The policy of national governments, the EU, and financial capital to overcome the crisis at the expense of workers primarily affects migrants, the overwhelming majority of whom constitute the most vulnerable segment of the working class. But under the pretext of controlling immigration, the governments and the EU are finding a pretext to undermine the democratic freedoms of all workers and youth. The anti-immigrant pogrom goes hand in hand with the “war on terror,” Fortress Europe, anti-terrorism laws, and the cultivation of nationalism and racism.
The New Democracy government is also playing a leading role within the EU in promoting this climate, by dispatching frigates to international waters off the coast of Libya for murderous pushback operations, which have led to hundreds of deaths in our seas and the Evros River, epitomized by the Pylos massacre with more than 600 drowned refugees, and the recent crime in Chios with 15 dead refugees. Nearly all parliamentary parties agree with this policy; they have accepted the fences and the anti-refugee policy and perpetuate the narrative that the country’s security is threatened by refugees and migrants. It provides for penalties of up to life imprisonment for legal migrants who assist undocumented ones! It not only affects the new wave of refugees and migrants, but also targets the thousands of migrants who have already been living and working in Greece for many years.
It legalizes the “recruitment” of undocumented migrants and labor-trafficking companies to meet the needs of businesses and for public works and strategic investments, etc.
At the same time, it intensifies the persecution of migrants and refugees through imprisonment, deportations, pushbacks, returns, and procedures to revoke asylum from political refugees. It is institutionalizing confinement, ghettoization, and the violation of human rights regarding access to work, education, and healthcare.
Amid this entire anti-migrant and anti-refugee offensive, in about a month it will be three years since the state crime in Pylos. This, along with the incident in Chios, remain among the most emblematic inhumane acts that mark the government’s and the bourgeoisie’s policy toward refugees. Despite ongoing attempts to cover it up, the Court of Appeals has requested the prosecution of four senior Coast Guard officials. Among them is the former head of the Coast Guard, Tryfonas Kontizas, whom the government “rewarded” by appointing him to the position of Secretary General for Critical Entities at the Ministry of Citizen Protection!
We therefore invite you to a meeting for discussion and action on Monday, May 18, at 6:30 p.m., at the SEFK offices (private education workers' union), 13 Kaningos Street, 2nd floor, with the aim of exploring the terms of our common struggle against the government’s anti-immigrant and anti-refugee legislative framework, as well as to ensure that true justice is rendered regarding the crime in Pylos.
“Struggle without Borders”
Internationalist Movement of Solidarity and Struggle with Migrants and Refugees