00:00
00:12 TITLE: The Battle for Attica Square
00:30 Caption: Sidiro, Evros region, Greece
On a windblown hilltop in Northern Greece, Mufti Mehmet Damatouglou is saying the muslim prayer for the dead.
These unmarked ditches overgrown with weeds are the final resting place for scores of faceless, nameless refugees who lost their lives in their attempts to enter Europe.
00:40 Mehmet Serif Damatouglou
Mufti of Evros Prefecture (Greek):
- Their identity is unknown. From their faces we figure they are Pakistanis, Somalis, Iraqis.
With his own hands the Mufti has buried more than 130 immigrants here.
01:00 (Caption: Video by courtesy of UNHCR)
Most of them drowned while crossing the border river Evros.
Others blown to pieces by the abundant landmines which still litter the Greek-Turkish border.
Since most of the illegal’s were muslims, the Greek government requested the Mullah to take care of the burial arrangements, a grim task he doesn’t take lightly.
01:20 Mehmet Serif Damatouglou
Mufti of Evros Prefecture (Greek):
-My religion obliges me to bury them. I am not a gravedigger but since I’m a muslim I’m obliged. This is the reason I took the responsibility to bury them. Otherwise I wouldn’t do it.
Last year, Spain and Italy effectively ceased the flow of illegal immigrants entering Europe from the South across the Mediterranean sea- by negotiating bilateral repatriation agreements with several North African states.
The Migrants then moved eastwards to Turkey.
Since this spring, as many as 400 people have been crossing the Evros river into Greece every day.
The local population despairs.
02:19 Christoforos Aslanidis
Fisherman, Evros region (Greek):
-I’ve seen too many. They cross the river like bees. They have small plastic boats, which they tie together in two, ten people on each. Then they pull a rope and cross the river.
The Evros region alone now accounts for more than 80 per cent of all illegal immigration into the EU.
02:47 Giorgos Salamangas,
Police Chief of Oristiada, Evros Prefecture (Greek):
-The last 8 months we made more than 20.000 arrests of illegal immigrants.
To help you understand this numbers, I can say that during the whole year of 2009 we arrested only about 3.500 immigrants. There is an explosive increase.
The border itself is only 200 kilometres long, but that territory is by far too large to control for the Greek police, who struggle against increasingly creative people smugglers.
03:35 (Caption: Photographs by courtesy of Greek police authority)
To counter the growing refugee crisis the EU has deployed its border protection agency Frontex to Northern Greece.
03:54 Tor Johansen
Head of Frontex team (Norwegian):
There’s certainly a lot of human suffering to see up here. The past few days we’ve had around 250 illegal immigrants entering every day. So we’re witnessing plenty of misfortune. But I have a job to do, and try to concentrate on that.
04:14 (Caption: Photographs by courtesy of Frontex)
But even with hi tech equipment such as heat seeking cameras, the small force has so far been able to do little but observe how scores of people cross the border line every night under the cover of darkness.
04:32 Spyros Vougias
Deputy minister, Citizens’ Protection Ministry (English):
-We cannot close our borders. We cannot build a wall. We are not like Israel and Palestine to build walls. We are an open country, an open European state. We have to share more fairly this situation. It’s not a Greek problem, it’s a European problem.
04:54 Reporter (English)
-Hello! Is anybody here? We want to talk with you.
These illegals run for their lives, when we come across their secret hideout in this dilapidated house not far from the Turkish border.
If they manage to avoid the police, they may be able to travel further to another European country
05:22 Refugee (English):
-Where are you going? To Greece?
-Athens
-Please do not call the police. ‘Cause I don’t want any problems.
-Of course not. Do you want to talk with us?
-No
05:44 (Caption: Nea Vyssa, Evros region, Greece)
But the majority of illegals choose to turn themselves in, as soon as they enter Greece.
This group is waiting impatiently to be picked up by the police after an exhaustive journey across the border last night.
05:55 Refugee (Spanish):
-36 hours
-On foot?
-On foot. We walked.
06:04 Panayotis Siankouris
Mayor of Nea Vyssa, Evros prefecture (Greek)
-They look dissatisfied because the police are late. And they are late because they have to pick up other people from other locations as well. But they will come and take them, eventually.
06:16 -We want this situation to stop. The citizens of this community say, enough is enough!
To the relief of these families the police soon arrive.
(pause)
But they have no idea of what awaits them.
06:52 -Help me! (English)
This is what the Greek government calls a special detention center for foreigners.
