Tassos Symeonides(RIEAS Academic Advisor)
Copyright: www.rieas.gr
 The
Samaras administration has taken one step that should have been taken a
long time ago. The Ministry of Citizen’s Protection has finally ordered
the police to begin breaking up the Athens downtown illegal immigrant
ghetto, which in recent years has become the fertile ground of
burgeoning crime, prostitution, drug trafficking, and protection
rackets.

The police operation targets all illegal immigrants and has already
netted some 2,000 arrested, who face immediate deportation. The
door-to-door tactics have again revealed the deep penetration of the
city’s center section by at least 100,000 illegal aliens, which is only a
small part of the estimated 1.5 million largely undocumented persons
who illegally reside in Greece.

Citizen’s Protection Minister Nikos Dendias used unusually harsh language to describe the illegal migrant crisis as threatening the very foundations of the country;
illegal immigration, Dendias underlined, “…is a bomb placed in the
foundation of society and state” and has brought Greece “on the verge of
collapse”.
The only argument against the police operation came,
not unexpectedly, from the SYRIZA leftwing party, which has a long
history of agitating in favor of illegal immigrants, and advocating open
borders and the mass naturalization of all undocumented aliens via cursory processes.

Greek
governments since the fall of communism, and the opening of borders
across the former eastern bloc, failed disastrously to stem illegal
arrivals in Greece – first, by doing little to stem the early Albanian
invasion, which transformed an estimated half of the Albanian population
of roughly 3 million into casual border crossers with at least 500,000
establishing permanent residence within Greece; and, secondly, by
failing to oppose another invasion began in the early years of the 21st
century, this time one of Afro-Asians, over the country’s eastern
border, with Turkey acting as a facilitator of undocumented aliens from
the crisis areas of Asia and Africa seeking to reach Europe.

At
the root of the illegal immigration crisis is a complex set of factors
including the failed policies of “multiculturalism” and “tolerance”
promoted by the European Union; the refusal of Greece’s “partners” to
provide effective aid to the Greek government in order to combat the
onslaught; the equally hypocritical and politically motivated criticism
from European countries concerning the “unacceptable” conditions meeting
illegal aliens once they have become unwanted “guests” in Greece to be
provided with the essential by spending Greek taxpayers’ money; the
appalling Dublin II agreement that has effectively turned Greece into a
repository of illegal aliens; and the burgeoning networks of human
traffickers who work in profitable relation with Turkey in pushing an
estimated 100,000 illegals over the border with Greece each year.

However,
the current attempt to clean up Athens, and the perceived willingness
of the Samaras government acting to stem the invasion and roll back the
throngs, represents a step that is more likely too little too late. The
illegal immigration crisis, Minister Dendias suggested, threatens the
country with collapse and is “perhaps” more serious than the economic
crisis that is currently unhinging Greece. In other words, Minister
Dendias recognized in all but in specific wording that illegal
immigration has become the key national security threat facing Greece today. The pattern of behavior of Greek governments to date though demonstrate that the
fact hasn’t sunk in and, even worse, that the willingness to adopt
methods appropriate to the significance of the threat is currently
lacking. 

Calling things by their true names is not a
prominent characteristic of Greek politicians, and that is why the
Dendias urgent call acquires added importance: the situation, the
minister’s words suggest, has literally gotten out of control to the
point where even the traditionally inactive Greek political class, or at
least part of it, now sees a clear and present danger that must be
tackled right away.

In an ideal world, shaping a posture of “zero tolerance” to illegal immigration would have been the least
that Greece could do in order to begin an effective defense against the
throngs rolling across the border. But Greece now lies bankrupt and
broken, her sovereignty effectively abolished by the “bailout” terms
that methodically destroy the country’s economy and society. In such a
wonderfully “democratic world” defending one’s own home has become
problematic.

The Research Institute of European and American Studies has never stopped highlighting illegal immigration as the primary national security threat
of current times. But this is not the occasion to say “I told you so.”
The occasion rather calls for action, even within a field of national
initiatives dramatically hamstrung by the Troika’s own deliberate
assault against Greece.

In the opposite case, expect illegal
immigrants, restricted inside Greece by Dublin, to grow quickly into a
desperate mob willing to take things to extremes. And with Greek society
reduced daily to desperation and agony, the situation could develop in a
way that will require a lot more than sermons by “human rights”
activists to bring under control – if, of course, control remains a
possibility.