Embattled Greeks lash out at migrants

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 22:55:00 +0000

ATHENS, Greece — Mukhtar Jama sold the land he owned in the Somalian capital Mogadishu after deciding he had no future in his shattered, war-torn homeland. The $1,500 he earned went to paying a smuggler to get him to Europe.

The lanky, bespectacled 23-year-old trekked through rough terrain, sometimes with nothing but sugar water to sustain him during the two-month journey. He reached his destination when he crossed the muddy Evros River dividing Turkey from Greece.

Or so he believed. “I thought I’d find a better life,” he said in central Athens. “You can enter Europe, but you can’t really enter.”

Jama is one of hundreds of thousands of migrants who have crossed into Greece only to find themselves confronted by a dismal intersection of two unfolding crises. A decade of catastrophic economic decline and political upheaval together with Greece's role as the prime gateway to the European Union are helping fuel a wave of racism and violence.

Salon.com > Athens

Embattled Greeks lash out at migrants