Greece Is Shutting the Door to Refugees
Greece has declared a three-month halt to all asylum applications for migrants arriving from North Africa. The European Union is hardening its borders, even if it means trampling on its own laws.
11 Articles by: Moira Lavelle
Moira Lavelle is an independent reporter based in Athens, Greece. She covers migration, borders, gender, and politics.
Greek Unions Want Paid Time Off When It’s Too Hot to Work
Greece’s latest heat wave in July highlighted the danger of 100°F-plus temperatures for workers toiling in the sun. Trade unions are proposing a sensible solution: mandatory, paid stoppages on outdoor work when temperatures reach dangerous levels.
Stop Blaming Migrants for Deaths at Sea
After over 600 people died in a shipwreck last June, Greek police sought to incriminate the survivors. Last week they were finally acquitted, after a case that illustrated a worrying trend to cast ordinary migrants as members of human-smuggling networks.
Greece’s Government Ignores the Deadly Lessons of Austerity
A year after a rail crash in Tempe killed 57 people, Greece’s ruling New Democracy party filed a report blaming the accident on staff. But victims’ families point to the years of cuts and neglect that created an avoidable tragedy.
Greece Just Elected the Most Right-Wing Parliament Since the Return to Democracy
Greece’s elections on Sunday brought a conservative majority — and seats in parliament for three far-right parties. With the collapse of the left-wing alternative to austerity, neofascist and ultra-Orthodox groups are pulling Greece to the right.
The Migrant Shipwreck Near Greece Is a Horrible Tragedy. But It Wasn’t an Accident.
Hundreds are missing, presumed drowned after a shipwreck off Greece, which European officials have called the “worst ever tragedy” in the Mediterranean. Far from a chance event, it’s the latest result of an EU border regime built on thousands of deaths at sea.
Greece’s Election Offers Little Hope for an End to Austerity
Greece votes in a general election today, with the right-wing New Democracy resisting the challenge from Alexis Tsipras’s Syriza. The campaign has been subdued, reflecting voters’ limited faith in Syriza’s ability to undo the austerity it helped to impose.
Greece’s Right-Wing Government Is Spying on Its Critics
Greece’s right-wing government has been caught tapping the phones of journalists and opposition politicians. The scandal has raised doubts over Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s future — and highlighted his New Democracy party’s worrying authoritarian turn.
We Spoke to Ukrainian Refugees at the Polish Border
Vladimir Putin claims to be protecting Russian speakers in Ukraine. A Jacobin reporter at the Polish border found Russian-speaking refugees outraged at his claims — and at Russian media’s denial of horrors they saw with their own eyes.
The New “University Police” Shows Greece’s Authoritarian Turn
After the bloody suppression of the Polytechnic students’ uprising in 1973, universities became a symbol of Greek democracy — and for decades, police were banned from even entering campuses. But on Thursday, parliament voted to create a special police force to patrol universities, as the right-wing government mounts a troubling crackdown on supposedly “dangerous” student groups.
Greece’s Nazi Golden Dawn Has Finally Been Ruled a Criminal Organization
After decades of murderous attacks on migrants and leftists, on Wednesday, a Greek court ruled that Golden Dawn is a criminal organization. The verdict is a triumph for victims, and for the minorities targeted by the neo-Nazi party — and it will embolden the resistance against still-active far-right forces.