2020/295
6/5/2020
ROME – The International Federation for Rights and Development (IFRD) said today that it is looking at an extreme step to industrialize the hostile environment in Greece towards immigrants, calling on its authorities to respect their obligations under international agreements and covenants.
In a press release, the Rome-based International Federation condemned the burning of residents opposing the settlement of refugees and migrants in the city of Bella in the province of Voria, a hotel hosting refugees, while attacking the owners of another hotel with stones in an inhumane behavior.
The International Federation lamented the position of the Greek police forces at the scene, which was simply observing and did not intervene. At the same time, the locals brought the furniture out and set it on fire.
According to the case file that was opened by the local prosecutor on Wednesday, about 150 “demonstrators” threw stones and other items at first on buses carrying 57 refugees and set up roadblocks to prevent them from entering the village of Panagia on Monday evening.
A few hours later, early Tuesday morning, they threw a flammable substance in the hotel room and set fire to it that spread quickly. After Panagitsa, the refugees were transferred to a hotel to Arnissa, where around 250 protesters blocked the road and set fire to it.
Incidents of burning tents and shelters for immigrants in separate regions of Greece were denied during the past months. One on the second of last March, when residents of the Greek island of Lesbos set fire to a former migrant shelter center near Skala Sikkaminias beach, after new immigrants arrived at Skala Sycamenias Beach The center reopens its doors.
The International Federation for Rights and Development (IFRD) emphasized the necessity of Greece’s commitment to ensuring non-coercion under international customary law, refraining from inciting against migrants, allowing recovery and ill-treatment against them, and establishing a system that allowed for the provision of asylum in an orderly fashion.
