This is where xenophobia leads you

This is where xenophobia leads you, along with all that anti-immigration rubbish about “illegal workers” taking our jobs. This young man, named Hassan Mekki, is a Sudanese immigrant who entered Greece to find work in Europe. Even if you only follow the war-mongering of George Clowney, you know Sudan is a war zone of economic plunder--& no place for young people to earn a living. The Greek government is imposing European Union (EU)-enforced austerity policies on its working people & needs to find a scapegoat to take the heat off themselves. The Greek government also enforces EU anti-immigration policies so Mr. Mekki is unable to move on to another European country & is a most convenient scapegoat.

Greek media uses the convenient shibboleth of xenophobia (ironically a Greek word) to blame the problems caused by the IMF/EU austerity program on immigrants. Crime, drug addiction, the spread of disease are all their fault. The government has launched a major crackdown on immigrants with hundreds of police deployed in sweeps of immigrant neighborhoods, harassing & hauling in hundreds for lacking residency papers, drug use, prostitution. Police have announced plans to convert 30 old army bases into detention centers using shipping containers for housing & in Athens just opened the first in this concentration camp program. The government also plans on detaining immigrants they deem a public health risk which is vaguely defined but would require compulsory health exams, treatment, & incarceration. The purpose is not to provide health care but to harass. Golden Dawn, a once obscure group of racist thugs with deep connections to the cops, is promoting deportation of all immigrants & engages in frequent physical assaults on immigrants.

Mr. Mekki was attacked by a group of black-shirted men on motorcycles waving the Greek flag & shouting, “Go home black” along with other racist insults; they knocked him out & disfigured him with these gashes across his back. Immigrants haven’t a damn thing to do with capitalist predation & austerity policies. Immigration is a human right.(Photo by Yannis Behrakis/Reuters)