Asylum and migrant rights questioned
Human rights group Amnesty International yesterday accused Greece of consistently violating the rights of migrants, asylum seekers and Gypsies, and called on the government to improve the situation. Poor detention conditions for migrants and their alleged abuse by authorities were among the key problems the group came across. It demanded the government investigate the allegations of ill-treatment, citing the alleged abuse of 17 Afghan immigrants at a central Athens police station last December. Two police officers were charged in January with torture in connection to the case but there has been no further development since. Amnesty also claimed that authorities did not provide migrants with proper access to the asylum process. «We are totally opposed to the violation of human rights,» said government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos. «Whenever there have been complaints, the relevant services have intervened.»
