rendezvous upon rendezvous, you can end up like spending over a year here. You don’t even have the pink card that is needed to go around the country. It is really very difficult for us coping and living in Greece.”
There is a proposal to move the processing of asylum applications from the police to a new authority. And the right to appeal decisions would be restored giving hundreds a chance at being granted asylum.
SOUNDBITE (English) Giorgos Tsarbopoulos, Head of UNHCR office in Greece:
“Until these changes are really implemented and mean something concrete for the everyday life of an asylum seeker, European countries should not return asylum seekers back to Greece.”
This young African woman risked everything to get to Europe but it ended in tragedy.
In Greece, there is agreement that a more human approach must be found to deal with asylum seekers, and that the EU must share in the responsibility.
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