By Chloe Hadjimatheou BBC News, Athens Greek police have stepped up efforts to catch illegal immigrants in recent months, launching a new operation to check the papers of people who look foreign. But tourists have also been picked up in the sweeps - and at least two have been badly beaten. When Korean backpacker Hyun Young Jung was stopped by a tall scruffy looking man speaking Greek on the street in centra ...

 “Why are you stepping on his belly? You have already arrested him!” A 40-year-old man is arrested because he posed this question to a policemen stepping on the belly of an already immobilized immigrant.   On Saturday 21 July 2012 the 40-year-old man was in his apartment in Athens with his family when he heard shouts from the street. He went outside to see what was going on and he saw 4-5 policemen hav ...

(Reuters) - Egyptian immigrant Waleed Taleb says demanding his unpaid wages in Greece came at a heavy price; 18 hours chained and beaten by his boss, a stint in jail and orders to leave the country he calls home. One of hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who toil in Greece's black labor market, Taleb had just finished cleaning the bakery where he worked one November morning on the island of Sa ...

In the heart of Europe, a democracy now teeters on the edge Editorial   The Guardian, In spring 2010, as Athens wrangled with the IMF and the rest of Europe for what would turn out to be a €110bn emergency loan, a revealing, chilling phrase slipped out. When Greece's then-premier, George Papandreou, begged for easier borrowing terms, he was told by Angela Merkel that the deal had to hurt. According to a wel ...

The Greek government has secured enough votes to pass deeply unpopular austerity measures essential to unlocking further aid from foreign lenders. The fragile three-party coalition managed to secure 153 votes. 151 votes were needed to win approval for the package of spending cuts, tax hikes and labour reforms despite the junior-ruling Democratic Left party's refusal to back it. Outside parliament buildings ...

I am sitting in front of my pc trying to organize my thoughts while at the same time trying to overcome the shock I am under. Its impossible…No matter what kind of language I will use, how much superlative expressions I will put in the paper,  is still difficult  for me to express myself the way I would like to. Hence, I will try to be as simple as possible describing the facts that I experienced and hoping ...

Police fired tear gas as angry protesters clashed with officers in Athens as thousands rallied in the Greek capital in protest against German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit. Merkel is in Athens for austerity talks with the country's Prime Minister.   ­Angry protesters picked stones from the cracked pavement and hurled them at police. AFP estimated that at least 100,000 people turned out to express th ...

On Sunday night people clashed with fascists and police during an anti-fascist patrol around Athens. In response to continuing attacks by fascist supporters groups of anti-fascists have been patrolling the streets at night. During September there were a number of these motorcycle patrols of around a few dozen people. September saw a number of incidents of racist violence across Athens. Last week suspected m ...

Anti-austerity rage intensified in Madrid, as protesters surrounded the parliament Tuesday night in a sign of mounting frustration towards the right-wing government. Their demands included the resignation of top officials with new elections, the halt to austerity measures, and the rewriting of the Spanish Constitution. The protesters charged the government with theft and criminal activity for implementing h ...

  Protesters objecting to plans for a multi-million dollar gold mine in northern Greece’s Halkidiki peninsula clashed with riot police who said they were pelted with firebombs that set a forested area ablaze before being extinguished. Demonstrators said that a Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) Member of Parliament who had joined them was hit by a tear gas grenade thrown by police. Local residents ...