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Amnesty International Report 2006 - Greece

Migrants, refugees and members of minority groups suffered human rights violations, including denial of access to asylum procedures, ill-treatment in detention and discrimination. Romani homes were targeted for demolition in ways that breached international standards, and Roma faced discrimination and racist attacks. A new law improved the situation for conscientious objectors to military service, but still provided for punitive alternative civilian service.

Denial of refugee protection

The government continued to fail to comply with its obligations under international law in relation to providing access to asylum procedures and the prohibition of refoulement. On several occasions groups of people arriving in Greece seeking asylum were forcibly expelled without being given access to asylum procedures. Cases were reported on Greece's coastline and some islands, and at the border area of Evros. During meetings with government officials, AI was told that such practices would be stopped, but further cases were subsequently reported.

• On 1 April, 106 people who said they were Palestinians, but whom the government maintained were Egyptians, landed on the island of Crete seeking asylum. They were reportedly expelled to Egypt 12 days later without being given an opportunity to file asylum claims. The group arrived in the Palaiochora area of Crete after their boat sank just off the coast. They were escorted by police to a hotel, where they were detained for 10 days. The local police chief and the Deputy Minister of Public Order initially refused to allow human rights activists and lawyers to meet the group and said that all 106 would be immediately expelled. However, a meeting with a lawyer present was allowed on 7 April, during which the detainees said they wanted to seek asylum in Greece. On 10 April they were escorted by police onto a ship bound for Athens. On arrival, they were detained at the Attica Aliens Department and other police stations in Attica. AI representatives who visited them on 12 April witnessed poor conditions of detention and heard allegations of ill-treatment by police. Later that day all 106 detainees were put on a ship bound for Egypt.

• A group of 141 people shipwrecked on Crete on 23 October were expelled to Egypt on 4 November, reportedly without being given access to refugee protection or lawyers.

Detention and ill-treatment of irregular migrants and asylum-seekers

Asylum-seekers and people without legal permission to be in the country (irregular migrants), including unaccompanied minors, were arbitrarily detained, often in poor conditions which may have amounted to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Asylum-seekers and irregular migrants alleged that they were ill-treated by police officers and in detention centres.

Several irregular migrants who arrived on the island of Chios in April were detained in conditions that amounted to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, including being held in a metal container close to the island's main harbour. On 19 April, human rights activists on the island demonstrated against the use of the metal container to hold migrants.

Police ill-treatment

On 13 December in the case of Bekos and Koutropoulos v Greece, the European Court of Human Rights found that Greece had violated provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) which prohibit torture and other ill-treatment, and discrimination in the enjoyment of ECHR rights. The two applicants, Greek Roma who were arrested in 1998, were taken to Mesolonghi police station where police officers beat them with a truncheon and iron bar, slapped and kicked them, threatened them with sexual assault, and verbally abused them. The police officers in question were cleared of ill-treatment by both the internal police inquiry and the trial that ensued. In its judgment, the European Court of Human Rights found that the two Roma had suffered inhuman and degrading treatment at the hands of the police, that the authorities failed to conduct an effective investigation into the incident, and that the authorities failed to investigate possible racist motives behind the incident.

Update: the killing of Vullnet Bytyçi

On 5 June the police officer charged with fatally wounding Vullnet Bytyçi was found guilty of manslaughter and received a suspended prison sentence of two years and three months. Vullnet Bytyçi, an 18-year-old Albanian national, was shot as he tried to cross the Greek-Albanian border in September 2003. The court also sentenced in absentia one of the five Albanians who had attempted to cross the border with Vullnet Bytyçi to three months' imprisonment, suspended for three years, for illegal entry, and fined him.

Discrimination against minorities

Romani families continued to be targeted for eviction and demolition of their homes in ways that contravened international human rights standards, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and anti-discrimination laws.

• On 23 and 24 June, during a "cleaning operation" by Patras local municipality, 11 of around 20 homes belonging to Albanian Roma legally residing in Greece were demolished, including one that still contained the family's belongings. There were also reports of arson attacks against the Romani settlement in Patras on 21, 23 and 24 June. No investigation into the attacks appeared to have been initiated by the end of the year.

In October, according to the Greek Helsinki Monitor, parents of Romani children attending the elementary school of Psari, outside Athens, were pressured by local and education authorities to sign declarations asking for their children to be moved to segregated, all-Romani education facilities far from the Romani settlement. The reports followed racist protests by parents of non-Romani pupils demanding the removal of Romani children from the school.

The authorities continued to refuse to re-issue citizenship documents to members of the Muslim population of western Thrace. According to legal provisions abrogated in 1998, Greek citizens who were not of ethnic Greek origin could have their citizenship withdrawn if they were believed by the authorities to have emigrated to another country. People from this minority were classified as "non-citizens": some of them had lost their citizenship because they had left the country at some point in their lives. In most cases, the authorities did not take adequate steps to ensure that the people concerned were informed of the decision to withdraw their citizenship in time to appeal against these decisions. Such people continued to be denied access to state benefits such as security benefits and pension allowances.

Conscientious objection to military service

In November parliament approved an amended law on military service, which revised the conditions of alternative civilian service for conscientious objectors. The new law allowed people who have lost their claim to conscientious objection status to reapply. However, the length of alternative civilian service remained punitive and the law still fell short of international standards. In particular, the board responsible for granting conscientious objection status was not under a civilian authority; professional soldiers were not allowed to change their views and become conscientious objectors; conscientious objectors were not allowed to vote or form unions; and the right to conscientious objection could be suspended during war.

• In August the military court of Xanthi convicted conscientious objector Boris Sotiriadis to three and a half years in prison for disobedience. He was consequently imprisoned between 22 August and 20 September but was released pending appeal. The appeal had not been heard by the end of the year. On 9 November the military court of Ioannina found him not guilty of a further charge of disobedience.

Violence against women

Inter-ministerial efforts to combat trafficking in human beings continued. Several initiatives were started, including the establishment of shelters offering protection to victims of trafficking. However, the shelters remained empty, reportedly because of the difficulties experienced by victims of trafficking in obtaining official designation as such. In order for victims to access shelter protection, they needed to have filed complaints against their traffickers and could only be designated "victims of trafficking" by the prosecutor to whom the complaint was addressed.

In December the government presented non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with a draft law on domestic violence, expected to pass through parliament in 2006. Successive governments had worked on domestic violence legislation for three years. While the draft contained a provision criminalizing marital rape, the proposed law failed to define "violence between family members" or to recognize it as a form of discrimination against women. It also failed to provide for the establishment and organization of institutions for the protection of victims of domestic violence (including shelters and medical care); to make training on domestic violence compulsory for police and judicial personnel; or to allow NGOs to file suits in domestic violence cases. The law also failed to allocate funding for activities aiming to combat and prevent domestic violence.

AI country visits

AI delegates visited Greece in January and October.

Topics: Ethnic minorities, Police, Asylum-seekers, Undocumented migrants, Detention, Denial of refugee status, Violence against women, Ethnic discrimination, Conscientious objection,