Brussels, 24/08/2012 (Agence Europe) - The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) expressed concern on Thursday regarding the increase in racist attacks in Greece, AFP reports, calling on the government of that country to take appropriate measures to curb the violence. A UNHCR press release states that the aggravation of racially motivated attacks against foreigners, including asylum seekers and refugees, was discussed during a meeting between Laurens Jolles, UNHCR Representative for South-East Europe, and Nikos Dendias, Greek Minister for the Protection of Citizens. The UN organisation mainly voiced concern that the phenomenon has grown to disturbing proportions and seems to be coordinated by groups and individuals claiming to act on behalf of public security, when, in reality, they are a threat to the democratic institutions. The UNHCR thus called on the Greek minister to take measures to combat the rise in xenophobic attacks, protect the victims and bring the perpetrators and instigators of the violence to justice.
Several international organisations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, also recently expressed concern about the situation in Greece and denounced the illegal and “massive crackdown” on undocumented foreigners after the launch early August of a vast police operation to hunt down or arrest migrants. Underlining the lack of appropriate asylum granting procedures in Greece, the UNHCR has again evoked the risk of having arrested “persons in need of protection” among the foreigners without official papers, and called on the government to reinforce the asylum mechanism, AFP reports. Racist incidents have escalated in Greece since the breakthrough of the far right party, “Golden Dawn”, at the last parliamentary elections. The Council of Europe also recently denounced the surge in racist acts and the impunity that those perpetrating such acts enjoy. (SP/transl.jl)