A hard hitting documentary which shows the plight of refugees and migrants in recession hit Athens, Into The Fire is a film with a difference.
In times of severe austerity things look bleak for Greek people, but they’re far worse for those who have recently arrived. Without housing, legal papers or support, migrants in Greece are faced with increasing and often violent racism at the hands of the growing Nazi party Golden Dawn and the police in Athens. Many are trapped by EU laws and legislation of other EU countries meaning they’d be returned to Greece if they managed to get to another member state, they are desperate to leave the country.
This film gives incredible insights to the reality faced by people who simply want to lead peaceful, normal lives.
Having been to Athens to shoot footage about austerity in April last year, Reel News video activists started talking and working with a young Somalian refugee, they made many contacts in the migrant world and those contacts gave them access to a huge number of untold and shocking stories.
Nothing in this surprised me at all with very very few exceptions such as the Egyptian who lived there for 20 years yet spoke Egyptian rather then Greek.
Greece has never been known for its wealth and influence in Europe or at least not for hundreds of years. The rest of he European Union have pretty strict migration regulations that demand things that these people will never meet such as College degrees and the ability to assimulate into their culture. Hence they will never be given leave to go elsewhere.
As for Golden Dawn that is probably the least surprising for me though I have never heard of it. They feel like they are drowning and in reality finacially and socialy as a county they are. Couple that with the burden of thousands and thousands of uneducated illegal immigrants the situation is ripe for such a cult thinking. It happened in WWII in Nazi Germany for the same rasons. As a country they felt they were drowning and they needed a lifeline, Hitler gave them that life line.
Unless the pressure is relieved it will explode eventually in violence. I can only forsee 2 scenrios at this point. The first is to release all these people to be absorbed by the other countries in Europe at the cost both financial and social of the countries that take them in or 2 they need to be sent home.
However, I do not see either of these happening in the near future.
Arabic.
This is a good one. A real eye-opener.
The leader of the Golden Dawn was just arrested recently. Now I wonder if anything will be done about the police.