Greeces War on Roma Becomes Blueprint for EUs Anti-Roma Policies

Greece Conducts Large-Scale Raids on Roma Communities, EU Policy Shifts Focus to Public Order.

In Greece, at least 76 police operations targeting Romani communities have taken place in the past six months, involving over 473 officers and affecting 152 neighborhoods. The European Roma Rights Centre has documented this as the most extensive anti-Roma police operation in decades. According to Greek authorities, these actions are part of a broader effort to combat organized crime.

The raids have been conducted under the banner of “public order” and have resulted in the use of surveillance drones, K-9 units, and tactical police. The European Roma Rights Centre has noted that this pattern of police violence represents a strategic convergence of migration control, border security, and domestic policing aimed at criminalizing Romani life.

Greece is seen as a laboratory for a new approach to governance, which treats racialized minorities as internal threats to be managed and contained. This approach is part of a broader EU policy shift, with the European Union’s Migration Pact mandating that member states integrate asylum procedures with domestic policing.

The language used by authorities in Greece has been criticized for bypassing legal scrutiny, using terms such as “socially homogeneous groups” and “hotspots of illegality” to describe Romani communities. This approach allows the state to sidestep anti-discrimination laws while targeting specific neighborhoods.

Similar measures have been implemented in other European countries, including Slovenia and Italy. The EU’s Migration Pact has accelerated this trend by blurring the lines between border control and internal law enforcement. As a result, Roma and other racialized minorities are increasingly subject to militarized surveillance, collective punishment, and rapid displacement.

The use of tactics such as drone surveillance, dawn raids without individual warrants, and dogs being used to menace families is common in these operations. The European Roma Rights Centre has documented numerous cases of police violence against Romani communities, highlighting the need for greater transparency and accountability in law enforcement practices.

Source: Al Jazeera