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Long before Germany, Greece welcomed and cared for many immigrants. But over the last five years the country has been increasingly overwhelmed: the EU is not helping and the pressure is mounting from all sides.
By Michael Lehmann, SWR
The pursuit of a good refugee and migration policy has worried many Greek governments. Almost a million Albanians, Bulgarians, Romanians and Poles arrived in Greece in the early 1990s. Even then, the small country was extremely attractive as a gateway to the richest part of the world. Long before 2015, which was so important for Germany, Greece welcomed a considerable number of immigrants. At that time, there were no Frontex ships or rejections at the border.
In Athens and Thessaloniki, the people of Bangladesh, Pakistan, Albania, Georgia, and Poland have long been a natural part of the street scene. In the 1960s and 1970s, the metropolis of Athens grew rapidly. Hundreds of thousands of new non-Greek citizens arrived in the capital and found their place in Greek society. This process of integration came to a sharp halt when the first ships carrying war refugees from Turkey made their way to the Greek islands.
The migration crisis replaced the financial crisis
The country that is known for its “Filoxenia”, its hospitality, suddenly became a haven for hundreds of thousands of war refugees. Images of thousands of men, women and children locked in the port of Piraeus, of wild tent cities in the Greek islands went around the world and initially put the conservative government of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras under great pressure in 2015. Until then, the financial crisis had been the dominant theme.
Even the left-wing government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, elected the same year, failed to deliver on its promise of a fairer refugee policy. Rhetorically, the Tsipras government was always on the side of the refugees. The practical and effective help for the people in the overcrowded camps also failed to help them get started effectively.
In the last five years, Greece has been above all one thing: overwhelmed. The country had to provide housing, food and medical care to thousands of refugee and migrant families in a short space of time. At the same time, the fight against the financial and economic crisis took force: the EU’s savings targets had to be met and the frustration of the population had to be reduced. There was a lack of funds for the implementation of a humane migration policy.
Months, years without a clear perspective
For the first time, Greece felt truly abandoned by Europe when, in 2016, a stretch of refugees was stranded on the border with what was then Macedonia in the border town of Idomeni. In the Greek camps near the border fence, people were practically imprisoned in tents. When the migrants were barely able to leave Greece via the Balkan route, the conservative government of Athens began to install an unworthy distribution system. Tens of thousands of refugees were quartered far from big cities in old factories and corridors. Months and years passed without clear prospects for people stranded in Greece.
The European Union has been struggling to find quick solutions since the summer of 2015. So-called hotspots have been set up on the islands of Lesbos, Samos, Chios, Kos and Leros – registration centers where refugees sometimes have to wait years for your asylum procedures. The main reason for the stagnation, or rather the delay, of the procedures to this day: Europe is divided. The Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland refuse to accept refugees and cause differences on important asylum issues, including at EU summits.
There, mechanisms must have long been developed to allow the rapid distribution of refugees from the Greek islands to other EU countries, in accordance with European constitutional principles. A procedure that guarantees a speedy asylum decision would be important. Instead, Greece has degenerated into the dreary waiting room of Europe in recent years, for people fleeing Syria, Iraq or Iran in hopes of finding freedom and prospects in Europe.
On several occasions, EU politicians in Brussels have announced that they will support them quickly and, in some cases, have also sent staff to the Greek islands to process asylum applications more quickly. But so far no EU team has managed to sustainably improve conditions in the fields. Time and again, frustrated EU officials are said to have resigned after just a few days.
Erdogan follows the excessive demands with interest
The conservative government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who has been in office since last summer, abolished the Migration Ministry and handed over the tasks to the National Security Ministry. A clear sign that the Greek government has not focused on reconciliation and integration with its migration policy since the 2019 electoral victory, but on deterrence. Police tactics were also adjusted accordingly. Europe is on a similar parallel course. The European border protection agency Frontex has grown and continues to grow, the work of refugee workers and the support of non-governmental organizations are increasingly questioned and rejected.
That is why for years there has been a lack of medical care for refugees on Lesbos, Samos or Kos. This is the reason why the number of migrants who have to build their own simple accommodation in camps made of tin and wood in the wild continues to increase. This is why families with children, for example, do not get enough healthy food.
Right now there is one man in particular who is following Greece’s excessive demands and European disagreement with great interest: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. More recently, earlier this year, it clearly showed Europe how it can control the flow of refugees, and it is putting Greece and Europe under additional pressure.
