152 GREECE1

IHF FOCUS: freedom of expression and media; torture, ill-treatment and police mis- conduct; conditions in prisons and detention facilities; religious intolerance; nation- al minorities; citizenship and statelessness; intolerance, xenophobia, racial discrimi- nation and hate speech; asylum seekers and immigrants; women’s rights; rights of the child.

Greece did not make much progress in Lesser Used Languages. The publication furthering the protection of human rights mentioned the existing minority languages during 2001. The extensive violation of mi- in , namely, Aromanian, Arvanite, nority rights continued despite sharp criti- Macedonian, Pomak, and Turkish. Mr Blet- cism from the relevant international bodies. sas was subsequently acquitted on appeal In addition, Greece has been classified as on 18 December. one of the States with a democratic gov- Journalists often faced abuses and in- ernment that makes the least effort to terference with their work by politicians, combat trafficking in women, while also businessmen and policemen. demonstrating one of the lowest levels of tolerance of freedom of expression. On 9 January, Stavros Papadopoulos, a Furthermore, there continued to be New Democracy Party MP, assaulted Dimit- cases of flagrant police misconduct ris Kassapidis, a journalist and editor of the throughout the year, including irresponsible local magazine Dromena for writing a satir- shootings both at immigrants trying to cross ical article depicting the MP as a populist. the border and at members of unpopular On 30 March Manthos Evangeliou, a minorities. These often resulted in deaths. Star television correspondent and contribu- The dissemination of racist and xenophobic tor to the Patras-based newspapers, Kirikas statements also added to the human rights and Yegonota, was attacked in the city by problems in Greece during the year. Greek Coast Guards whilst photographing NATO ships anchored in the port for naval Freedom of Expression and Media manoeuvres. Freedom House ranked Greece as the country displaying the least respect for free- On 3 April, Eleftherotypia’s Makis No- dom of speech out of all those countries daros had his papers confiscated while cov- with long-standing democratic traditions.2 ering a trial on a hit-and-run automobile manslaughter case of a Ukrainian worker by On 12 January the publisher of the a wealthy local businessman. daily Adesmeftos Typos, Dimitris Rizos, was sentenced to six months imprison- On 12 April, Fotini Panagopoulou, a jour- ment (subsequently released on appeal) nalist from the Simaia newspaper in Kala- for slandering Kostas Mitsis, the publisher mata, was assaulted by Michalis Murgelas, an of another newspaper also called Ades- officer of the Municipal city police, after Ms meftos Typos. Panagopoulou had photographed him. On 2 February, Sotiris Bletsas from the Society for Aromanian Culture, received a Torture, Ill-Treatment and Police suspended sentence of 15 months impris- Misconduct onment and a DRS 500,000 (about 1,667 Police brutality against immigrants and Euro) fine for allegedly disseminating false detainees continued to plague Greek soci- information at an Aromanian festival where ety during 2001 as a result of the general he had distributed a publication from the situation of impunity of police misconduct. European Union’s semi-official Bureau for There were several cases of police shoot- GREECE 153 ings resulting in deaths: On 24 October the Roma men alleged that they were beaten 21- year-old unarmed Romani man, Mari- and repeatedly kicked by the policemen. nos Christopoulos, was murdered during a On 1 November, in Zaharo, Yiorgos Pa- road check in Zefyri; on 21 November, the nayotopoulos (16) was arrested with his re- 20-year-old Gentjan Celniku, of Albanian latives for carrying illegal arms. While in de- background, was murdered during an iden- tention, a policeman reportedly beat Mr Pa- tity check in central ; and on 1 De- nayotopoulos, placed a loaded gun to his cember, the Albanian, Halim Munga, was head and threatened to assault him sexually. killed near the Greek border. The 17-year- old Albanian, Afrim Salla, was “lucky” Conditions in Prisons and Detention enough to stay alive, although paralyzed for Facilities life, after Greek soldiers opened fire on him near the town of . In 2001 the European Court of Human Roma were the most abused group in Rights convicted Greece for violation of Greece, followed by the Albanians. How- Article 3 (prohibition of torture and inhu- ever, more Albanians were killed by law en- man and degrading treatment), in deten- forcement officials. In addition, there were tion facilities3 and prisons4. On 8 May, the also cases of police attacks on ethnic UN Committee against Torture (CAT) stat- . For example: ed that detention facilities in Greece were In February, 16-year-old Refat Tafili was characterized by excessive and unjustified arrested in Athens. The severe