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Anastasia Balezdrova

"1 family forced to flee is too many. 1 refugee without hope is too many, "said in her message the Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie on the occasion of the International Refugee Day.

Immigration is not a phenomenon of our time. People around the world always have been moving around, sometimes in large waves, other times in much smaller ones. But the military operations lasting for years in some countries and the climate change caused mass migrations of people mostly in Asia and Africa over the past decade. According to UN data, about one billion people live in shacks and it is believed that their number will double by 2030.

Although Europe is not even in the first three countries receiving the largest number of immigrants, a significant number of people are directed to developed countries on the continent and use Greece as an entry.

Frontex data show that the country had to deal with 132,524 illegal immigrants in 2010 and more than half a million have entered the country over the last four years.

Most of them cross the land border between Greece and Turkey at the Maritsa River in the Evros region. "The fact is that almost 150-250 immigrants are entering the country daily and this number is equal to the average population of a large Greek village. More than 12 000 immigrants have crossed this border during the first five months of 2011. This number includes only those immigrants who were captured by border authorities and police," said the Minister of Citizens Protection Christos Papoutsis.

At the same time, more than 47 000 applications for refugee status are to be considered in the second instance in the Ministry of Citizens Protection, which have not been considered for years. A significant number of the illegal immigrants, applying for refugee status, are women.

At today's presentation organized by the General Secretariat for Gender Equality, the Ministry for Citizens Protection and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Athens a guide was presented, containing directions for the protection of women and girls on their arrival in Greece and during the process of granting refugee status.

Lawyers and social workers having long experience with asylum seekers from various countries at NGOs explained the need for this guide in the state departments involved in the process.

"Women often are victims of violence during the trip or subsequently in the detention or reception centres. Typically, men act as "main applicants" when the whole family applies for asylum and the other members give the information to them. It is possible that women may not even know their rights or that they can submit an application for asylum separately from that of her husband's.

During the interview, which in Greece is carried out by men in uniform, it is quite possible the women to be ashamed to tell that they are victims of violence. However, it could be one of the reasons for a woman to apply for asylum and concealing it could cause a negative response. Violence within the family, the fact that quite a number of women become victims of human trafficking after they have applied, and the fear of authorities are also part of the dangers they face. There could be personal factors in combination with the general reasons. The women, for example, could be disabled or affected by serious diseases, single mothers, elderly, poor, with different sexual orientation, opposing religious practices such as amputation of the genitalia or against forced marriages. That is why the state needs to provide female interpreters and a staff of women in the reception centres for immigrants," said the lawyer Alexia Vassiliou. Among her main recommendations was the application process to give priority to women who have health problems or are pregnant. In parallel, women should be in separate premises in the reception centres, to provide them with medical and psychological assistance and support so that they can easily share the cases of violence against them and to be informed of their rights.
 
"Very often, the husbands themselves do not want their spouses to integrate in society in any way. It is part of their culture that women should stay home and care for the house and the children. As a result, it is difficult for the children to integrate since the mother does not even know the language of the country; she is unable to help them with the lessons or even to get informed of their progress in school. Sometimes children leave school for this reason too." According to the social worker Natasha Vourtsi, one of the main problems faced by refugee women is access to health care. "A significant number of these women have never gone to the doctor. Imagine how difficult it is for them to be examined by men, regardless of the examination." She drew particular attention to mutually exclusive bureaucratic barriers faced by single mothers in particular and said that most of them prefer to ask NGOs for help and support rather than the competent state authorities.

The participants in the meeting discussed the serious problem of illegal immigrants in central Athens, which the government promised to solve through the construction of reception centres in the country. Sharp reactions followed the announcement of the government's plan. "I understand that some mayors set people against the establishment of centres to ensure their reelection at the next election. The state is obliged to explain to local communities that immigrants will remain in the centres for a period of time while their application for refugee status is considered or until a decision on their expulsion is taken," said the head of the UN General Secretariat in Greece George Tsarbopoulos. He stressed that measures for the immigration need to be taken and that in Athens there are "neo-Nazi groups, involving citizens who have nothing to do with their extreme views, but do not know how to react to the phenomenon."