Communist party slams torture of migrant in Peloponnese

The Greek Communist Party (KKE) on Tuesday slammed the government’s immigration policy and its stance toward a string of attacks against immigrants following local press reports of the brutal torture of an Egyptian man in Manolada, a village in Ileia in the Peloponnese.

Two Greek men were arrested by police on Saturday after allegedly beating a 30-year-old migrant worker, jamming his head in the window of a car door and dragging him for around one kilometer. The man sustained multiple head injuries and reported the incident to the police, who apprehended the two suspects.

Some local press reports suggested that the 30-year-old Egyptian had argued with the two Greek men over work-related differences before they attacked him.

On Tuesday KKE issued a statement «condemning raw racist violence» and «the torture of a migrant worker because he was fighting for his rights.»

“This attack finds fertile ground in the government’s policy, which for around a month now is focused on inhuman operations against migrants,» the KKE said in its statement.

“The people should show zero tolerance to racism and murderous attacks. Those who lynch migrants have the same mindset as those who bully and beat local workers. No worker should believe that his time may not come too,» the statement said.

In a separate incident, a young man from Bangladesh was being treated at a central Athens hospital on Tuesday morning for extensive injuries sustained during an alleged racist attack at a tram stop in the southern coastal suburb of Flisvos in the early hours of Tuesday.

Witnesses to the incident said he was jumped by a group of men riding motorcycles, who kicked him and beat him, as well as stabbing him four times. This is one of dozens of similar incidents that have taken place in the past few months and which have been attributed to gangs of ultranationalists.

Police, however, denied that there may be a link between the Flisvos attack and the Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn) far-right party, whose pre-election campaign was based on a vitriolic anti-migrant platform.

Greek authorities have come under fire from rights groups for failing to take a harder line against a spike in racially-motivated attacks in recent months. The government has also been criticized for a recent crackdown on illegal immigration which has seen hundreds of undocumented migrants rounded up and held in detention centers for deportation.

Πηγή: ekathimerini.com