Illegal immigration turned out to be the second most important focus of the pre-election campaign after the economic crisis and political parties which preach xenophobia and nationalism are enjoying the approval of a substantial proportion of the electorate. Meanwhile, Greek police have launched intense inspections among the foreigners residing in the centre of Athens, and the parliament passed a law establishing temporary detention centres for illegal immigrants. In 2011 alone, about 100,000 people illegally crossed the borders, announced the spokesman of the Greek police Athanasios Kokkalakis in an interview with Maria S. Topalova.
-Mr. Kokkalakis, in recent days, we have seen that the police is checking illegal immigrants in central Athens very carefully. What are the problems associated with illegal immigration, which Greece is currently facing?
- First I would like to emphasize that the centre of Athens now has a more acceptable image than before, thanks to our actions. The major problem in the centre of Athens is the over-crowding of immigrants, mainly economic ones, coming from different countries. This effectively means that people of various nationalities gather in one place, with all their national characteristics and differences. Greek society has never been so used to so many differences, to such a mosaic of cultures focused in one geographical area, which until almost 15 years ago was populated almost exclusively by Greeks. Thus the biggest problem is in the very composition of the population in central Athens. There are various reasons why these people cannot go to another country, which is their main desire or cannot find work because the Greek society and the Greek economy can not handle more work force. They get to the point, I'd say a pretty high percentage of them, when they commit street crimes. They probably do it in order to survive, out of necessity or they get involved in gangs that commit crimes like drug trafficking, prostitution, trafficking of women for prostitution. They join organizations that deal with forgery of certificates, or the issue of false documents in general, in order for some of them to find a way at some point to transfer to other member states of the European Union, which is their main goal. This is also proven by the fact that last year about 100,000 people entered Greece, out of whom only 10% have applied for asylum, i.e. they have applied for international protection by the Greek state. This effectively means that the remaining 90% want to be transferred to other member states of the European Union, mainly in Central Europe.
- Can you describe for us these immigrants - what countries do they come from, how old are they, whether they are educated or not, whether they have any job or not?
- I will try, at least according to data registered at the Greek border. The main areas which they come from are Southeast Asia such as Iran, Iraq, Bangladesh and the countries of North Africa like Algeria, Morocco, Somalia. These are the main nationalities. Then there are some smaller nations with fewer immigrants who come to Greece. In 2011 in Greece there were registered immigrants from 111 nations. In terms of age, these are mostly young people – between 20-30-35 years of age. Nevertheless, there are also older people as well as entire families. Whether they are literate or not, unfortunately, this remains unknown because the moment they enter Greek territory, they destroy all documents that they have, either since they are being instructed by traffickers, or because they themselves want to. They destroy their entire previous life, and come with data that we try to investigate to find out who these people are, where they come from, in order to send them back to the country they came from.
- Why do they choose Greece? As you said the Greek economy can not provide them with work. Why do they choose Greece?
- Unfortunately, and I’m not using that word literally, because Greece is situated at the crossroads of several continents - Europe, Asia and Africa. It is the closest point to the continents, which those mainly economic immigrants come from, and some of them come as refugees. This is the main reason, they see Greece as the first step, in order to be transferred to Europe. They also see it as the most democratic step, to be transferred to Europe.
- What does the Greek government see as a solution?
- Is not serious to think that the problem can be solved only through operating activities, through actions along the border only. What is needed is mainly the cooperation between the countries which they came from, through which they pass and which are the ultimate goal of immigrants. And this must be done within European treaties. And I don’t mean some bilateral agreements between Greece and some other country for example from which immigrants come, but between the European Union as an organization of states and the respective country as we all face the same problem. This problem, which Greece is currently facing is not a national problem It is essentially a European problem, and Greece is now called upon to complete a European deed.
- This idea of establishing centres for immigrants is met by a lot of resistance. Can you tell us exactly what the Greek government wants to do through these centres?
- Actually I would say that most reactions at this time are coming from local communities, which pressured by all the other problems caused by the crisis, mainly economic ones and as a result also social ones, see that they will have to accept on their territory an institution which will accommodate a large number of illegal immigrants. This is the major problem, especially if you look at it from a social point of view. Because I think that if these centres are established in the way they should be, under the conditions and standards under which they must be constructed, NGOs themselves, or international organizations for human rights as a whole will be satisfied and will not criticize.
- Bulgaria expects to join the Schengen Area. How can we learn from the Greek experience with illegal immigration? How can Bulgaria prepare for this problem?
- As I said before, the best organization is the cooperation between the countries. Of course operating actions should also be taken in border protection and for the security of the country in general. But this is only one side of the solution and it could also be called a symptomatic solution. No matter how hard you try to prevent or hinder the thousands of people coming into your country, this can not happen because the border is a very large area and people will at some point find a way to cross it. The best solution is cooperation and agreements between the countries. That is, the receiving countries of immigrants should cooperate with the countries through which they pass or the countries from which immigrants come, who for the most part, are just trying to find a better life. But they are trying to find a better life and better future in societies that are currently pressed either by the world or by the European or national economic crisis.
- Recently, the Greek police found an entire weaponry in the maritime suburb of Loutsa. Do you have any evidence that someone is preparing a terrorist act in Greece?
- We are now at the initial stage of the police investigation. There is no evidence to lead us to a terrorist organization, or illegal possession of large amounts of weapons to lead us directly to terrorist activities. This issue is monitored by the Greek authorities, we work systematically and methodically to discover where this large amount of weapons comes from and where it should go.
- We recently learned also about the emergence of a new terrorist organization "12 of February", which claimed responsibility for the unexploded homemade bombs in the Athens subway. How dangerous is this organization?
- Firstly I would like to tell you that at this stage we can not talk about a terrorist organization because we do not have clear, explicit evidence to convince us that we are talking about an organization. What actually exists and is an objective fact, is a text which some people called a message, others called a manifesto, of people who identify certain facts about society, economy and details about the specific action. At this point we have no evidence of any existing terrorist organization, or at least of an organization that could or would like to take advantage of the vacuum created after neutralizing almost all of the terrorist organizations that have existed in Greece. I’d like to say again, that what we actually have is a text that we are carefully and methodically examining to eventually discover who might lie behind this incident, behind the attempt to detonate a homemade bomb in the subway.
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