[LINK] "Syrian refugees in Europe: The law is not on their side"

[rfmcdonald]

Freelance journalist Menelaos Tzafalias's Al Jazeera article noting the plight of Syrian refugees in Greece, who cannot find a better life in Greece given conditions of economic collapse but who also cannot move to other European Union countries, is affecting.

More than 150 Syrian war refugees, old men, women and babies among them, have been protesting peacefully opposite the Greek parliament in the heart of Athens since November 19. Some of them have been on a hunger strike since Monday and several have been hospitalised. They demand nothing more and nothing less than the equivalent of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness", as Thomas Jefferson wrote in the US declaration of independence. But to actually put this into practice, they must defy laws currently in place in the European Union, of which Greece is a member.

[. . .]

"We demand the Greek government to find a solution for Syrians in Greece," reads a sign in English, at the small protest camp which the refugees take care to keep tidy. Packs of food are set out but left untouched. One night, a homeless Greek woman couldn't help herself from taking a tangerine from an open bag and was pleasantly surprised when no one reacted.

Unfortunately, and despite the refugees' best behaviour, Greek authorities cannot legally grant the protesters the right to travel freely to other European countries and look for work or apply for asylum there. Greece is bound by the so-called Dublin System (including all EU member countries apart from Croatia, along with Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway and Switzerland), whereby refugees making their way to Europe must apply for asylum and then remain in the European country they first reach. Greece and Italy bear the brunt of this burden.

Interestingly, Syrians enjoy a privileged status, compared to other refugees - if qualifying for war refugee status can be called a privilege. Provided they have a Syrian passport or identification card, even expired, they can apply for and receive political asylum on the same day. No other alien nationals have this right. If a refugee has a relative already benefiting from asylum in another Dublin System country, they can apply to be reunited with them. This would take two to three months.

If a Syrian refugee does not have any documents, they again can apply for asylum in Greece, but the process would take longer. Applying for asylum would mean the protesters would have access to aid for food, housing and public healthcare, as a government minister who met them on the square last week tried to explain. As for the right to work, unfortunately they would be in the same precarious situation as most Greeks, who face soaring unemployment.