mistreat- police violence, especially against minori- ment he allegedly was exposed to whilst in ties and foreigners; harsh detention police custody resulted in a double rupture regimes; and excessively prolonged deten- of his spleen and an emergency operation. tion of undocumented migrants and asy- lum-seekers awaiting deportation. In late May, 164 asylum seekers (in- Overcrowding was the main problem cluding 20 women and 25 children) and in detention facilities – something that was others were towed away by the Greek acknowledged even by the Planning Direc- Coast Guard in , who allegedly as- torate of the Ministry of the Environment, saulted most of the male migrants and in- Planning and Public Works, which stated in flicted injuries on at least 16 of them. July 2001 that around 8,295 inmates were Around the same time Piraeus coast- accommodated in a space officially desig- guardsmen ran after and fired gunshots at nated for no more than 5,267 detainees. five or six Kurdish detainees who had man- Greece’s largest prison establishment, the aged to escape into a schoolyard. Korydallos Prison Complex, was a case in point. In February, 2,193 inmates were On 15 June, police in Athens arrested spread between the 640 places available. Rom Andreas Kalamiotes for making too This demonstrated that the situation in that much noise with his friends. At the time of prison had become even worse since the arrest, Mr Kalamiotes was allegedly beaten visit by the European Committee for the with truncheons and repeatedly insulted Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or with racial slurs. Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) In the night of 4-5 August, Nikos Theo- in 1999. In addition, overcrowding was doropoulos (19), Nikos Theodoropoulos supplemented by “traditional” problems (18), Nikos Tsitsikos (23), Vasileios Theo- such as lack of physical exercise, ventila- doropoulos (17), and Theodore Stefanou tion, appropriate health care and vocational (16) were all arrested in connection with activities, as well as the widespread avail- the robbery of an Argostoli kiosk. All young ability of drugs. 154 GREECE

Asylum seekers were detained for long all relevant torture and inhuman and de- periods of time in conditions, which consti- grading treatment provisions of international tuted torture and degrading treatment, in- law, including Article 3 of the ECHR. cluding lack of proper ventilation and phys- In June, the detention centre on ical exercise, lack of proper food, insuffi- Asklipiou Street in Piraeus had 18 de- cient supply of water, and overall unhy- tainees, 11 of whom had been in detention gienic and unhealthy living conditions. In awaiting deportation for 3 to 11 months in some cases asylum-seekers were physical- violation of Article 44(3) of the new Law ly assaulted and were almost never al- 2910/01. The conditions under which visi- lowed to see a doctor to treat and docu- tors could communicate with the detainees ment their injuries. In cases where asylum- were unacceptable: a detainee could talk to seekers had expressly sought permission to a visitor from behind bars in a corridor, sur- contact the consulate of their country or to rounded by other detainees, and in the consult with a lawyer, they were allegedly presence of police officers standing a few not supplied with the appropriate phone steps away. Responding to the persistent numbers. The few who were permitted to calls of the Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM) consult a lawyer were not guaranteed con- and the Greek Ombudsman, in late July, the fidential meetings, as none of the police es- General Secretariat of the Region ex- tablishments they were kept in offered fa- amined the Piraeus detention centre files, cilities for that purpose. The CPT itself had including the files of another 59 detainees confirmed this in its earlier visit to Greece. elsewhere, and ordered their release. Across almost all detention facilities, de- tainees were not informed of their rights in Religious Intolerance a language they understood, both during There were incidents of religious dis- their arrest and – where applicable – during crimination at all levels. their subsequent trial: In addition, many The Medical Military Unit of ’s can- were forced to sign documents in Greek, teen was scheduled as the location for a clearly unaware of their content. Later, in separate 14 December oath-giving cere- some cases, these documents were used mony for two Catholic Christians and three as incriminating evidence against them and Muslims. They were officially segregated helped prepare their deportation orders. In from their fellow conscripts, and were not the majority of cases, those detained were permitted to take part in the official parade not shown the so-called with all the rest due to the difference in Information Bulletin, which contains – in their religion. two different versions and in 14 languages – a list of rights of detainees and deportees. In September, the Jehovah’s Witnesses protested before the Ministry of Education In May, the General Police Directorate of and the Ombudsman’s Office against an in- Attica (GADA) Holding Centre held 207 peo- cident that allegedly took place at the Nea ple, even though it was intended for a max- Mesimvria High School (Prefecture of imum number of 80. According to the ) where the teacher, Ombudsman, the excessively prolonged pe- Albanaki, had shown her third grade stu- riods of detention (often for more than six dents a video tape presenting their religion months) of asylum-seekers there held in in a pejorative manner. highly unhygienic conditions, were enough to draw the conclusion that the Greek au- On 4 December, 14 Pentecostal be- thorities were violating the Constitution; Law lievers were tried for proselytism, following 2778/1999 (Correctional Code) and 2910/ their formal application to obtain a license 2001 (on the entry and stay of aliens); and to run a house of worship. However, as a GREECE 155 result of the international outcry that the complete silence and even outright hostility case generated they were acquitted. towards that minority in Greek political life, media and society. Sometimes Greece’s National Minorities elaborate efforts to avoid international refer- Turkish Minority ences to a Macedonian minority in Greece The word “Turkish” still created difficul- either failed (as in the case of the 2000 ties for those people who used it. ECRI report), or succeed only partially (as in the case of the 2001 UN CERD concluding On 6 June, the court of first instance in observations and recommendations). the County of Rodopi rejected the applica- Even the use of Macedonian first tion of 42 women belonging to the Turkish names was discouraged. In the rare cases minority, who were requesting permission to create an organization named Union of when, despite the prevailing hostility, par- Turkish Women in Rodopi. ents tried to give their children Macedonian names, the civil servants who are Orthodox On 25 January 2002, the Komotini priests refused to do so and equivalent Court of Appeals once again rejected the Greek names were arbitrarily imposed on application for registration of the Turkish such children. At the same time the recov- Union of Xanthi. ery of Macedonian and Bulgarian last na- At the Komotini Celal Bayar minority mes forcefully converted into their Greek high school, due to problems on the part of equivalents in the 1920s and 1930s, was both Governments, Turkish teachers taught made impossible by the Greek authorities mathematics, physics and chemistry in who deliberately harassed those individuals Turkish using Greek textbooks. This con- making such demands. The Greek Om- tributed significantly to the poor level of budsman asserted that during the first at- education of minority children, of whom tempt to recover a Bulgarian name, the re- only a very small number have an ade- quest was rejected and the individual was quate knowledge of either Greek or Turkish. harassed. This was the case of Nicholas The dropout rate in the Komotini minority Stoidis, who applied to change his name school vividly reflected the difficulties mi- and reinstate his grandfather’s family name nority education faced and the fact that Stojanov, which had been forcefully students were poorly prepared for life at “Hellenized” in 1913. these schools. After 2000-2001 academic In 1990-1994 the Greek courts re- year, only 26% of students successfully peatedly denied registration to an organiza- completed the first year of secondary edu- tion called the “Home of Macedonian Civili- cation; 30% did not pass and needed to zation” (Stegi Makedonikou Politismou). Its retake the final exams in September; 44% appeal before the European Court of Hu- dropped out, 7% of whom as a result of man Rights in Strasbourg was successful, poor attendance. Approximately one out of and on 10 July 1998, Greece was found in five students who start the first year at the violation of Article 11 of the European Con- school, was able to reach the third year of vention protecting the freedom of associa- secondary education (which was compul- tion. Ever since then the Stegi has tried to sory), and only one out of three of those register its claim, but the Bar Asso- who reached the third year, completed it. ciation kept finding excuses for not appoin- ting a lawyer to deal with the registration, Macedonian Minority despite eager entreaties by the Ombuds- Greek authorities continued to deny the man. The Bar Association’s refusal to ap- existence of the Macedonian minority and point a lawyer was used as a pretext by the repress Macedonian activists, amidst almost local courts for acting in the same manner. 156 GREECE

