A search for illegal immigrants is being conducted in the area of Karpathos Island, Aegean Sea. The ministry of Mercantile Marine received a phone-call saying that a vessel with 15 people on board has sunk. The searching operations, conducted by ships and a helicopter, are made even more difficult by the strong wind.

Greece's authorities are beginning to take more and more serious measures on deporting illegal Pakistan and Afghanistan immigrants, ignoring protests of local and international organizations protecting human rights. According to recent data, days ago 82 emigrants have been deported to their homelands- 28 Pakistanis (with a court order) and 54 Afghans that took the decision to leave by themselves. This is the third large group of illegal emigrants deported from Greece in the last month.

Only a month ago, a big camp of illegal residents was destroyed in Greece. The camp was in Patra and has survived for thirteen years. The emigrants detained there have been travelling by sea from Italy. Bulldozers destroyed the temporary buildings where hundreds of foreigners have been hiding, mainly from Afghanistan. Presumably, 1800 people have been living in that camp. The buildings left intact were only the prayer-places and the emergency medical attendance tents.

According to number of right-protection organizations, this is only a small part of Greece's cruel attitude towards those that lost their homelands due to different political or economic reasons. Red Cross cooperatives claim that this is a sign from the authorities that emigrants have no future in Greece. This is facilitated by new laws assisting the process of deportation and the finding for the overall process is provided by the European Union.

Dilyana Ivanova