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European court blasts migrant ‘forced labor’ in Greece

Thursday, 30 March 2017 4:26 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 30 March 2017 5:33 PM ]

Police block cleaning workers in their attempt to march towards the Greek PM's office during a demonstration against reforms of the social security system on March 2, 2017 in Athens. (Photo by AFP)

Europe's top human rights court accused Greece on Thursday of failing to protect migrant workers who had been subject to "forced labor" and shot at by security guards when they protested over unpaid wages.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ordered Athens to pay 16,000 euros each to the workers whose case had triggered outrage across the country. Greek authorities, the court said, had been fully aware of the circumstances.

Foremen at a strawberry farm in the southwestern Greek town of Manolada opened fire on dozens of migrant workers protesting over unpaid wages in 2013. More than 20 migrants, mostly Bangladeshi, were wounded.

A year later, a Greek court acquitted their employers of human trafficking ordering them to pay 43 euros to each of the 35 workers who were recognized as victims. It also gave one armed guard and one employer suspended sentences in a ruling that prompted angry protests from unions and rights groups.

The migrant workers had been forced to work 12-hour days under the supervision of armed guards and went on strike on three occasions for back pay. Their employers warned them they would get paid only if they continued to work, the ECHR said.

"The facts at issue, and particularly the applicants' working conditions, showed clearly that they amounted to human trafficking and forced labor," the ECHR said.

Greek authorities, it said, had failed to protect the migrants from the treatment they received, although they were aware of the situation in the strawberry plantations.

Greece is a gateway for migrants trying to enter the European Union through its porous sea and land borders.

(Source: Reuters)

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