Cleaning Operations
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European Roma Rights Center Greek Helsinki Monitor CLEANING OPERATIONS Excluding Roma in Greece Country Report Series, No. 12 April 2003 3 Cleaning Operations: Excluding Roma in Greece Copyright: © European Roma Rights Center, April 2003 All rights reserved. ISBN 963 206 873 4 ISSN 1416-7409 Graphic Design: Createch Ltd./Judit Kovács Printed in Budapest, Hungary. For information on reprint policy, please contact the ERRC 4 Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments ..................................................................................................7 1. Executive Summary ..........................................................................................8 2. Introduction.................................................................................................... 20 3. A Short History of Roma in Greece ............................................................. 28 4. Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment: The Housing Rights of Roma in Greece........................................................................................................ 42 4.1 Residential Segregation of Roma in Greece.......................................... 44 4.2 Forced Evictions.................................................................................... 50 4.3 Threatened Expulsion of Roma by Municipal Authorities .................... 74 4.4 Refusal of Municipal Authorities to Register Roma as Local Residents ..................................................................................... 76 4.5 Harassment of Roma by Municipal Authorities .................................... 78 4.6 Relocation of Roma to Segregated Areas with Substandard Living Conditions ................................................................................... 82 4.7 Deleterious Health Effects of Inadequate Housing ............................... 94 4.8 Summary: Racially Discriminatory Housing Policy ............................. 100 5. Police Violence against Roma ..................................................................... 103 5.1 Abusive Police Raids on Romani Settlements .................................... 104 5.2 Ill-Treatment of Roma at the Hands of the Police ...............................116 5.3 Failure to Prosecute or Otherwise Adequately Discipline Perpetrators of Police Abuse Where Roma are Victims .................... 129 5.4 Summary: Police Racism ..................................................................... 148 6. Exclusion of Roma from the Education System .......................................... 153 6.1 Racial Segregation in the Greek School System................................. 153 6.2 Collusion of Local Authorities in the Failure to Attend School .......... 156 6.3 Denial of Romani Identity in the Education System ............................ 164 6.4 Summary: Agrammatos .................................................................... 168 7. Barriers to Access to Health Care and Other Social Support Services .... 174 8. Anti-Discrimination Law and Government Programmes on Roma ............ 178 8.1 Anti-Discrimination Law ..................................................................... 178 8.2 The 1996 National Policy Framework for Greek Gypsies ............. 184 8.3 The 2001 Comprehensive Programme Action for the Social Integration of Greek Gypsies ............................................................ 190 8.4 Government Loan Programmes .......................................................... 199 9. Conclusion: Cleaning Operations ................................................................ 203 5 Cleaning Operations: Excluding Roma in Greece 10. Recommendations ....................................................................................... 206 11. Bibliography ................................................................................................. 210 12. Summary in Romani..................................................................................... 217 13. Appendices: Some Documents from the ERRC/GHM Archives ............... 220 6 Acknowledgements ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This report was produced by the European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) and the Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM). Panayote Dimitras and Theodoros Alexandridis wrote drafts of the report based on ERRC/GHM research as well as other ERRC/ GHM documentation. Anne Burley, Claude Cahn, Savelina Russinova and Heather Tidrick copy-edited and expanded one or more drafts. Dimitrina Petrova and Panayote Dimitras copy-edited the final version and authorised the publication of the report. In addition, the following ERRC and GHM researchers, consultants, interns and staff mem- bers contributed significantly to the production of this report: Dimitris Angelides, Tara Bedard, Anita Danka, Maria Dimitriou, István Fenyvesi, Orestis Georgiadis, Demetra Kassimis, Georgios Kloudas, Spyros Kloudas, Angeliki Kotsantoni, Mariana Lenkova, Sophia Nikolaidou, Antonia Papadopoulou, Nafsika Papanikolatos, Terry Platis, Chris- tina Rougheri, Demi Sakellaropoulou, Apostolis Stragalinos, Orsolya Szendrey, Sundy Topidou, Georgia Tsaklaganos, and Mary Elen Tsekos. Mayra Gomez of the Center on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) read the chapter on residential segrega- tion of Roma in Greece and provided comments on it in light of international housing rights provisions. Historians Elena Marushiakova and Vesselin Popov, specialists in Romani history and culture, commented on the history chapter. In compiling this report ERRC and GHM have also extensively drawn upon re- ports, research and expertise of Minority Rights Group-Greece (MRG-G), a close collaborator of GHM. ERRC and GHM are particularly indebted to those Roma who were willing to spend their time and describe the problems they were facing. In addi- tion, many persons (both in their professional and personal capacities) provided in- valuable assistance and up-to-date information, including in particular: Vasso Christopoulou, Leonidas Dandrakis, Mimi Firogeni, Makis Nodaros, and Michales Vasilakis. A number of Greek state officials were also very helpful in compiling mate- rial on the human rights situation of Roma. Last but not least, ERRC and GHM are thankful to Thanasis Triaridis of DROM Network for Roma Social Rights whose tireless commitment in recent years helped change the situation of Roma in Greater Thessaloniki and contributed to the defence of Roma rights throughout Greece. 7 Cleaning Operations: Excluding Roma in Greece The unchecked, without permit, encampment of wandering nomads (Athinganoi [Gypsies], etc.) in whatever region is prohibited. [...] The lands for the organised encampments of wandering nomads must be outside the inhabited areas and in good distance from the approved urban plan or the last contiguous houses. [...] Encampment is prohibited near archaeological sites, beaches, landscapes of natural beauty, visible by main highway points or areas which could affect the public health (springs supplying drinking water, etc.). Common Ministerial Decree of the Minister of Internal Affairs and the Minister of Health No A5/696/25.4-11.5.83, Sanitary Provision for the Organised Relocation of Wandering Nomads, Official Gazette B 243. 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ERRC/GHM monitoring of Roma rights in Greece ongoing without interruption since 1997 has established that large numbers of Roma in Greece live in racially segregated ghettos which stand in stark contrast to any other residential areas of Greece. While many Greek Roma live in conditions close to the standard or standard for Greece, a substantial part of the Romani population live in inhuman conditions. This very ex- posed segment of the Romani population inhabits substandard housing or has no hous- ing at all. Racial segregation not only imposes on Roma inhuman and degrading conditions but also denies Roma the enjoyment of a range of other fundamental human rights. Exposed Romani settlements are often targets of abusive police raids based on racial profiling which subject numerous families to brutal interference with home and private life, ill-treatment and harassment. The lives of many Roma are further disrupted by forced evictions the execution of which leaves many Romani families homeless. Ghetto life condemns Roma to ghetto schools or deprives them altogether of access to school as well as of access to health care and other social services available to the public. 8 Executive Summary Systematic discrimination against Roma in all spheres of social life, which persists with- out any meaningful effort on the part of the Greek state to counter it, is responsible for the deepening exclusion of Roma from Greek society. In the extreme case, some Roma in Greece are stateless, having never been provided with the most fundamental recog- nition of participation in society citizenship. Although human rights abuses of ethnic Greeks and others also often go unpunished in Greece, Roma suffer an especially high number of human rights violations, disproportionate to their percentage in the Greek population. This creates a climate of impunity that breeds further violations. Anti-Romani racism permeates discourse about Roma in Greece and infects nearly all aspects of interactions between Roma and non-Roma in Greece. The Greek gov- ernment has done little to nothing to acknowledge let alone address anti-Romani racism in Greece. Although the Greek government has denied at international fora that there exist any Greek laws furthering racial discrimination, a 1983 Ministerial Decree entitled Sanitary Provision