“Anyone who attempts to prevent a third-country citizen from legally entering the country will face prosecution, arrest and subsequent criminal treatment under the anti-racist law,” stated Minister of Citizen Protection Michalis Chrysochoidis in an interview given on Thursday evening 24/07 on Action24, regarding the incident with the cruise ship in Syros.
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More specifically, as Mr. Chrysochoidis said, the prosecutor’s office should have intervened in this case and pursued charges against the protesters who prevented cruise ship tourists from disembarking at the port of Syros. “Wherever such incidents reappear, arrests will be made,” he said, noting that there was coordination with Minister of Maritime Affairs and Island Policy Vassilis Kikilias and under government coordination, “from now on, the police will also enter the game,” he added emphatically.
Michalis Chrysochoidis on Syros incident: Wherever a similar incident occurs again, the anti-racist law will be activated
“In our democratic state we have a Constitution and citizens have the right to demonstrate. In the case of Gaza – for a year and a half now – we have had 522 gatherings, marches, demonstrations, protests in Greece that started from Syntagma or the Concert Hall and ended up in front of the Israeli embassy. This is everyone’s right to do and it is within the framework of our democratic process… Let them do it, but from a certain point onwards, when this turns into attacks against third-country citizens or Greek citizens for reasons of discrimination, then in this specific case they indeed have a racist character and are racist attacks. That is, who are these people who go in front of the port and act as “guards” and in a racist way, call on citizens who want to visit the country not to visit it? What is this?” he wondered.
“This is full application of the anti-racist law and in this specific case the prosecutor’s office should have pursued charges against them, arrested them and prosecuted them. Wherever a similar incident occurs again, the anti-racist law will be activated and wherever such a phenomenon reappears, arrests will be made,” the minister concluded.
