Athens: Roma community threatened with violent eviction by Greek authorities

On Monday, May 13th, Roma residents of the Halandri municipality protested the eviction threat against their settlement that is located on Iridos and Sarantaporou streets, a few metres away from the relatively new metro station ‘Nomismatokopeio’ on Mesogeion Avenue.

Dozens of Roma families have been living in this settlement for over 40 years, since 1971. Over the last months, ‘indignant citizens’ (fascists disguised as random residents in the area) have been harassing Roma people, portraying them as ‘carriers of diseases’ and attacking them in their usual cowardly ways. In addition, on numerous occasions fascists demanded that Roma children should not go to the same schools in Halandri as the ones attended by Greek children. These overtly racist ‘complaints’ against the Roma community further increased ever since the rise of the Golden Dawn and its 2012 entry into the Greek parliament.

State authorities have scheduled the demolition of the particular Roma settlement for Tuesday, May 14th, under the orders of Dimitris Kalogeropoulos, Secretary General of Attica Region. Solidarity presence is needed tomorrow, near the Nomismatokopeio metro station on Mesogeion Avenue, to resist the eviction.