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Anastasia Balezdrova

The cases of racist attacks have gone beyond the boundaries of the "problematic" centre of Athens, according to a survey by the network on cases of racist violence. In most of them, the attackers are organized, in others - there is police intervention, and some members of the group are children.

GRReporter contacted Tina Stavrinaki – Legal Officer of the National Commission for Human Rights in Greece - to analyze the survey results.

When was the Racist Violence Recording Network created? Was there any particular reason for this?

The first meeting of the Network was held in May 2011. The reason was the presence of many cases of racist violence that reached the media but never reached justice. In addition, we did not know the conditions under which they took place nor what followed the publications.

So, the National Commission for Human Rights in Greece and the UN High Commission for Refugees found that the first step towards the formal recording of the cases should be coordinating all NGOs who anyway help the victims of racist violence.

In order to get to the recording, we had to create a reliable tool. For this purpose, we used the tools we knew from the practice of European and international organizations dealing with this issue. Recording itself is based on the information provided by the victim. The victim seeks help from some of the NGOs that provide medical, social and legal services to immigrants. The specific case is recored within this help. We do not record cases reported by the media or cases about which we have heard. We are trying to make a direct and reliable record.

When did this survey begin? Was there an increase in the number of attacks found?

The pilot phase started on 1 October 2011 and continued until 31 December 2011. The results indicate that the reported cases are not even the tip of the iceberg. I am saying this because the present members of the Network are in the known "problem" areas in the centre of Athens. At the same time, we know from the information in the media that there are such cases of racist violence in other neighbourhoods and suburbs, such as Kallithea, Neos Kosmos, Piraeus. Unfortunately, we have no members there yet to record these cases.

Although there are no statistics, we know from immigrant communities themselves that there is an increase in attacks. We know that immigrants rarely turn to NGOs as they find support in the family or in their own communities.
 
Therefore, we know the real number of cases is greater than what we have already recorded. Our aim was precisely to bring them out of obscurity and show that an attempt is enough to register.

How many attacks did you record and what are they?

During this period, 63 "valid" cases were recorded. I.e. we had information about more cases but following the rules set we only recorded the personal testimonies of victims.

The majority of them included serious injuries and some of them required emergency medical intervention. Verbal abuse always goes along with physical injury. Furthermore, in 51 cases, there was a group attack, i.e. the attackers were more than one.

The results indicate repeated acts by attackers. On these grounds, we believe that what we have is a series of attacks rather than isolated cases. Most alarming is the fact that the groups involve minors. We are aware that a process of "recruitment of staff "is ongoing in schools and elsewhere.

How do you know if it is a case of racist  violence?

The victim is often asked about his or her origin. The question is, "Where are you from?" When the victim answers, other attackers often appear who exercise physical violence. It is important to note that all the cases except one did not reach the court. It is also indicative, because the victim is from Ethiopia but has Greek citizenship. Obviously, that is why this person has had the strength and courage to turn to justice. Unfortunately, in most cases, the victims are unwilling to complain for fear or worry that the system is not effective.
 
How will you use the results of this registration?

The first step was to announce them. The Network has to make its decision next. For certain, it will offer the authorities specific proposals made by the disclosure of data. What is required first is the establishment of a single system for recording racist crimes to present them and give specific directions for the investigation of these crimes.

I am saying this because we see there are difficulties in the investigation, not only in cases in which there is police intervention in the crimes. In practice, these cases never come to justice.

How often do the police intervene and in what way?

In some cases, we found a connection between police and racist violence during routine and other actions. There was police intervention in 18 recorded cases. Ten of them happened in Athens and the other eight in Patras. Illegal actions of police officers have been recorded, the frequency of which suggests that they are not isolated cases. These include mistreatment of immigrants in locations distant from the places where they were found, destruction of documents and in one case - even destruction of the medications the immigrant received from an NGO.