-Help! Please! (English)
Here, the refugees are kept under severe conditions.
Often in critically overcrowded facilities for up to one year, while the government struggles to process a backlog of more than 50.000 asylum cases.
07:24 Detainee (German):
-It is bad here. You don’t know what will happen to you today or tomorrow. I’ve been in this jail for 39 days.
07:36 Kalliopi Stefanaki
Head of Protection Department, UNHCR Greece (English)
-At the moment we are talking the situation has worsened because of the large numbers of newcomers at the Evros region. And the inadequaties of the detention facilities.
07:53 Translator (English):
-So this is it. On the left. Fylakio
08:00 (Caption: Fylakio, Evros region, Greece)
The detention center of Fylakio has a capacity of up to 300.
But sometimes more than three times that number of people kept behind bars here, according to the guards.
When we show up with our TV camera, a riot almost breaks out.
08:23 Policeman in uniform to the inmates (Greek):
-Get down, if you fall down, we will have to take you to the hospital.
08:33 Policeman in uniform (Greek):
-They will calm down but as soon as they see him (the reporter), we will have a problem. We will not be able to calm them down. We are only ten people here, what will we do afterwards?
We’re not allowed to take the camera inside the cells.
A face mask has to be worn to ward against the smell and contagious diseases.
The subpar conditions here are miles away from the standards you’d find in any normal EU prison.
(pause)
09:24 (Caption: Venna, Evros region, Greece)
This detention camp was originally a warehouse for food and was never meant to house human beings.
The entire place is infested with rats.
No one has received any information as to why they are detained here, or for how long.
Several minors sleep in the same cells with up to 40 adult men.
09:33 Detainee (German):
I cannot believe this is Europe. You would never see something like this in any other country.
A Half a year ago, Doctors without Borders wrote a damning report about the conditions in the Greek detention centers.
Since then things have changed only for the worse.
09:54 Apostolos Veizis
Head of Programmes Support, MSF Athens (English):
-We identified really bad living conditions. No medical assistance or lack of medical assistance. Normally no human dignity respected, and normally no human rights respected in the detention centers. We mentioned to the authorities that our aim is not just to go and write a report. Our aim is to bring the situation in front of the population and try to make a change for these people.
10:20 (Caption: Athens, Greece)
Its 6 am at the Headquarters of the Immigration Authorities in the outskirts of Athens.
(pause)
After the ordeal of the detention centers, it is here where immigrants have to come to get their asylum applications reviewed. And thereafter every six months renewed.
10:44 Asylum Seeker (English)
10 years I am here! I have to fight here with all the other people.
In other countries it’s not like this.
Most of these people have been here through the night to get a good spot in the queue.
But this morning only 20 applications are received through the iron bars.
11:03 Refugee (English):
Up to three weeks now I’ve been coming. Every day I come here.
11:08 Spyros Kouloheris
Lawyer, Greek Council for Refugees (English)
-I feel really ashamed for what I see here everyday. It’s a lottery if you can survive. It’s a lottery if you get detained or not.
And it is a lottery if you can stay at all.
Because in Greece less than 1 in 2000 gets their asylum applications approved.
According to various analysts more than 2 MILLION aliens may now be residing illegally in the crisis-ridden Greek state.
In addition to the steady flow of immigrants from Turkey, Greece also receives hundreds of returnees from other EU countries every year.
This is in accordance with the Dublin Treaty, which dictates that asylum seekers may be returned summarily to the first European country to which they entered.
12:02 Spyros Kouloheris
Lawyer, Greek Council for Refugees (English)
-The situation is getting worse and worse. And to send a person back to Greece at this moment is a crime.
Since no government housing or social support is offered most of the immigrants end up desperate, homeless and sleeping in the parks of Athens.
This is Attica Square. Home to hundreds of Afghan refugees.
12:30 Yunus Mohammadi
President, The Afghan Association in Greece (English)
-They sleep here.
-The families also?
-Yes the families too. They are sleeping here and in the railway station which is near.
12:38 Marinos Labiris
Caféowner, Attica Square (English)
-They Steal, They sell drugs. Many of them sell drugs. The police know that and every day comes the police here. And they try to do their best.
For several weeks, frustrations have been building among the local Greeks, who feel that the refugees are destroying their neighborhood.
13:10 Angry lady (Greek/English)
-Cut. Turn it off.
-Norwegian TV. We have the right to film here
-Not me
-We are filming these people.
