Undocumented Migrants in Greece: No Right to Heath Care!

AIM Athens, July 31, 2000

Already disenchanted by the state's apparent disregard to their calls for a second legalization, undocumented migrants in Greece this month complain that they have received another push to the margins of society. A circular issued by the health and welfare ministry on July 13 serves to tighten laws concerning medical treatment of foreigners.

Based on the decision taken by the health and welfare ministry, state hospitals must deny medical care, except emergency treatment, to undocumented migrants in Greece. Human rights advocates have characterized this move as one more "hardball" and "racist" immigration government policy. They argue that such a tactic weighs heavily on the backs of hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants, including whole families with young children.

Health and Welfare Minister Alekos Papadopoulos justified his ministry's decision on the grounds that medical treatment of undocumented migrants costs the state billions of drachmas each year. He also said that he would put forward a proposal to the EU for a common law to protect every Member State from this "exploitation".

According to the circular, doctors at state hospitals are to refuse non-emergency health care and to report to police when an undocumented migrant seeks any kind of medical attention. Such a policy, warn human rights advocates, will discourage undocumented migrants from seeking any medical attention out of a fear of being turned away or turned in to the police by doctors. Those who are sick will ignore the symptoms until it is too late, while in some cases may pose a danger to public health.

It is uncertain, however, if doctors at state hospitals will observe this new policy. In an interview with the English-language daily Athens News (29 July 2000), the president of the Association of Hospital Doctors of Athens and Piraeus (EINAP) Stathis Tsoukalos characterized the health and welfare ministry's decision as "inhuman" and said that it is unlikely doctors would ever refuse treatment to migrants based on their illegal residence status, or even report such cases to the police.

Undocumented Migrants in Greece

Foreigners from neighboring Albania, Romania and other Eastern European countries and from as far away as the Philippines, Pakistan and Nigeria have streamed into Greece in search of jobs. In the absence of any official estimates, undocumented migrants are thought to number between 700,000 to one million - nearly 10 percent of the country's population.

Greek farmers are increasingly relying on East European migrants for labor

• to do jobs that locals no longer want. Countless of middle- and upper-class families engage domestic helpers, mainly Filipino women. There are also hundreds of long-established migrants who have opened their own businesses, such as African hair salons, Indian restaurants and Chinese clothing stores in the downtown area - to name a few.

The majority of migrant workers in Greece do not have residence or work permits and live with a day-to-day fear of being deported if caught by police. Migrant workers are also faced with an anti-immigrant public sentiment, which local human rights groups say is fanned by nationalistic policies and ungrounded claims that foreigners are job-snatchers and responsible for a reported rise in crime. Official police reports, however, indicate no positive correlation between the number of migrants in Greece and the crime rate.

But faced with increasing pressure from rightwing opposition parties to crack down on crime, police last summer carried out massive sweep operations aimed at deporting undocumented migrants. Hundreds of police officers clad in riot gear boarded public buses and patrolled the streets stopping anyone who looked like a foreigner. Today, such tactics are still carried out, almost daily, but on a much smaller scale. Anti-racism and migrant groups condemn the arbitrary checks and roundups of migrants as "barbaric" and say that they serve only to spread panic among migrants and to nourish xenophobia and racism.

The Legalization

The first and only legalization was launched in 1998 and today is in its final phases of the issuing of the Green Card (limited duration residence permit) to some 220,000 migrants. An estimated total of 375,000 migrants registered with the Organization for the Employment of Human Resources (OAED) in order to apply for the Green Card. More than 150,000 of those who registered, however, did not manage to submit their application for the Green Card, largely due to the overly bureaucratic state system. The major obstacle to applying for the Green Card was meeting the requirement of collecting 40-days worth of social insurance stamps ("ensima") due to a widespread unwillingness among employers to insure their migrant workers.

According to the latest available figures, an estimated total of 152,000 Green Card applications have been reviewed to date and some 148,000 cards have been issued. At this sluggish pace, the issuing of the Green Cards which began in February 1999, will take another six months to be completed.

When the two 1997 Presidential Decrees concerning the issuing of the Green Cards were enacted into law, the government described them as "progressive" in comparison with other European policies. The intention to legalize the country's undocumented migrants was there, but it was not realized in practice, as the vast majority of migrants living in Greece were unable to avail themselves of the legalization.

In a recent interview with the English daily Athens News, Labor Minister Anastasios Yiannitsis (16 July 2000) said that a second legalization is not an issue currently under consideration. This news was greatly disquieting to migrant and human rights groups lobbying for 'a second chance'.

Meanwhile, the interior ministry, in collaboration with the ministries of Labor, Public Order and National Economy, drafted immigration legislation focusing on seasonal workers and outlining a process to import workers legally for employment on a temporary basis. Migrant groups have called for the government to scrap this immigration bill, denouncing it as "anti-immigrant". Their main criticism against the bill is that it makes no reference to the Green Cards, failing to address the hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants currently living and working in Greece.

What is more, the draft immigration law contains various provisions which have been described by migrants as "disturbing", such as the right for Greek authorities to deny entry to migrants who have visas without providing explanation. The bill also, if passed into law, would require anyone offering services, including doctors, teachers, landlords, to undocumented migrants to report this to the authorities or face fines of up to one million drachmas.

Kathy Tzilivakis