News / Reports

Greeks demand changes in immigration laws

Sunday, 22 March 2015 8:38 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 22 March 2015 10:11 AM ]

Constantine Venizelos
Press TV, Athens

Anti-racism initiatives and SYRIZA youth in Greece say the country's new Leftist government has to change long standing unjust policies concerning discrimination in the processing and legalization of the status of immigrants and refugees.

They say state regulations regarding legal or illegal migrants have not been updated since 2005, since then the crisis deepened bringing along hate-crime, police brutality and state apathy towards problems faced by foreign nationals.

The protesters say the scapegoating of immigrants, especially Muslims, became an alarming phenomenon in recent years. Greek governments blamed religious and ethnic groups for unemployment and the financial insolvency. Greece is the only European country without an official Muslim mosque, apart from make-shift prayer rooms.

The Syrian war refugees who slept on the pavement across the Greek parliament for two months at the end of last year say immigration law in both Greece and Europe has to change sooner than later.

The Greek anti-racism movement stands for the closure of unhumane detention centres for immigrants, the granting of voting rights, the building of mosques and the crushing of Islamophobia.

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