Roma Minority pos Roma settlement of Patras, without In May 2001, Interior Minister Vaso even removing the belongings of the sheds’ Papandreou announced a comprehensive owners who were all absent at the time. Plan of Action for the Roma of Greece. The Konstantinos Georgopoulos, a 42-year-old new programme rests essentially on two Rom who was present in the settlement, pillars: the “infrastructure” pillar, which pri- and whose shed was adjacent to those of marily addresses the housing problem; and his son which were razed down, died as a the “services” pillar consisting of pro- result of the a heart condition, apparently ag- grammes to be carried out either by the gravated by immense psychological stress competent central administration agencies he experienced during the demolition. (such as education and vocational training programmes) or by the local authorities In August, those non-Roma inhabitants (e.g. cultural and health programmes). of the Ano Liosia (near Athens) settlement The housing problem of the Roma who suffered from the flood and earth- population in Greece was particularly acute quake disasters entered their comfortable even in the so-called “model settlements” new apartments offered to them by the designed by the Government. The Ghonou municipality. At the same time the area’s settlement (Thessaloniki) – sheltering the 200 Romani families who lived next to a 2,500 Romani tent dwellers, who, in 1998, garbage dump were subjected to intensi- were evicted from Evosmos in Thessaloniki fied harassment by the local authorities. – was the first serious effort by the Greek On 13 September, the municipality of State to provide accommodation to home- Aspropyrgos (west of Athens) demolished less Romani families. the sheds of half a dozen Roma residing Even there, however, Roma have been there without authorization. This event fol- experiencing problems that are typical of lowed the demolition on 14 July 2000 of other ”non-model“ settlements: insufficient most of the Aspropyrgos huts, in the pres- space, partial lack of electricity or huge electricity bills, insufficient water supply, in- ence of the Mayor of Aspropyrgos and the adequate means of communication such police. This action was qualified as illegal by as telephones, poor medical service and the Ombudsman who, in early 2001, ap- access to schools. In spite of the many re- pealed to the courts and regional and na- ports to the Ombudsman, most of the tional administration to sanction the mayor. problems were not solved as of early 2002. However, these authorities remained silent, It was thus clear from this that if “model thus, encouraging the mayor to repeat his settlements” have such problems, one can deed in September. easily imagine the extent and nature of Surveys made in many Romani settle- problems that regular Roma settlements ments indicated that the percentage of illit- are faced with. eracy among Roma was staggering. Accor- Worst of all were those consequences ding to a survey conducted by D.E.P.O.S., faced by the Roma when their property only 23% of the Romani children enrolled was set to be demolished and they subse- in secondary schools had ever been to the quently faced eviction. This was generally school and only 4.3% of the ones who had due to the fact that they usually resided on started school continued to attend it. Simi- land – either privately or publicly owned – larly, only 21% of primary school Roma that did not belong to them. children had been to school and only 13% On 29 August, a bulldozer and a dump of the ones who started, continued to at- truck from the Municipality of Patras demol- tend. A study on 10 Roma settlements ished four sheds in the Glykada Riganokam- within the Comprehensive Programme of GREECE 157

Action in the Prefecture claimed On 10 January, a Misdemeanor Court that only 106 out of the 225 children in in Athens composed of three members Examilia, were registered at school for the postponed for the seventh time the trial of 2001-2002 school year. In Zevgolatio, only six members of the neo-Nazi organization 90 out of the 263 children were registered. Chrysi Avghi (Golden Dawn), who in 1996 Against the background of this discour- had inflicted serious bodily harm on four aging data came the statements of the members of the Trotskyite Workers Socialist Greek delegation to the 2001 OSCE Hu- Party. The trial was rescheduled for 18 man Rights Implementation Meeting, ac- September 2001. In September the trial cording to which the dropout rate for Roma was postponed yet again for 26 April 2002. schoolchildren had fallen from 75% for the The police carried out several racially pre-1996 period to 25% for the year 2000. motivated, “blanket” raids such as the one Yet, data from various localities showed on the Roma settlement of N. Alikarnassos that these estimates were, if anything, vast- in Crete. ly exaggerated. Greek media were also actively enga- Citizenship and Statelessness ged in the dissemination of hate speech especially against the Roma and Albanians. The issue of Greece’s stateless persons of non-ethnic Greek origin