TO THE COUNCIL FOR INTEGRATION OF IMMIGRANTS AND REFUGEES OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF ATHENS
From the entire investigation of the case and the information I received about the structure, the following became known to me:
1) The structure has been operating since the year 2021, has a capacity to accommodate 30 minors who are distributed in double or quadruple rooms and currently accommodates twenty-two minors aged 12 to 18 years. Most of the guests are Egyptian.
2) Despite the great difficulties, the achievements of the structure in the accommodation of the children but also in their studies and educational development are quite significant and have resulted in the admission of several children to university schools in the Panhellenic Examinations, as well as in receiving scholarships for studies in private schools
3) In the four years of operation of the structure, there has not been any complaint from the neighborhood.
4) The minors who live there, like all teenagers, often argue and quarrel or disturb, but they are controlled by the daily life managers – guards of the structure, who are at least two in number on each shift.
5) The structure, according to its Regulation, is open and obliges all children staying there to return every night at 23:00. When for any reason any child is absent at this time, the Police are notified and this is recorded in the incident books and, when the child returns, they are certainly allowed to enter and the Police are also informed and the child’s return is recorded.
6) On Sunday 13.10.2024, due to a quarrel and an argument between two minor children, neighbors were disturbed and the Police was notified by the structure itself, which appeared and brought the two children who quarreled and one of the two security guards. After the Police left, the perpetrators appeared, who broke down the door and thus entered the structure and within minutes climbed the stairs, injured three minor children and quickly left and fled before the Police returned, who were also alerted by the occupant. another employee there.
A case file has been created for all of this and is being developed with the statements of the victims, those in charge of the structure, etc., while it is also being monitored legally by the lawyers of the structure. No case has been filed against any child.
Also:
7) The recent statements regarding these incidents by the Minister of Immigration, Sofia Vultepsi, are legally unacceptable and unheard of. Mrs. Vultepsi has repeatedly spoken about self-righteousness and about residents who take the law into their own hands. It is neither. Self-rights requires the exercise of a right which the beneficiary exercises with his own strength due to the obligee’s refusal to satisfy it, e.g. an object falls on my neighbor’s property and the neighbor refuses to hand it over to me, so I enter his property and take it with my own hands, while “taking the law into my own hands” means doing what the law requires. It does not constitute “self-judgment”, nor “taking the law into one’s own hands”, the beatings against anyone at a time when the Police have already intervened, order has been restored and the area has calmed down. Let’s not forget that with the same characterizations of self-righteousness, Government Ministers in August 2023 attempted in the same way to cover the “sheriff of Evros” and caress the ears of their supporters. Fortunately, the judges of Evros did not share the opinion and prosecuted him for a felony (grabbing).
Equally unacceptable are her appeals for cooperation to “those who take matters into their own hands”. In other words, instead of denouncing the perpetrators, disapproving them and demanding their legal prosecution and punishment, he treats them as outraged residents who are allegedly right, but “overdo it” and must cooperate with the state. The political messages are obvious. They should be frowned upon.
The person in charge and the staff of the structure express their particular concern for the appearance of racist attitudes in the area, which they consider inconsistent with the operation of the structure in the neighborhood, since, as mentioned above, it does not disturb, and they draw attention to the protection of mental balance of unaccompanied children, emphasizing that it is essentially an orphanage operation. Therefore, they are against publicity, the presence of television crews in the area of the structure and any mobilizations outside its area. I consider these concerns to be respected, but equally necessary is the activation of the social forces of the region and the bodies of the Municipality, with respect of course to the above, in order to prevent the recurrence of racist violence and those who aspire to connect them with far-right political currents in the first place.
2024-10-16 20:57:00