Two videos posted online on August 23 show Greek members of the extreme right illegally “arresting” migrants in Evros, a Greek region bordering Turkey. The footage shows the militants forcing one group of men to sit in the dirt. Another group of terrified migrants have been crammed into a trailer. While members of the far right have carried out this type of illegal arrest of migrants before, it is rare to have footage of it. The attackers accuse the migrants of being responsible for the widespread fires in the region. These militiamen feel empowered by the political context hostile to migrants, say our Observers.
"Four more … you see? It is noon and where are the authorities? […] We will contact the police, but there is never any response,” rages the man filming a video posted online on August 27. While it is clear the video was filmed in the region of Evros, it’s not clear when it was filmed.
The man filming points the camera at four men, migrants, sitting on the ground in the dirt behind a Land Rover. Meanwhile, at least two other men loiter alongside the vehicle – seemingly in cahoots with the man behind the camera. At the end of the video, the man turns the camera on himself and you can see that he is bearded and wearing a black tee-shirt and camouflage pants.
The video was posted on social media by an account under the name Walandi Abrassis – likely the man who filmed it.
A video posted online a few days earlier shows a similar scene – albeit even more disturbing. The guy filming focuses the shot on his Land Rover, which has a trailer attached. When he opens the door, there are at least four men crammed inside, looking terrified.
“I’ve loaded up 25 of them into the trailer. Get organised, get them all out and grab them," he says. He seems to be speaking to his cronies about the migrant men in the trailer. "The whole mountain is full, guys.”
“They swore to burn us […] They will burn us, that’s all I’ll say,” he adds, this time referring to the wildfire that has been raging across the northeast of Greece, considered to be the largest ever recorded in the European Union. According to the local press, this video was filmed in Alexandroupoli, just a few kilometres from the Turkish border, the Evros River.
The website the Press Project later reported that these militia men had “arrested” 13 migrant men, not 25 as the man filming claimed. The victims told journalists that the militants had beaten them with metal rods.
“They took off all of our clothes and filmed us. We stayed there a long time, sweating and unable to breathe,” said one of the 13 men who was detained.
Greek authorities have put the man who filmed this second video under house arrest awaiting charges.
Yes. There’s a system of global apartheid, where people in many regions are super-exploited and are forced to live precarious lives without human dignity, safety and their basic needs met. This system can only work due to people getting pushed back and murdered at the borders, and being discriminated against if they make it over the border somehow.
The whole system needs dismantling, and getting rid of the borders is going to be key.
And you think that our current political system will survive that? I mean, you think that western world’s constitutions that guarantee basic human rights and freedoms will still guarantee them after we got rid of the borders? Or do you think we have to lose those freedoms in order to gain equality?
Western governments will never give up that global apartheid system, unless they have no other choice. They will need be forced into accepting terms. This means their militaries and other institutions need to be thrown out of the colonies, and they won’t go without a fight. It means they need to lose all leverage over international trade and finance. When they are defeated and no longer able to exploit, the border guards will become pointless and self-defeating. I think and hope this would also trigger/coincide with a revolution in the West, but who knows. The Western countries will have to change for sure.
Then you go on about rights and freedoms, but this system does not meet the basic needs of most humans, does not respect their human rights, and the majority of people are therefore far from free. Do you think your freedom hinges upon oppressing others? Because that’s absurd. Are you thinking of privilege maybe? I guess privilege is a kind of freedom, just not for everybody.
I think my freedom hinges up majority of people understanding basic principles of democracy. For example, where I live I can say I’m an atheist and I will not be executed for it. I only have this freedom because, even though most people here don’t share my believes, they do accept and respect my rights. In many developing countries people don’t think like that. They don’t believe in freedom of religion. If I ware to declare that I’m an atheist there I would be executed. Same goes for LGBT and women rights. In that sense The Western countries are free and developing world is not. Of course this is partly (or even mainly) because of poverty, lack of education and exploitation of those poorer countries. But seeing the current situation, do you think that, when the global apartheid system collapses and you remove all borders:
You can be an atheist in very many poor countries with no problem, and LGBTQ rights weren’t very good in the West not so long ago either, and seem to be getting worse. I expect reactionary attitudes to go down globally when this injustice is addressed. In the third world, reactionary attitudes are pushed by the comprador ruling classes there, often by allying with religious institutions, and driven by a desire to fight socialists. In the West, the recent fascist wave is caused by a desire of the ruling class to maintain power and profits, firstly by blaming scapegoats and secondly because the fascists are more willing to use violence to crush the opposition and uphold capitalism and imperialism. Hence why they’re getting money from billionaires. All this reactionary shit is intrinsically linked to the need to maintain the exploitative status quo. Heck, this whole argument started about borders and the fascists are the ones that advocate for the most brutal border policies. Why? Because that strengthens the system. The system is in crisis, and fascists are needed to keep it going with violence, as it might collapse otherwise.
