Letter from Thessaloniki
High temperatures and bright light arrive quite early in Greece. But as the weather warms up, the «meltemi» (known as «etesians,» meaning «annual winds,» in Ancient Greek, and nowadays meltemi, from the Turkish «meltem») starts blowing in. Many consider these strong dry, north winds in the Aegean Sea a blessing. During hot summer days they are at their strongest in the afternoon, but die down at night. As the strong winds diminish, the waves also calm down, permitting thousands of would-be immigrants to set sail for Europe from the Asian shores. Sadly for them, many get picked up by European Union – read Greek – authorities or die before they reach land. And as calm night seas and warm weather continue, their risky journey is made easier, despite both the recently tightened EU rules for dealing with illegal immigrants and their traffickers, who often make bonfires on the beaches to alert their collaborators of possible changes in plans. «In Afghanistan we crossed fields. In Iran, mountains and streams. In Turkey the great big plain, and in Greece the sea.» The Guardian’s Helena Smith recounted the story of 12-year-old Ali Reza from Afghanistan, who fled poverty and war to arrive in Greece. There are thousands of unaccompanied minors like Ali who make the same journey, in a desperate attempt to get from Asia to Europe. What they find in Greece is certainly no paradise – what generally greets them here are the primitive conditions of overcrowded detention centers. Most of the immigrants are forced to endure the appalling conditions of shantytown camps on islands and on the outskirts of Patras, in western Greece. And there is worse. These unwanted, stateless child-immigrants can easily fall victim to traffickers and the hazards of organized crime. Hard to believe, yet there is even worse than that. Two years ago, migrants rescued by the Turkish coast guard in the Aegean Sea claimed Greek officials had thrown them overboard. They did so, said one survivor, «without even asking if we could swim,» according to Turkey’s state-owned Anatolia news agency. The story couldn’t be independently verified. At the time, Greek authorities denied knowledge of this alleged incident, which – should it be true – would be an international scandal. Greek officials denied the charges in, as usual, very general terms. «We never throw people into the sea,» said Haris Bournias, then a Greek coast guard commander on the island of Chios. Illegal immigration has long been a cause of friction between Turkey and Greece. Greek Foreign Ministry spokesman Giorgos Koumoutsakos was careful at the time to point out that Turkey hasn’t been complying with a bilateral agreement that allows Greece to send back illegal migrants who entered from Turkey. Koumoutsakos said that over the last four years, «Greece has made 22,000 repatriation requests,» under the bilateral agreement with Turkey,» and only 1,400 have been accepted – that translates into 6 percent. The numbers speak for themselves. The situation is hardly a new one. For the past several years, the numbers of those willing to risk the dangerous crossing from Asia to the eastern Greek islands rises right along with the temperature. In total, some 53,000 immigrants tried to enter Europe by sea via Greece, Italy, Malta and Spain in 2007, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Last week, two boats carrying immigrants were seized off the island of Lesvos – the home of the classical muse of women who like women, the poet Sappho. The inhabitants of the island are momentarily fully occupied in a crusade to protect its name against those who use it as a label for their sexual orientation. The drive to register the word «Lesbian» as a purely geographical designation – make it a «brand,» as it were – seems to some Lesbians more important than illegal immigrants from the east. Incidentally two weeks ago, the European Parliament approved new measures aimed at unifying the handling and deportation of illegal immigrants across the EU. Measures include allowing immigrants to be detained for up to 18 months, imposing optional five-year bans on expelled immigrants, and the creation of special detention centers to prevent immigrants from being held among convicted criminals. While many are welcoming the rule changes as a needed response to the waves of immigration, others have condemned the changes are «draconian» and «shameful.» At this moment, the number of estimated illegal immigrants in the EU exceeds 8 million. The bill’s main measures also include requiring that illegal immigrants be given 30 days to voluntarily leave before being detained. The measure passed 367-206, with 109 abstentions. Governments have two years to implement the measure’s requirements, but Britain, Ireland and Denmark negotiated opt-outs. Before this measure, the EU had no common policy on detaining illegal immigrants, and pre-deportation detention periods ranged from 32 days in France to indefinite periods in seven countries, including Greece. «In Greece you never get asylum and conditions are very, very bad,» said Muhammed Muradi, 14, to the Guardian. «It’s a matter of life and death that we work to pay smugglers. To do that we have to be legal, we need papers. I’ve tried to go to Italy on seven occasions and each time have been caught [hiding] in the trucks by the police. It won’t stop me trying again.»
