Economic crisis, racist violence and hate speech in Athens

Alert DateFebruary 8, 2010 Country: Greece Address: Athens centre General Type: Racist violence, Racist discourse Racism and discrimination phenomena: Extremism - organised Racist Violence
Groups affected / Interested in: Migrants, Majority Key socio-economic/institutional areas: Daily life Hate speech/Racist Discourse Medium: Public Discourse

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Victims Data
Victims Nationality/Ethnic Origin N/A
Victims Gender Male
Victims Age N/A
Victims Number 10
Fatalities - deaths N/A
Perpetrators Data
Perpetrators Nationality/Ethnic Origin Greek
Perpetrator Gender Female, Male
Perpetrator Age N/A
Perpetrators Number 30
Extremist/Organised Group Violence Yes

In the Athens center right wing civil militia groups sporadically exercises violence against migrants and especially against street petty sellers. Moreover, according to allegations by passers by municipal and regular police often abuses against these migrants once stopped or arrested.

Such violence has significantly increased in view of to the new citizenship law which introduced a priority path for citizenship to children of migrants. Local shop owners supported such violent incidents by claiming that petty sellers are damaging their business. Scapegoating of migrants in this case has been connected to the heavy economic crisis suffered by medium and small businesses.

Additionally, similar right wing violent groups, such as ‘Chryssi Avgi’ (‘Golden Dawn’) have violently interrupted a public conference on the new citizenship law in the centre of Athens.

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