remained unre- On 6 October To Vima claimed that the solved despite the introduction of Law Zefyri, Menidi and Ano Liosia suburbs of 2910/2001. Article 69 (6) of the law stip- Athens – populated mainly by Roma – were ulated that anyone born before 1984 to a portrayed as “virtual havens for criminals.” mother who was a Greek citizen at the time The media were also behind the circu- of birth, automatically becomes a Greek cit- lation of anti-Semitic “news” in Greece such izen from the day of the request. as “4,000 Jews had been warned and did Even though the procedure was suc- not go to their offices on 11 September, the cessfully applied in ascertaining the citizen- day of the terror attack in New York.” ship of children with ethnic Greek parents, it did not help Sezgin Durgut, a stateless Asylum Seekers and Immigrants person, who accordingly applied for citizen- There was a substantial increase in the ship directly after the respective law came number of asylum seekers and undocu- into force (on 5 June 2001), but only after mented immigrants arriving in Greece dur- multiple reports to the Ombudsman, did ing the year. This resulted in tougher poli- the authorities agree to grant him citizen- cies and attitudes of the Greek authorities, ship at the beginning of 2002. At the same often acting in violation of the Geneva Con- time, however, many Greeks who were de- vention of 1951 and the new Recommen- prived of citizenship on the basis of the dation of the Council of Europe. The now abolished Article 19 of the Citizenship UNHCR’s Greece publicly confirmed this Code were not reinstated as citizens by the fact. Moreover, on 8 November, Greece end of the year. and Turkey signed a Protocol allowing Greece to return immigrants from third Intolerance, Xenophobia, Racial countries who had entered its territory via Discrimination and Hate Speech Turkey, and for Turkey to do the same with Throughout the year it became evident any immigrants entering via Greece. that the police and society in general were The harsh policy towards asylum seek- willing to tolerate racism and anti-Semitism ers and immigrants remained unchanged, in Greece. despite the fact that more than 75% of the 158 GREECE approximately 7,000 aliens, who had been Ghana, and NGOs, several fellow country- detained by the since men and his country’s embassy were re- the beginning of 2001, came from coun- fusing to lend him the money. tries that are generally known to broadly vi- Apart from the terrible conditions in olate human rights such as Afghanistan, detention and holding centres in Greece, Iraq, Iran and Sierra Leone. the biggest problems that undocumented Even after the introduction of Law aliens arriving in the country faced was the 2910/2001, the Greek state fell short of fact that the Greek authorities often resort- fulfilling its responsibilities due to perma- ed to dishonesty in order to deny them nent misinterpretation and misapplication their rights. of the laws. By the year’s end, most of the 36-year-old Zarema Bekmourzaeva country’s 600,000-1,000,000 undocu- from Chechnya, mother of three young mented immigrants remained without doc- children, had obtained a Schengen visa uments despite the 1997 legalization initia- from the Greek Embassy in Moscow. With tive on the part of the Greek authorities to that visa Ms Bekmourzaeva entered solve that problem. In a special report in Norway and submitted an asylum applica- December on the problems resulting from tion on 18 April, which was later transferred the application of Law 2910/2001, the to the Greek authorities on the basis of Ar- Greek Ombudsman’s Office criticized the ticle 5(2) and (4) of the Dublin Conven- Ministry for Internal Affairs, Public Adminis- tion. On 5 October the Greek authorities tration and Decentralization for the fact that claimed that Ms Bekmourzaeva had denied it had not processed 600 pending applica- herself the right to apply for asylum by sign- tions for residence permits on humanitari- ing a note of refusal in both English and an grounds, which had been received ini- Russian. She denied having signed any- tially by the Ministry of Public Order for thing in Russian. However, even if the more than six months earlier. The Ombuds- statement by the Greek asylum authorities man defined the “action” of the Ministry of that Ms Bekmourzaeva had already relin- the Interior as a policy of silent denial of quished her right to apply for asylum was some of the functions, which the latter was correct, this should not have prevented her obliged to perform. from reapplying on the basis of the 1951 The immigrants, most of whom had Convention Relating to the Status of Refu- been living in Greece for over 20 years, gees and the Greek President’s decree 61/ comprised a group of Egyptians, Chinese 1999. After 10 days and two deportation and Pakistanis who had come to Greece on attempts, which Ms Bekmourzaeva pas- the basis of international agreements; em- sively resisted, she was taken to the ployees of companies founded on the ba- Women’s Detention Centre in Amygdaleza. sis of the Law on Foreign Investment; and family members of Greek citizens who Rasul Kawa, a Kurd from Iraq, had en- have come from Africa on passports issued tered Greece in 1997. After numerous tra- by the Greek Embassy. 