Clark Boyd

Clark Boyd

Clark Boyd is a reporter for The World. From advances in technology to the ups and downs of the markets, he has reported from many different countries for the show. He is now based out of the Boston newsroom.

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Greece Cracks Down on Illegal Immigrants

August 7, 2012 ⋅ Post a comment
A police officer escorts immigrants boarding a bus bound for a police station in Athens (Yorgos Karahalis / Reuters)

A police officer escorts immigrants boarding a bus bound for a police station in Athens (Yorgos Karahalis / Reuters)

This past weekend, some 6,000 people were stopped by Greek police in a crackdown on illegal immigration.

More than a quarter of those stopped were arrested, and sent to detention centers to await deportation.

Greece’s Minister of Public Order, Nikos Dendias, told local television that illegal immigration has brought the country “to the brink of collapse.”

“What is happening now is the greatest invasion of Greece ever,” Dendias told Skai TV. “The country is being lost.”

Golden Dawn, a right-wing party in Greece, has tapped into the anti-immigrant feeling. The party polled at seven percent in the June elections.

Anchor Lisa Mullins speaks with The World’s Clark Boyd, who covered those elections.

Discussion

One comment for “Greece Cracks Down on Illegal Immigrants”

  • Karl_Audenaerde

    “Greek Muslims worship in basements.”  That is a patent misrepresentation: the vast majority (all?) of Greek Muslims lives in Thrace, and worship in mosques with pretty little minarets attached to it.  The Muslims who worship in Athens basements are immigrants, some legal and more of them illegal.  Which brings us to the problem of illegal immigration in Greece.  If I were a poor man in some third world country looking for a better place, Greece is about the last place in the world I would go.  What can they realistically expect?  There are three options: (1) Hopeless jobs, like selling counterfeit junk on the streets.  And be abused by the guy who gets you the junk to sell.  (2) Accept an overworked and underpaid job off the books. And be abused by the jerk who gets you the job, and evades paying taxes in the process. (3) Petty crime, like the clowns who stole my wallet.
    Making this an issue of church and state is disingenuous at best.  Catholics? (I’m Greek Melkite catholic)  Remember the fourth crusade? “Frank” (=catholic) is a worse insult than “Turk” here!  Muslims?  Remember the four centuries of Muslim occupation?  Why the hell would Athens need an official mosque?  Maybe when there is an Orthodox or Catholic cathedral in Rhiad?
    Immigration?  I moved from country A to country B to country C to country D.  And at no point expected any accommodation of my lifestyle or beliefs.  And a good thing too, because I didn’t get any.