Minister of Public Order Michalis Chrysochoidis spoke about the special team of specialized police officers expected to be deployed within Roma settlements on Parapolitika 90.1’s “Face-to-Face Microphones” show with Vasilis Skouris and Sotiris Xenakis. “I am obliged to serve the citizen safety agenda,” Minister Chrysochoidis stated initially, emphasizing that criminality in Roma camps is significant. “It’s a plague,” he said characteristically.
Read: Chrysochoidis on Parapolitika 90.1: Special police unit being created for Roma camps
Michalis Chrysochoidis: 70 officers will be stationed inside Roma camps in Athens
“There’s the overall issue of integration, the problems that exist in these vulnerable populations, the particular problems related to children’s education as well as issues of social support, their employment, but I am obliged by circumstances to serve the security agenda. Roma criminality is very high, unfortunately for various reasons in recent decades related either to migrant arrivals and the jobs that migrants have taken and do, or to the crisis, covid – all these led to a change in the living conditions of these people. Unfortunately, an overwhelming majority of these people are involved in crime, some of them are hardened criminals – I mean they traffic large quantities of drugs and many of them are in prison. Some others traffic metals and a series of other materials from which they earn very large sums, and unfortunately even small children are trained daily in petty crime with burglaries. So we have an issue that is a plague and we cannot leave it like this,” the minister noted, emphasizing that “naturally there are police officers inside the camps.”
However, as he said, “this new element is that we are forming teams, mainly of young police officers, we train them specially, so that there is dialogue with these people, but these teams are operational, and they will be present inside the settlements on a daily basis, operating 24 hours, and I have even ordered the responsible officers of the Greek FBI to search and find posts where they will stand, rest and be a point of reference for complaints from some of the members of these settlements themselves, so that their integration into the life of these settlements is complete.”
“They will be uniformed, armed, trained, fully armored, with vehicles. I am not here at the ministry as an observer or to describe problems, I am here to ensure the safety of cities, neighborhoods and people. There is a serious issue related to this type of criminality – of course there is also major crime, and I had told you that after the law was passed, the issues of repeat offenders are now dealt with very strictly. In an operation that took place two months ago in Acharnes, 17 people were arrested, of whom 11 were remanded because they were reporting to local stations, it was proven they had pending cases or convictions and were conditionally released from prison, so they went back to prison because they violated the conditions under which they were free. This is a new law that means recidivism can no longer be acceptable,” he explained further.
“In Athens, in the first phase there will be 70 police officers who will enter the camps, they will be young police guards, trained, selected men and women, and they will be there under the supervision of the Greek FBI. Because this is particularly dangerous work, these officers must be suitable both mentally and physically,” he repeated, referring to the new specialized police team to be stationed in the camps.
