The draft immigration bill under consideration by the Greek parliament violates migrants' rights and threatens refugee protection.
"All migrants have rights," said Holly Cartner, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia Division. "But this deeply flawed bill would permit the government to exploit migrant labor and abuse those rights with impunity."
The eight-page letter criticizes the bill for, among other things, the absence of an anti-discrimination clause; violating the right to family reunification; failing to address trafficking of migrants and special protections for women migrants trafficked for forced prostitution; failing to acknowledge the fundamental human rights of undocumented migrants; denying undocumented migrant children access to education and health care; lacking a provision prohibiting the arbitrary detention of migrants awaiting deportation who cannot return to their home countries; failing to include a provision against collective expulsion; including public and private sector sanctions against those assisting migrants; and supporting sanctions on carriers for transporting migrants.
Human Rights Watch also charged that migrant women who work as domestic helpers in Greece often suffer serious violations (including physical abuse and nonpayment of wages) at the hands of their employers. The group urged parliament to grant work permits to migrants in a particular labor sector and not to tie permits to a specific employer.
Human Rights Watch called on the Greek government to halt discriminatory police "sweeps" of migrant communities and to observe migrant detainees' procedural rights.
