Brussels, 19/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström called on Thursday 18 April 2013 for the Greek authorities to carry out a proper investigation into the shooting at a farm in the Peloponnese region of farm workers from Bangladesh on Wednesday, leaving 30 or so workers injured. Two hundred strawberry-pickers working at a farm some 260 kilometres south of Athens were demanding to be paid (some had not been paid for six months) and the three farm managers are reported to have shot over their heads with machine guns. Malmström tweeted that the shootings were shocking and called for a full investigation by the Greek government.
The immigrant strawberry-pickers live in terrible conditions, report the media, and the farm in question is regularly the scene of violence against seasonal workers. Nobody was killed in the shooting but some workers were taken to hospital. The Greek government has promised an immediate, exemplary action against what it described as an inhumane attack. Greek Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias said that the economic exploitation of hundreds or thousands of immigrant workers in unacceptable conditions will no longer be tolerated by Greece.
This event is one of a growing series of attacks on foreigners, said the Human Rights Commissioner of the Council of Europe this week. He criticised the atmosphere of hatred drummed up by the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party and urged the Greek authorities to properly clamp down on the violence. Anti-immigrant violence has mushroomed since Golden Dawn gained seats in parliament, and the Council of Europe says that the Greek government has done little to counter the violence. (SP/transl.fl)