SLC: They called the detention of foreign nationals a restrictive measure so as not to confess that the Operation Xenios Zeus was a fiasco…

Press Release

On 11 February 2014 the State Legal Council, after a question by the Hellenic Police Headquarters, issued an unprecedented in the Greek law chronicles – and not just therein – opinion under no. 44/2014, putting an end to the political and legal pursuits of the Hellenic Police and its Minister as regards the fate of the foreigners who were detained during the operation “Xenios Zeus”. It is reminded that today, upon the expiry of the maximum permissible detention period of 18 months from the beginning of this enormous sweep police operation, thousands of foreigner nationals are detained in concentration camps and the Greek state refuses to release them in practice, as required under the standing rules of national, European and international law. For this purpose it has recruited, besides its legal supporter, the State Legal Council which by means of the above opinion created a highly illegal, unreasonable and arbitrary legal construct, which clarifies the situation, stating the opinion that each one of the aliens who were not deported may not be released “but a restrictive measure of compulsory residence in the centre of detention before departure may be automatically imposed upon the foreign national until he/she cooperates with the competent authorities.” This measure is considered legal according to the authors since “if all illegal aliens are released, […] that jeopardizes the public interest and the purpose of the EU and national legislation, since we are led to indirect ‘legitimization’ of their stay […] while it is estimated with certainty […] that this release will inevitably lead to the rapid population growth of illegal immigrants in the interior of the country, with resultant adverse effects on the public order and safety” and so “both the public interest and their individual interest are simultaneously protected since they are vulnerable persons, without permanent residence, without legal documents and without the opportunity to work and they are in danger of falling into deep poverty or illegal networks which will exploit them”.

The Hellenic League for Human Rights expresses its grave concern as well as its disapproval of this supposed legal text which directly and blatantly erodes any authority of law and leads to the complete humiliation of what in other times would be called western legal culture.

First of all, in this case the entire Greek State confesses in practice and with the “legalization” of its legal supporters its failure/unwillingness to repatriate the aliens. This is a confession of the complete and utter failure of methods such as “concentration camps” which are today euphemistically called centers of detention before departure. Secondly this failure/unwillingness is passed on entirely to the foreign nationals, as if the exercise of state policy, in one way or another, depended on them. Thirdly, the SLC pretends to have forgotten a multitude of judgments by the European Court of Human Rights convicting the country for inhuman and degrading treatment within the concentration camps, since the country happens to be responsible for their execution. Fourth, and most important: these highly dangerous and fearful acrobatics are attempted which even the most totalitarian regimes would envy: since otherwise it cannot fit in the Constitution, the absolute deprivation of personal freedom is called restrictive measure of compulsory residence in a detention area in order, allegedly, to safeguard the public interest, as well as the individual interest of each alien.

At this point we would like to remind to the linguists of the SLC what any first-year law student very well knows: that the complete deprivation of freedom is called detention rather than restrictive measure and furthermore that only the partial and conditional restriction of movement is considered to be a restrictive measure, but always in freedom. Anything else infringes the Constitution (Articles 5 and 6), the European Convention on Human Rights (Article 5) and Directive 2008/115/EC. And this is unconditional.