On this particular day, a group that calls itself Citizens of Athens decides to launch their own campaign to take Attica Square back.
13:17 Greek lady (English):
-This is what we say to them; Go home! All of you. You are not wanted here!
Greek lady (eng)
-They are all thieves. They are filthy and full of diseases. You are too many, we are too small.
-Fuck off!
-Go back!
13:37 Greek lady(Greek):
-Soon the police will come and give you a beating. You wait and see!
13:43 Afghani man (Dari):
-They call this Europe. They call it democracy. But is this democracy? They hit us to the ground and they call it democracy.
During the past few months, there’s been a steady increase in racial attacks here, says Yunus Mohammadi, the president of the Afghan Association in Greece.
14:04 Yunus Mohammadi
President of The Afghan Association in Greece (English)
-Sometimes even the police is coming and looking. They do nothing!
This man was attacked by a gang of skinheads last night.
Yunus Mohammadi takes pictures of his injuries to accompany a formal complaint to the police.
14:22 Yunus Mohammadi
President of The Afghan Association in Greece (English):
-They punched him. The racists. Last night. They beat him.
However it is not only the adults who get attacked.
This is four year old Omid.
For the past few weeks, he’s been crying uncontrollably, each time a stranger comes near.
Not even his father is allowed to hold him.
14:49 Ghulam Saki Ghulam-Baik (Dari)
-He’s very scared
The family of five were sleeping behind a bench in Attica Square.
In the middle of the night the parents noticed that the son was gone.
15:05 Ghulam Saki Ghulam-Baik (Dari)
-We found him around 3:30 in the morning. We couldn’t do anything for him that night, so we waited until daylight and took him to a doctor.
The child was black and blue from bruises. All over the body.
-The doctor who examined him also found that someone had tried to rape him
Without any hope of aid or support from government the family members are now bracing themselves for harsh months to come on the streets of Athens.
15:36 Ghulam Saki Ghulam-Baik (Dari)
-If I’d stayed on in Afghanistan, I myself might have been beaten or killed. But there, they would at least have spared my children.
As darkness falls we’re about to witness yet another brutal attack on the refugees of Attica Square.
The Citizens of Athens have done as they promised:
They’ve called the police.
16:15 Afghan refugee (English)
-What’s happening to you?
--They’re arresting me. And ask me about my documents.
(Policeman trying to stop shooting)
16:19 -Norwegian TV. We have permission.
-No! You have permission?
In a seemingly random way, the immigrants are arrested, and will have to spend the night in jail, while the police check to see if their documents are valid.
16:33 Refugee girl (Greek)
-He will get out tomorrow, they say.
These girls have been separated from their mother.
16:46 Afghani lady (Dari)
- Where are they taking you?
16:50 Afghani Lady (Dari)
-How old is your daughter
-Six years. Six years old. The other one is 13.
But not everyone is taken into custody this night.
In front of terrified children, and the Greek police - the Citizens of Athens take action.
17: 08 Angry man (Greek)
He is filming me now? Let him film my balls.
17:12 Angry Lady (Greek)
Get the hell out of here. Do you understand that? Go to hell!
17:32 Afghan refugee (English)
You see the situation?
What is going on in this country? I lived five years in this country. Now I am like an animal to them
17:41 Angry man (greek):
Get he hell away from here! Get out
Get away!
The battle for Attica Square is over, for tonight.
And the local vigilantes set off to raid another park.
18:00 Vigilante Lady (Greek)
There is rubbish everywhere, it’s a mess.
They sleep here. They fight each other here.
Sometimes they put stones in their shirts and attack each other…
Hey let’s go! Let’s go to chase immigrants in another place now…
According to The Research Institute for European and American Studies in Athens more than one MILLION refugees are currently in transit from Turkey to Europe.
The UNHCR recently defined the refugee situation in Greece as a Humanitarian Crisis. A first for an EU country.
On the banks of the Evros river, Mufti Damatouglou braces himself for the next wet corpse that will be brought to him for burial.
18:56 Mehmet Serif Damatouglou
Mufti of Evros Prefecture (Greek):
-Every time I bury people here I wish they are the last.
I would like deliver this message to the world:
We bury them the best way we can up here.
You tell the world that these people that seek a better future end up this way.
19:23 End credits:
Camera and editor
Aage Aune
Field Producer
Aimilia Dimitrakopoulou
Directed by
Øystein Bogen
© TV2 Norway 2010
17:43