Bravo Greece - you are unbelievably stupid!

A piece of advice to Greek politicians - think before opening your mouths and before passing laws. Sorry but I am really angry as is usually the case when the issue is the rights of migrants in any country and particularly a European Union one such as Greece which is also a member of the European Union and where citizens can and SHOULD take their cases to the European Court of Human Rights.


It has just been announced that last year's programm for the integration of children of migrants has not been awfully successful. Indeed, it has been yet again spectacularly unsuccessful. A bill went through parliament last year which was supposed to help the integration of children of migrants to this country and to give them a more secure residence status in the future. Many of these children have been born here and of course do not hold a Greek passport. It was calculated that some 80 000 children would be eligible under this bill to give them permament residence. There were a total of Three - YES 3 T H R E E applications - you understood correctly. Sorry, New Democracy but that is not exactly what I call effective politics. The other 79 998 did not want to have permanent residence???? - I do not think that is the answer to the amazing response. I took a look at the terms of eligibility for such secure long-term residency for the children of aliens. It was, of course, revealing:


- applicants must be under 18 at the time of applying for long-term residency,
- applicants must have finished the nine years of compulsory education,
- applicants must have been born here,
- both parents must have legal residence in the country,
- the application fee is Euro 900 (!!) per child which is more than the average one month salary.

All this leaves me little less than disgusted with Greek politics. Firstly the country has just received over 26 million Euros from the coffers of the European Union to help the integration of migrants - legal and illegal. What is the government doing with it? Honestly, sometimes in this country I just want to shake my head and walk away to a more sane and a more just social system.