Out of the spotlight: The rights of foreigners and minorities are still a grey area the types of violations reported to Amnesty International in the last few years, nor are the cases outlined a complete list of those received by the organization. Rather, what is presented here is data that illustrates the most serious of the organization’s concerns. According to the Migration Policy Institute, between 1950 and 1975 a total of 678,000 people emigrated from Greece to other countries, while between 1975 and 2000 a total of 935,000 immigrated into the country. 40 National authorities have argued that this shift was unexpected given the country’s tradition of exporting, not receiving, migrant labour and that it was this unexpectedness that accounted for the initial failure of the authorities to bring effective legislation into place to ensure that the rights of migrants into Greece were respected. 41 However, while the authorities argue that such legislation is now in place, reports received by Amnesty International suggest that in order for the government to comply with its obligations to respect, protect, and fulfil the human rights of migrants, further measures need to be taken. Amnesty International believes that the lack of a tradition of policy-making on immigration issues should under no circumstances undermine the implementation of international human rights law and standards with regard to the protection of vulnerable groups from persecution. The information in this report suggests that the self-confessed ineffectiveness with which authorities have responded to migrants’ needs in the last few years has had a negative impact on the way in which ‘foreigners’ are perceived in Greece. For this reason, it is suggested that the reform to the current framework guiding the authorities’ 40 “Greece: Estimates of the net number of migrants by five-year intervals, 1950 – 2000”, Migration Information Source, Migration Policy Institute; original information obtained from UN Population Division (2001) “World Population Prospects: The 2000 Revision” (POP/DB/WPP/Rev) 2000/1/F10 and http://www.un.org/esa/population/unpop.htm. 41 Greece’s initial report to the UN Human Rights Committee (CCPR/C/GRC/2004/1). Amnesty International 5 October 2005 24 migration-related practice should be complemented by policies addressing the problems of discrimination, racism and xenophobia within the wider Greek population. The official figures provided by the Migration Policy Institute show that in the early 1990s (figures provided for 1991) most ‘foreigners’ in Greece were nationals of Albania (12.3 per cent), Cyprus (8.8 per cent), the US (8.3 per cent), the Former Soviet Union (7.7 per cent), the UK (6.6 per cent), Turkey (6.6 per cent), and Germany (5.1 per cent). A decade later (figures for 2001) 55.6 per cent of them were nationals of Albania. 42 In absolute numbers, the official population of non-citizens in Greece grew in this decade from 167,276 to 797,091. The migration from European countries increased seven-fold during this time, while migration from Asian countries tripled. While these numbers include estimates of the numbers of irregular migrants, it is thought that the numbers of individuals in this category are underrepresented in these statistics. However, what is clear is that large sections of the migrant population in Greece are nationals of neighbouring countries (Albania, Turkey, Cyprus), while others represent migration flows under the post-1989 repatriation policies instituted by the Greek state for “ethnic Greeks” of the Former Soviet Union (FSU). 43 42 According to a report published in October 2003 by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) “in Greece, Albanian migrants are mainly employed in low-skilled jobs in agriculture and construction, whereas Poles and Romanians work as skilled manual labourers, Filipinos as domestic workers, Pakistani, Indians, Bangladeshi as unskilled labour in small factories and Africans as small traders and street vendors” (Migrants, Minorities and Employment: Exclusion, Discrimination and Anti-discrimination in 15 Member States of the European Union :36). 43 Voutira Effie: “Pontic Greeks today: migrants or refugees?”, Journal of refugee studies, 4 (4), 1991, p. 400-420 and “Refugees: whose term is it anyway? Emic and etic constructions of ‘refugees’ in Modern Greek” in The Refugee Convention at fifty: a view from forced migration studies (2003), Joanne van Selm, Khoti Kamanga, John Morrison, AI Index: EUR 25/016/2005