2001 was fraught vails Mr Kawa made use of the possibility with stories such that of the undocument- under the new Law on Immigrants 2910/ ed migrant from Ghana, James Deboa, 2001, according to which all undocument- who on 5 April attempted to commit sui- ed immigrants – regardless of their current cide in desperation of his situation. He had status – were given the chance to legalize been held in detention in the Polygiros their stay in Greece if they could prove that Halkidiki (Northern Greece) police station they had already been in Greece for one for two months awaiting deportation. He year. Even though the temporary residence was unable to pay for an air ticket to card that he was subsequently given was GREECE 159 valid until 16 January 2002, in September The new law 2910/2001 on immi- Mr Kawa was arrested and detained at grants and refugees did not mention traf- Athens airport on his way back from Syria ficking in women, and had no specific pro- where he had met up with his family. This visions regulating immigrant women ob- was done on the basis of an administrative taining visas for legal employment in the deportation order against him, which pro- entertainment sector. The absence of any scribed him from entry into the country, be- mechanism for women to enter Greece for cause he had been placed on an legal employment as dancers, barmaids, “Undesirable Persons’ List”, and on the ba- and other jobs in the entertainment sector, sis of his previous conviction, for which he left immigrant women extremely vulnera- had already served his prison sentence. On ble to traffickers upon entry into Greece. 11 November 2001, Mr Kawa was sent to The low number of prosecutions under Cyprus and from there to Damascus, Syria, existing criminal laws combined with the a country amicable towards Sadam absence of comprehensive anti-trafficking Hussein’s regime – a fact that made his legislation in Greece made it difficult to de- compulsory return to Iraq very likely. termine how many police officers were complicit in the trafficking of immigrant women. The first annual report of the Women’s Rights Internal Affairs Bureau of the Greek police, Despite the creation of anti-trafficking issued in February, recorded 146 charges initiatives at international and regional lev- made against 74 police officers. Ap- els, as well as in bilateral and multilateral proximately half of the charges involved po- agreements among European States, lice complicity in activities related to un- Greece has failed to take the measures nec- documented migrants. Such activities in- essary to tackle its own trafficking problems. cluded granting residence permits to un- The Government has essentially pursued a documented immigrants and various de- “crime control” approach to trafficking. The grees of involvement in the so called “pros- U.S. State Department report released on titution rings.” It was often the case that as July 12 gave Greece the lowest rating pos- soon as police corruption cases were made sible – along with Burma, Pakistan, Russia, public, the facts often lead to evidence of Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Turkey – for failing complicity in the trafficking in women for to combat trafficking, protect victims, or at forced prostitution. The Greek media rou- the very least publicly acknowledge that traf- tinely reported on police involvement in of- ficking in Greece was a problem. fences that were not officially called “traf- The main concerns included the lack ficking” under the Greek Criminal Code, but of comprehensive anti-trafficking legisla- under close review revealed police com- tion; the small number of prosecutions for plicity in trafficking. trafficking under existing criminal laws; lack of witness protection programmes for traf- Rights of the Child ficked victims to facilitate their participation On paper Greece had ample legisla- in prosecutions; absence of government- tion protecting the rights of the child. In sponsored services for trafficked women, practice, however, Greece rarely imple- including shelter, medical care, psycholog- mented and enforced these laws. This was ical support, and assistance for other basic most evident in the area of education, needs; on-going detention and prosecu- where there were compulsory education tion of trafficking victims; and even contin- laws but these were not enforced; in the uing complicity of police officers in the traf- area of juvenile justice, where safeguards ficking of women. to protect minors during arrest and deten- 160 GREECE tion were not followed; and in the area of ture of