[Disclosure: The views expressed in this article are of the author’s own thoughts and opinions.]
[Content Note: Bigotry, Anti-Refugee Violence, Discussions of suicide and sexual assault]
As recently as the 12th November 2019, the Greek Police has been conducting raids and evictions around the Athenian district of Exarcheia. The operations have seen police go in old buildings where many, including refugees, have been living in crammed conditions.
Greek popular discourse has always seen Exarcheia as a place of crime and lawlessness, ignoring the socio-economic determinants of such matters. While the previous government allowed for police brutality and evictions, the new administration is much more hardline. The police were known to beat protesters, patrol armed and even bug peoples’ personal belongings. Here it is no different, but still crueller due to the criminalization of refugees. Many of the evicted were women and children, who only found refuge in squats due to homelessness and abhorrent conditions. Recent accounts by refugees reveal startling police brutality. Yet in a society known for xenophobia and racism as much as for hospitality, a police officer can often get away with such actions. The refugees who have had to deal with the evictions have been subject to much brutality.
What is the reason for this intensified routine? The reasons are many. First, for these people, the new political environment is a curse. The Greek government is keen to re-assert its authority. In order to obfuscate many years of austerity and mismanagement, a focus on ‘Law and Order’ was seen as the best approach. Second, the curious case of AirBnB, the popular short-term letting website. The site has made lots of inroads in Exarcheia, possibly appropriating the edgy aesthetic of the district. Rent has skyrocketed, resulting in direct action and community organising against landlords. Chants such as ‘Evict AirBnB’ can now be seen all over Exarcheia. A lot of these buildings are unoccupied or unused, meaning that squats there are harmless. While AirBnB’s appearance need not be a directly linked process, but it certainly exacerbates the socio-economic situation. The refugees who have found refuge in these squats have found themselves in between capital encroachment and a police force that fiercely clamps down, in part because of, their skin colour.
All these events are even more harrowing when one considers the bigger picture. The Greek government pledged to redistribute migrant flows after Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called the burden 'too heavy to bear'. This is in part true. New government policies allegedly try to spread the burden from heavy duty islands in what is currently Europe’s busiest entry point, the Aegean Sea. However, many organisations have condemned these changes in policy, including Medicins Sans Frontieres and Amnesty International. These policies include transporting refugees to islands near the border with Turkey in enclosed camps. We may be on the brink of even more deportations, or the enclosing of refugees in inescapable small islands. All this is happening while Medicins Sans Frontieres is reporting that 20% of their patients are suicidal, and that 30% have suffered sexual harassment of some kind. Already existing camps, like the ones in Moria and Samos, have but one toilet for hundreds of people. Is it any wonder that a refugee family would try to claim unused houses when the situation is this dire?
As for the European Union, it is unable to come up with a cohesive policy. In fact, it remains silent. Years of attempts at a common asylum policy have often fallen into disarray due to member states like Hungary and Poland blocking any unanimous policy being taken. Not that the rest of Europe is lacking in bigotry, with a far-right party in almost every member state. This leaves us with New Democracy MPs telling news anchors that it is time to overcome post-Civil War taboos about exiles in islands (Author’s note: Many Aegean islands were used by Greek dictatorships to exile dissidents in both the Interwar and Post-WWII era). The government has denied that refugees will be sent to Levitha, a small island with only 8 inhabitants, but only after Greek newspapers revealed such plans were even being considered. The main concerns against the undertaking seem to be its economic costs, not humanitarian concerns. This is not a situation anyone would want to find themselves in. The desperation of any refugee to squat and avoid evictions becomes inescapable.
The Greek situation is complicated. It is a situation of European apathy and proximity to regimes like those of Turkey and Syria. It is one of austerity and poverty amplifying the problem. However, there is nothing complicated about these actions, as authoritarian as Agamemnon sacrificing Iphigeneia for auspicious winds. This time, instead of Troy, there is only AirBnB.
Oh, how the mighty are fallen.
Written By: Christos Nikolaou, December 2019
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