The neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn activists are hunting for refugees and migrants on the Turkey-Greece border, beating them up and handing them over to the Greek police.
The raids are meant to stop the refugees and migrants from entering the Greek territory. Those handed over to Greek police are forcefully sent back to the Turkish side of the border.
Dinos Theoharidis, leader of the Golden Dawn, makes no secret of their operations. His over 500 far-right agents and militants believe they have a duty to help protect the Greek borders.
The man who is also known as colonel, leads his militants – all armed with hunting rifles, with automatic pistols, etc. He is not a police offer, but heads anti-immigrant squads.
The guy may seem like a chatterbox – all muscles with ready-made phrases. But in this part of the world he is the colonel of the Golden Dawn which is not simply a far-right political organisation. It is indeed the organisation whose banner gathers paramilitary agents who go on patrol wearing black uniforms, reports Avvenire.
They use a chat to communicate and as soon as they notice refugees or migrants, they get in action. “We do don’t anything wrong,” Dinos says, “we stop and hand them over to the police who thank us”.
It seems the right-wing extremists collaborate with the Greek police to protect the Greek border. Dinos justifies their actions saying they had to organize to patrol the border after being abandoned by politics. They consider themselves patriots who have to defend their borders.
They do nothing to hide. “If we intercept foreigners, we stop them and turn them over to the police,” says Dinos from the height of his meter and ninety. «How do I catch migrants? I have my own methods, “he replies as a police officer comes to greet him with the treats owed to a respected veteran. There is to be taken seriously. For fifteen years Dinos was an operative in the special corps of the Army of Athens. And by a whisker he has not entered the Greek Parliament, “even though it is here now that there is a greater need, among my people, not in Athens”.
The Archbishop of Athens Sevastianos Rossolatos is appealing to the European Union to help handle the humanitarian crisis along the border. Police reports show that yesterday 11 migrants were arrested yesterday, and 4600 expelled.
Meanwhile the Frontex Management Board has agreed to fully support Greece in addressing the current situation at its external borders towards Turkey and to act in the spirit of European solidarity.