ギリシャ山火事で高まる「反移民感情」　過剰な自警も

【アテネＡＦＰ＝時事】各地で山火事が相次ぐギリシャで、移民が火を付けたと非難する声が上がり、インターネットで反移民感情が広がっている。（写真はギリシャ・アテネ郊外で、山火事の中ではためく同国の国旗）
　反移民感情の高まりは、トルコと国境を接する東部エブロスアレクサンドルポリ郊外で、パキスタン人とシリア人１３人が放火しようとしていた現場を捕まえたと、住民が主張した事件がきっかけとなった。
　住民の１人で、アルバニア移民の男（４５）が２２日、移民１３人がトラックの荷台に閉じ込められている様子をフェイスブックで生配信しながら、この移民たちが火を付けようとしていたところを捕まえたと自慢気に話した。
　この動画に対し、「撮影していないで、こいつらを燃やせ」とコメントしたユーザーもいた。
　男を含む３人が、人種差別に基づいた暴力をあおったとして逮捕された。当局は「自警主義」は許されないと強調している。
　検察は移民らを不法入国と放火未遂で訴追した。
　一方、政府筋は日刊紙カティメリニに対し、これまでの証拠から計画的な放火ではなく、たき火による失火が火災の原因である可能性が高いことが示されていると話した。
　ソーシャルメディアには、放火装置だとして断熱材と木が詰め込まれた車のタイヤ２個の写真が投稿された。
　逮捕された男は、移民がスーパーマーケット近くの林でこの装置に火を着けようとしていた所を止めに入ったと述べている。
　事件をめぐり、極右政党「ギリシャの解決」のキリアコス・ベロポウロス党首も移民批判を展開。移民を違法に拘束した男を称賛したことから、政治的な論争へと発展している。
　メディアの誤報も、エブロス住民の移民に対する不信感を深めた。
　地元ニュースサイトは２２日、アレクサンドルポリ郊外で移民２０人が警察と銃撃戦を繰り広げ、逮捕されたと伝えたが、後に当局は事件自体を否定した。
　テレビ局Ｏｐｅｎは２３日、ロドピ近郊で移民２人が火を付けたところを拘束されたと報じたが誤りだったと訂正した。
　■「破滅させようとしている」
　国境沿い地域の住民の反移民感情は強い。住民は、移民が盗みを働き、密入国あっせん業者が危険運転をするため事故の懸念が高まっていると訴える。
　エブロスに住む男性はＡＦＰに「移民が火を付けたと確信している」と話した。「やつらは私たちを燃やし、盗み、車でひき殺す」
　昨年山火事が発生した国立公園近郊の村、ダディアに住む７０歳の男性は「山火事は移民がやったことに間違いない」と話した。
　「やつらは昨年も山に火を付けた。やり残したところを燃やそうと今年も戻ってきた。もしかしたら金をもらっているのかもしれない。私たちを破滅させようとしている」
　一連の山火事では２０人の死亡が確認されており、このうち１９人が不法移民だったとみられている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/08/31-16:47）

As Greece was hit by wave after wave of wildfires this week, asylum-seekers found themselves at the receiving end of several allegations they started fires, leading to an anti-migrant frenzy online.
At least two news reports implicating migrants were soon denied.
The verbal assault intensified after a group of 13 Pakistani and Syrian men were accused by locals of being caught red-handed trying to light a fire outside the city of Alexandroupoli, in the Evros region bordering Turkey.
One of the locals on Tuesday posted a live Facebook video showing the migrants stacked in a trailer, boasting that he had caught them for trying to burn us.
Don't show them... burn them, another user commented on the feed.
The 45-year-old man was arrested alongside two alleged accomplices, with authorities insisting that vigilantism will not be tolerated.
The three detainees have been charged with inciting racist violence. The migrants were charged by a prosecutor in Alexandroupoli with illegal entry and attempted arson.
But a government source told Kathimerini daily that the evidence so far suggested migrants could more likely be linked to accidental arson by making campfires, rather than premeditated.
A picture of the alleged arson device posted on social media showed two car tyres crammed with styrofoam and wood.
The 45-year-old caught for detaining the migrants -- dubbed the Evros sheriff by Greek media -- was placed under house arrest Friday.
The man, who lives in the area after emigrating from Albania, claimed that he intervened after seeing the migrants attempting to light the device in bushes near a supermarket.
Heightened fears in the area have also given rise to media misinformation.
An Evros news portal on Tuesday said that 20 migrants had been arrested outside Alexandroupoli after exchanging gunfire with police.
Authorities later denied this.
Similarly, national TV station Open on Wednesday issued a correction after erroneously reporting that two migrants had been caught lighting a fire in the neighbouring region of Rodopi.
Northern Greece has been engulfed in a mega fire that originally broke out Saturday and required over 14,000 evacuations, including at a local hospital.
Lightning sparked the fire, according to Alexandroupoli's mayor Giannis Zamboukis.
By Thursday, the various fronts had merged into a line stretching over 15 kilometres (nine miles), burning over 60,000 hectares (148,000 acres) of agricultural land and forest.
The area is just a few kilometres from the Turkish border. Migrant crossings aided by smugglers occur on a regular basis.
In 2020, tens of thousands of migrants tried to break through this remote northeastern area, clashing for days with Greek security forces.
Work on extending a 37.5-kilometre (23-mile) steel barrier to block the path is to be completed by the end of the year.
After the first fires broke out Saturday near Alexandroupoli, pictures and videos have been posted on social media claiming to show makeshift arson devices created by migrants crossing the border with Turkey.
- 'They want to destroy us' -
Anti-migrant sentiment is strong in Greek border areas, where locals accuse asylum seekers of stealing and say reckless driving by smugglers poses a serious traffic risk.
I am absolutely convinced that the fires were caused by migrants, Evros resident Christos Paschalakis told AFP.
They burn us, they steal from us, they kill us in road accidents, he said.
I have no doubt that the forest fire was started by migrants, said Vangelis Rallis, a 70-year-old retired logger from Dadia, a village near a key national park that also burned last year.
They burned it last year, and this year they returned to finish the job. They may have even been paid to do it. They want to destroy us, he said.
The issue also sparked political controversy this week after Kyriakos Velopoulos, the leader of nationalist party Greek Solution, joined the attacks on migrants and praised the man arrested for illegally detaining them.
An MP for Velopoulos, Paris Papadakis, also called on locals to take measures as migrants were allegedly obstructing fire-fighting plane pilots.
We are at war, Papadakis said in a Facebook post.
In national elections in June, Velopoulos' party and two other far-right groups posted their highest ratings in northern Greece.
In the Evros region, Greek Solution scored nearly nine percent of the vote.
- Wildfire victims -
Of the 20 people killed in this week's fires, it is believed 19 were migrants.
One group of 18, including two children, was found Tuesday near a village 38 kilometres (24 miles) from the Turkish border.
Another migrant was found dead in the area of Lefkimmi near the Turkish border a day earlier.
The head of Evros' border guards, Valandis Gialamas, told AFP he expects more bodies of migrants to be found, as crossings from Turkey have increased in recent days.
Amnesty International on Wednesday called on Greece to urgently evacuate all those stranded in the Evros region and who are unable to move safely due to fires, and to ensure that refugees and migrants who have entered into Greece irregularly can seek asylum and are not illegally forcibly returned at the border.