The point raised by Tom is quite valid.
From my part, as somebody who is at times both inside and outside Greece, I see it differently than the cited "Greek activists" who hesitate to oppose the Dublin convention because the far right does so too.
I don't see any problem at all in that. In fact, I see one more reason for us to oppose the Dublin convention. Even better, not necessarily to "oppose" it, (this is a rather statist/ totalising formulation, which anyway is the job of governments and other state players), but to negate it, to exit it in practice, to already act as if it does not exist here and now.
What people outside Greece should understand is that the expulsion of migrants, and operations against them, is a real popular movement in Greece. Even when these are not done by the police, they are being carried out "spontaneously" by gangs of young civilian men. Popular movements are not always/ necessarily positive or progressive. There is a real desire on the part of a large portion of the Greek society to get rid of the (/some) migrants, because they are "too many", "more than the country can take" etc. These conceive of this desire not as hatred, but as a struggle to redress an injustice done to Greece by the powerful Western European states and particularly Germany.
Of course, all of this is appalling. But the point is, the desire that the (/some) migrants leave Greece, happens to be also the desire of these migrants themselves.
Under these conditions, nobody would opt in favour of keeping them forcibly in Greece only in order to do the opposite of what the fascists demand. Our job would be to find (more or less) legitimate and acceptable ways ways to help these people to exit. (I say "legitimate" not out of too much concern for legality, but because practically their leaving illegally would entail many costs and dangers for their lives).
One way to beat your opponent is to crush his forces; another (probably better) is to use them. Let's use the desire of the fascists to help migrants follow theirs. By so doing, they will have less reasons to protest and less opportunity to present themselves as the champions of poor Greece who is being cheated against.
Bron :
Akis Gavriilidis
On 21/08/2012 06:31, Tom MacGowan wrote:
For some people I think the problem of defining an immigration politics to oppose that of the Dublin system when opposing all immigration controls is quite difficult since the only politics we demand is of No immigration controls. So since the Dublin convention is a very central part of the mechanism of controls and asylum and immigration politics in Europe opposing it might seem to some extent mean entering into that game.
On a personal level though I don’t agree with that entirely as I think that the Dublin system is being used to control/manage all immigration and the only right and just alternative our our demands of Freedom of movement and Settlement
I think its very important to stress Settlement as important as freedom of movement alone can be seen to be quite useless to migrants and quite useful to xenophobic politicians and extreme right (take the situation of the Roma now)
I heard that in Greece this also made more complex in that Freedom of movement (but of course not of Settlement) is also being claimed by the far right and fachist parties in Greece that are opposing the Dublin system for their own ends.
I’m not sure how our Greek friends feel about this now but it was a problem that was told to me when I went to Greece a couple of years ago and was asking some activists about what they thought about opposing the Dublin system. Their response was How do we do that that when the opposition opposes it too for their own xenophobic reasons
Thye said that as the Dublin system that is trapping migrants in Greece and ending it might enable the right and far right to be more effective in their desire to push migrants out of Greece .
So In the absence of any political solution to the problems posed by Dublin the Greek state has found its own solution , the complete destruction of all refugee and migrants rights This mass deportation is happening anyway as we speak with no condemnation as yet by Europe or any other EU country.
it seems quite clear that the problem of Dublin is European in its nature and needs to be attacked from a European perspective with a big European campaign aimed at the EU/EU countries that defend the Dublin system to end the Dublin system.
One thing that cannot be ignored by us activists from other European countries is the way in which the first safe countries of Dublin serve the xenophobic interests of the right and so called left governments at Europes interior who wish to push back responsibilty for asylum to those countries on Europes Eastern and Southern borders unfortunately those least economically capable of receiving them (as well as those right wing governments at the EU’s exterior .
That makes a campaign to end Dubin the responsibility of all of us .