disoriented, immigrants They stare at the exhausted camera lying on the ground in the back of an SUV, the man holding them in military-design trousers displaying them as human trophies. ‘Four more! See them? It’s lunchtime and there’s no police here…’ the visibly upset person shouted. This is the content of the last video released. social networks shocked last Sunday Greece we are facing a new wave racism Accusations against immigrants are now also blamed for being responsible for the horrific fires in the north of the country.
Lefteris Papayannakis, Director of the Greek Institute of Sciences Refugeessays it’s the result of a cocktail of reasons, because “its existence militias This is nothing new in Greece, they have been around for a long time,” he said in an interview with EL PERIÓDICO DE CATALONIA from Grupo Prensa Ibérica. “The difference is that before they were hidden, now they are fearlessly revealing. Internet. This tells us that they are feeling powerful. That’s because they’re collaborating with the authorities, who are looking for a scapegoat to channel public anger and discontent, exacerbated by the devastation of the fires.”
In fact, this new attack phenomenon and xenophobic propaganda It was first detected about two weeks ago when it started fighting fires in the northeast of the country. evrosborder Türkiye and where in the past citizen militias operated in covert crossings often used by civilians immigrants entering a European country. The fire, which is one of the most destructive fires in Europe according to records, European Union (EU) has already burned more than 70,000 hectares and was still active this Tuesday.
defective information
In those days, manipulated photos and videos of the immigrants who allegedly caused the fire began to circulate on the networks. soon media Even the Hellenes repeated this misinformation. As investigated by AFP. So much so that the television channel Open had to rectify the situation, stating that two immigrants had caused the fire in the nearby Rhodope region. In fact, it was stated on another news site that 20 immigrants were detained. pull with law enforcement. However, the police denied this.
It also came from politics. anti-immigrant speech. For example, Evripidis Stilianidis, a politician from the Greek prime minister’s party New Democracy Kyriakos Mitsotakis The Rhodope representative also contributed to this. “Many people are afraid or avoid reporting it, but it is interesting that most of the recent fires (…) occur along the mountain roads leading to them. illegal immigrants The politician stated that they crossed the street en masse during his intervention on the Greek radio station Chronos.
Others, like the Greek Minister of Immigration, Dimitris KairidisThey are accused of not being openly condemned by NGOs. civilian militia those who illegally persecute immigrants.
extreme right sheriffs
Amnesty International (AI) has issued a statement of condemnation for this situation. “The fires fueled the fire” racist speech abuses of immigrants and refugee”, the organization wrote. “Extreme nationalist parliamentarian Paraschos Christou Papadakis claimed on his Facebook account that the fires were set by migrants and refugees with racist remarks,” he continued.
This is how AI spoke in the Evros region on August 21 and 22. corpses Of those who died in the flames, 19 were most likely immigrants. This also coincides with the disclosure of another video in which a man brags about hunting down several immigrants and shows them being held in his SUV.
The man, who was later arrested by the judicial authorities along with two others, one of whom is Albanian, can be heard saying, “Let’s get organized, let’s all go out and get them together. They’re going to burn us… The mountains are full of them.” . In this environment, some NGOs also suggested that immigrants could take new routes to avoid their followers and expose them to further fires.
ultra instrumentalization
Journalist Yannis Laskarakis, working in the Evros region, said that he recently started the alarm against these radical militias three years ago, but later accused him of being “unpatriotic”. “It’s embarrassing,” said Laskarakis, one of the veterans of reporting on militias.
So the situation once again targeted groups. extreme right Like the party of Paris Papadakis, Greek solution. In a public message a week ago, Papadakis urged the public to be “vigilant” on the grounds that immigrants could even hinder the work of firefighters fighting the fires. “One warGentlemen!” he wrote in capital letters.