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To win the fight against crime in downtown Athens it is necessary to raise the issue of revising the Dublin II agreement, which concerns illegal immigration, and to improve the infrastructure of the Greek police. Police and scholar representatives spoke and presented data related to the scale and nature of the problem in the city centre around Omonia Square during the discussion organised by the Dora Bakoyannis’ Forum of Greece entitled "Increase in crime - security for the citizens".

It appears that because of the economic crisis the Greeks are breaking taboos and overcoming their shame to seek help from NGOs for medical care or livelihood. These are the conclusions of a study held by the University of Pandio that were presented by Athina Vakalopoulos. The study lasted eight months and 355 homeless people, immigrants and people with mental health problems who live in the street were interviewed. The immigrants who wander around Omonia Square turn to NGOs, because they see that they could not survive in Greece otherwise. Among the main reasons that brought these people to Greece and for the misery in which they live are the problems with drugs and alcohol, poverty, the war in their homeland, the loss of family. They find a job from time to time, but have no permanent job. They live in the streets, in torn down buildings, in communеs and shelters. The people living in the streets describe themselves as desperate, unfair, superficial, and say that the other people are very cruel to them and they have no confidence in anyone. They suffer mostly from hepatitis, a degree of disability and heart diseases, but the problem is that they have no access to health services, because most of them have no papers. Poverty and living conditions entail depression, panic attacks and shortness of breath due to the stress. Many of them are arrested for using drugs, but their dream is to find a job, to have a home, education and a friend even more than family. "Our conclusions are that the uncertainty of modern society has turned them into a society of danger and a society of individual persons," said Vakalopoulos.

Thanasis Kokalakis presented the point of view of the police and said that the problem in central Athens is due to illegal immigration. He also stressed that overall crime has fallen since the summer of 2010, but looting of mini markets, kiosks and gasoline stations has increased. According to the police data, there have been 3,500 addicts in the city center in the past six months, 24 stores for illegally imported goods have been disclosed, the black trade has taken the form of organised crime and over 480 buildings house illegal immigrants - some of the buildings are rented, while they alone have settled themselves in others. And 15,000 police officers deal every day only with issues related with illegal immigrants from over 50 nationalities. "These people have no relatives here, they do not know the language, and they have nothing in common with the others. They are losing their identity, coming in big cities like Athens, which is already lacking its features," said the representative of the police.

The other problems associated with crime are the clashes on the fields after football matches and the fight against terrorism. Kokalakis noted the successes of the Greek police in breaking the terrorist group Revolutionary Struggle and the arrest of its members and the arrest of the members of the organization Fire Nuclei. The police have already developed the electronic mapping of the urban areas and this allows taking more specific measures to fight crime. Moreover, Kokalakis boasted with the new economic police to prosecute irregular taxpayers and protect the state property. Among the most successful reforms of the police is the DIAS flying squad, which began operating in the capital at first, but now there are groups in the areas around Attica and in the big cities as the criminal groups have moved their activities, said the policeman.

Crime and security of citizens are among the two most serious problems in Greece along with the economy, said the deputy Christos Markoyanakis, who spoke on "New forms of crime and the modernisation of the Greek police." He said that the founding congress of the party will take place at the end of May. The party holds these conferences before it to be able to offer solutions for the most serious problems of the capital and the country. "There has been a dramatic change in the quality and quantity of crime in recent decades. People fear of crime very much. The reason is that everything changes including crime, while the police and the squads have operated in a manner suitable for the 1950s. But criminals are no longer ordinary thieves, but organized robbers, and murderers are executioners," said Markoyanakis who also noted that the police need to be specialised and receive better salaries so that to be able to act against the new crimes. The deputy said that there are no robberies of banks, because the flying squads do their job very well.

It was clear that the centre of Athens will become a ghetto because of the narrow streets that are difficult to be controlled by the police, but also because the local residents left, noted Kirgiacos Reres. "It has been proven in other cities around the world that have experienced these phenomena that the most effective is the action of the police, while the interference with social and education policies have results but they take years to become obvious," he said.

"We have to insist to improve the centre of Athens and to deal with illegal immigration. There is a way to cope and the first thing we should do is make clear to Europe that the times when Greece, Italy and Spain could handle such huge waves of migrants have gone by. Today, the first objective of the foreign policy should be to change the Dublin II agreement. The second serious issue is the deportation, which is expensive and would need the support of the European Union and the allocation of the cost. The third issue is associated with the Greek police that have made serious steps towards improvement, but their way of operation should be improved too. There is also no infrastructure to do their job, "said the founder of Democratic Alliance Dora Bakoyannis, who attended the event.