I like your take on that but you’re wrong about to many things for it to be treated seriously. First, climate change will keep pushing people out of poorer countries so immigration will not stop immediately. Even if you remove all the exploitation today it will take many generations for those countries to form stable, democratic governments and reach economic levels that will allow them to protect their people from effects of climate change. You would still see decades of massive immigration that would completely alter the demographic of western countries. I personally doubt that these countries would survive this.
You’re also wrong about liberal democracies. Yes, on a big scale they are controlled by the rich but the system still protects everyone. Yes, the west doesn’t have a great track record regarding LGBT rights but we stopped stoning people ages ago. And of course some poor countries are cool with atheists but a lot of then are not.
You’re also wrong about the last point. I didn’t say that the rights of poor people are less important unless you’re talking about their right to stone atheists. I want all people to have the same freedoms but the fact is that The West respects way more freedoms than developing countries do.
And yes, there’s a big push back in western countries and right wing parties are gaining power there but we’re still really far away for stoning gays and beheading people on the streets.
Oh, and I didn’t say anything bout PoCs. Why would you bring that up?
You’re afraid the migrants are going to undermine your freedoms. Those people are poor PoCs, that’s who I mean.
If the exploitation stops, those third world countries will have growing economies and people will have a path to prosperity. People don’t just go to other places because those places are richer, they go because they’re desperate. They won’t be as desperate, they’ll have a future to look forward to.
You would advocate turning back climate refugees because of what, demographics? Like what is this shit, I’ve heard this stuff before. “Those people are not like us, they’re uncivilized! They’re going to replace us!” Blablabla, your racism is showing. You’re so afraid of migrants and what you imagine they might do, you’d rather they die than come to your country.
First of all I don’t think of migrants as of poor PoCs. You’re placing race on them, you’re being racist here. Same as using the term ‘third world’. Those are developing countries, they are not in some shittier league of their own. You need to read some newer books no progressive politics, you’re biases are showing. And now, I don’t care about their race, I’m not worried about Europe becoming full of black or brown people. What I’m worried about is Europe becoming full of people not respecting basic human rights. Not because of their race but because of lack of education. With regulated immigration, with proper education and a lot of work done by NGOs it’s not an issue. Europe needs immigrants and I’m happy for them to come here. But you’re talking about removing all the borders. That’s just silly. People will stay in a country with no food and no energy because of hope? You can’t be serious. And of course I don’t want all this people to die. But removing borders doesn’t solve anything, it just places everyone in equally bad situation. And I don’t even think ‘equally bad’ is a bad solution here. That was basically my questions, if you think that immigration will magically stop or do you think we should be all fucked equally. Now I see it’s the first one, delusion.
I use “third world”, because it wasn’t originally intended as “third class” or whatever, and everybody knows what I’m talking about. “Global south” is not geographically correct, “developing countries” is a liberal euphemism that doesn’t capture what’s going on (“exploited countries” would be better), and when I say “periphery” nobody knows what I’m talking about.
Libs like the educated immigrants, I’m aware. Just not the unwashed masses, who actually need the most help. But oh god why would I think that’s because of racism? Is it because biological racism has been replaced with talking points about culture and education in polite circles? You should rather be afraid of the fascists at home, they actually have momentum and numbers. But then again, the stuff you’re saying is basically the same shit you hear from them, so I guess that’s not a problem then. They’re going after Muslims and not atheists, so I guess that’s not your problem.
And I definitely think you are, out of xenophobia, imagining some horror scenario of migrants coming to your country and taking over. This is some grade A paranoia, and with this assumption you can justify all sorts of barbaric policies.