Is this a change of heart from this previous attitude ?
Migrants to join police
Minister wants foreigners on the force, orders probe into Pakistani death
Citizens’ Protection Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis yesterday said he was determined to integrate immigrants into the police force following talks with members of the Pakistani community regarding the death of a 25-year-old Pakistani national alleged to have been beaten by officers while in custody earlier this month.
Apart from his vow to introduce migrants into the force, a pledge made several times over the past five years by the previous conservative government, Chrysochoidis also heralded the amendment of a law introduced by his predecessor that puts the examination of migrants’ claims for political asylum in the hands of police departments at first instance, and at the discretion of the relevant minister on appeal. Chrysochoidis said this process would now come under the remit of the new Interior Ministry, which no longer deals with public order issues. The legality of the police dealing with asylum claims has been questioned by rights groups and other organizations including the United Nations refugee agency which suspended its participation in processing Greece’s huge backlog of asylum claims in protest at the police’s dominant role in the process.
According to Chrysochoidis, the first phase of integrating immigrants into the police force would be for them to act as “mediators” between officers and members of communities with large immigrant populations such as the central Athens district of Aghios Panteleiomonas. According to sources, the second phase would involve the employment of second-generation immigrants as full members of the force. This would require the amendment of a presidential decree which is reportedly in the pipeline.
As for 27-year-old Muhammad Kamran Atif, who was found dead at his home in Nikaia, Piraeus, on October 9, just a few days after allegedly suffering a severe beating at the hands of police in a local holding cell, Chrysochoidis said he had asked the Supreme Court to launch an investigation into the incident. “I will not choose to conduct yet another internal investigation as this usually leads to such matters being forgotten and becoming an internal police affair,” the minister was quoted as saying.
Technorati Tags: greece, immigrant, migrant, foreigner, police, pakistan
Citizenship Battles on February 17th, 2010
Being Greek on February 10th, 2010
Laos Against Citizenship on January 25th, 2010
The Immigration Debate on January 22nd, 2010
Lack of Humanity on November 2nd, 2009
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Giving such a right to immigrants would be wrong. The so-called “multicultural” are self-destructive.
We don’t any immigrants who hardly speak any Greek gain such powers.
Unfortunately, AntiMultiCulturalism (unfortunately for his argument) gives exactly the reason why immigrants who hardly speak Greek need to help the police with their own communities.
If the immigrants do not speak Greek, are we to assume that the Greek police speak whatever language the immigrants speak?
Since AntiMultiCulturalism left out a verb in the last sentence, AMC’s claim to write in English is at risk.
Many other countries find that it works to everyone’s advantage to assure that people can communicate.
The immigrants are here – they are not leaving. So, get over it and let’s find a way to make it work better for all involved. I realize it is difficult to accept change – but change has come.
Well… don’t make too much of this. Basically, they will employ immigrants as translators, and it is not clear what contracts they will get. As the police have already been using immigrant translators for asylum-seekers and other immigrants, it’s not much of a change.
We can expect a lot of window-dressing from Pasok — they will try to exaggerate small changes as being major ones. Let’s see if they really give citizenship to second generation children and also proper immigrant rights to legal immigrants. I dare not mention the asylum policy — the elephant in the room…