Athens. These children all lived es- child labour, where 5,800 children aged sentially by themselves. between 2 and 15 worked on the streets Gendi (17) from Albania, resided and every day, despite the existence of laws worked in Mesolongi. He left his parents in prohibiting child labour. Of these 5,800 Albania and had been working in the agri- children, 67 % did not attend school at all cultural sector. His employer did not want and another 13 % attended school only to give him his revenue stamps because he occasionally. was a minor, OGA (Agricultural Insurance) In March 2001, the Committee on the could not give him a certificate, and the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) Centre for Immigrants did not even allow recommended that Greece pursue multilin- him to submit an application form because gual and multicultural education in its of his age. schools. Not only did the Greek Govern- ment take no steps to enforce these rec- The fate of minors was relieved when ommendations and teach Romani, Turkish, a few days before the 2 August deadline Macedonian, Albanian and other immigrant for the legalization of undocumented mi- languages, but also did not help in any way grants the State reverted its policy and al- alleviate the racism and xenophobia that lowed children above 15 to legalize their plagued Greek schools. A Euro-barometer presence. However, it was too late for most survey conducted in spring 2001 in all 15 of them to do this. EU countries showed that 44% of Greeks, Most experts on child abuse in Greece aged between 15-24 years, thought that conceded that there are approximately the number of foreigners in Greece was 4,000 new cases of child abuse each year. too large (vs. 29 % who thought the same They even believe that the actual number throughout all the EU countries); an addi- is much larger due to underreporting of tional 25% expressed the opinion that they cases. Every year some 100 children die as wanted foreigners to be deported (vs. 8% a result of mistreatment within the family. for the EU). In addition, there is a drastic shortage of so- In this atmosphere, immigrant children cial workers in the Prefectures in Greece, were subjected to assimilationist “intercul- which prevents social institutions from ade- tural” education like the one carried out at quately protecting children who have been the 76th Elementary School of Athens (in abused. As of the end of 2001, there was the Patisia neighborhood), where more one social worker for approximately every than half of the students were foreigners – 70,000 inhabitants, while in Western mostly Albanians and Africans. There stu- Europe the number was one for every dents started school every day with a 2,500 inhabitants. morning Orthodox Christian prayer. Sexual abuse of children was also a se- Moreover, it was frequently reported that rious problem, despite the threat of crimi- immigrants, including immigrant children, nal prosecution. Against the background of were christened Orthodox and assumed sexual abuse as a taboo subject and its be- common Greek names, in an obvious ef- ing underreported, a study by the Institute fort to get a better chance in a society that of Child’s Health, based on a sample of has been exhibiting xenophobia and has 743 students, found that 17% of the girls traditionally promoted – if not directly im- and 7% of the boys had been sexually posed – the assimilation of minorities. abused. The average age for when abuse In 2001, more than 50 alien minors, commenced was 11.5 years of age, and aged between 12-17, applied for residence usually carried out by someone at least five permits at the municipalities of the prefec- years older. Therapy was not offered as an GREECE 161 alternative to a penal sentence for juvenile in the case of another 13-year-old, an al- sexual offenders, thus limiting the possibili- leged victim of sexual abuse. Later in ties of rehabilitation. November, a third case of alleged sexual In November 2001, a court in abuse of a 13-year-old minor by her publicly tried a 13-year-old female defen- teacher got similar publicity. The absence of dant, forced into prostitution by her moth- sanctions against persons, who discloses er. The court did not secure the presence the identity of sexually abused minors, en- of a special juvenile judge as required by ables the repetition of such phenomena law. In addition, the media were very intru- and leads to the impunity of the perpetra- sive in their coverage of the case, as well as tors of sexual abuse of children.

Endnotes 1 Based on the upcoming Greek Helsinki Monitor/Minority Rights Group - Greece report, Human Rights in Greece: Joint Annual Report for 2001-2002. For details and sources of information, see the original report at www.greekhelsinki.gr 2 See www.freedomhouse.org/research/survey2002.htm 3 Dougoz v. Greece, Judgment and Decision of 6 March 2001, 4 Peers v. Greece, Judgment and Decision of 19 April 2001.