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Greek police officers suspended for migrant strip search in public
Greece has suspended three police officers after they strip-searched a drug suspect on a busy Athens street, in what rights groups said was the latest sign of abuse of illegal immigrants.
- Agencies
- Published: 00:55 October 21, 2008
Athens: Greece has suspended three police officers after they strip-searched a drug suspect on a busy Athens street, in what rights groups said was the latest sign of abuse of illegal immigrants.
TV channels broadcast images of the officers forcing the man, who appears to be Asian or Middle Eastern, to strip near Athens's central Omonia square, where crime and drug abuse has been blamed on an influx of poor migrants.
A police spokesman said the man was one of five suspects stopped by police and found to be carrying syringes and drugs. Officers are permitted to ask suspects to strip if they do not have gloves to search them, he said.
"The investigation has already found a violation that they did it in the middle of the street and not somewhere discreet," said the official, who asked not to be identified. "Police are searching for other possible violations."
The number of illegal migrants registered by police in Greece has climbed sharply from 40,000 in 2005 to more than 112,000 last year as other Mediterranean EU states such as Italy and Spain have cracked down on immigration.
Rights groups such as Medecins Sans Frontieres have denounced abuse of illegal migrants in Greece by police, including beatings, and slammed conditions in one detention camp, where scores of migrants were poisoned by contaminated water this month, as a "humanitarian crisis".
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