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Europe
Racist attacks against refugees in Greece show rise
2016-04-28
[AA.TR] Recorded attacks against refugees and immigrants colonists have risen in Greece, showing that despite solidarity movements, more needs to be done.

In 2015, a little less than a million refugees and migrants colonists reached Greece, according to the United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
 Refugee Agency. However,
it's easy to be generous with someone else's money...
 immigrants colonists have been coming to Greece since the 1990s, mainly from the Balkans, according to Interior Ministry data.

The fact that a significant number of victims suffered injuries demonstrates the contrast between the solidarity that a substantial part of the Greek population expresses towards refugees and the violent behavior of another part that coexist in the same society.

The Racist Violence Recording Network (RVRN) has been keeping track of this violent behavior since mid-2011. It was created by the Greek National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Greece (UNHCR) due to the absence of an official monitoring system for such crimes. This umbrella network of 36 non-governmental organizations as well as other entities aims to keep track of racist attacks and offer support to the victims.

According to the fifth RNRN annual report recently published, during 2015, in 75 out of 273 incidents of racist violence, immigrants colonists or refugees were targeted. In 2014 members of the network recorded 46 similar incidents out of 81 incidents of racist violence in total.

The apparent rise in incidents is largely attributed to the increase in the RVRN’s recording capacity while, according to the report, the attacks described in these records reflect a "commonplace" type of violence.

"We have certainly increased our recording capacity in 2015. But the numbers should not be the focus, because they do not necessarily reflect an escalation of racist violence as one would expect," explains Tina Stavrinaki, RVRN spokesperson.

"What is more important is to be able to see some repeated patterns which reveal persistent phenomena of racial violence. For example we may no longer see squad assaults, but we have recorded attacks in city neighborhoods or attacks by groups of people," she says.

However,
it's easy to be generous with someone else's money...
 the main phenomenon that refugees and immigrants colonists face according to the report is verbal abuse, which may lead to further marginalization. Also, their living conditions define to a significant extent the number of incidents that could be tracked. Despite RVRN’s efforts, refugees and migrants colonists are hesitant to go to the authorities or fill in the anonymous form for fear of this bringing more problems to an already difficult reality.
Posted by:Fred

#4  Be interesting to see the score of Colonist on native incidents.
Posted by: AlanC   2016-04-28 12:58  

#3  Maybe you could call it xenophobia. But then, there are good reasons for some phobias.
Posted by: Abu Uluque   2016-04-28 12:51  

#2  "Speciesist attacks" I'd go with.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2016-04-28 11:43  

#1  and what "Race" is the violence against? Islam?
Posted by: Frank G   2016-04-28 11:29  

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