ATHENS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st November, 2019) The Greek government's measures for tackling the migration crisis trigger racism and xenophobia, while the new reception facilities for migrants resemble concentration camps, Sputnik learned on Wednesday from a statement received from the Communist party of Greece.
Greece has been under pressure of irregular migration influx for a long time. Its camps, scattered across Greek islands in the Mediterranean, got seriously overpopulated but the government seemed to prefer keeping migrants stranded there in dire living conditions over transferring them onto the mainland. Earlier in the day, Athens unveiled new measures for solving the crisis which include reinforcing border protection, conducting returns of irregulars, and setting up closed camps on five islands where migrants will be banned from leaving.
"The measures announced by the New Democracy party's government for the reception of refugees only aggravate the exclusion of and repressions against individuals who seek refuge, the same way as they aggravate the suffering of the local Greek population. They cultivate and entice racism and xenophobic reactions," the statement read.
The party further claimed the new measures to be dangerous both for refugees and people in Greece, with the latter ones struggling to fight embarrassment about the EU-Turkey migration deal. In 2016, Brussels agreed to pay 6 billion Euros ($6.6 million) for Ankara to stop Europe-bound irregular migrants transiting its territory and turn them back.
"The government's measures are aimed at filling the five islands with huge concentration camps, prisons with a capacity of more than 5,000 each, which is way beyond their current capacity," the statement continued.
The Communist party urged people to come together in collective action against the anti-people measures and demand that all migrant reception facilities be closed and no new ones created. Additionally, they called for transferring all asylum seekers to the mainland in places with decent accommodation and then immediately send them to their final destination points, with a special focus on the reunification of families and protection of unaccompanied minors.
The party also advocated for facilitating asylum to victims of war, occupation and reactionary regimes and providing such people with free health care and access to education.
