Political parties condemn attack on migrant workers in Aspropyrgos

Ruling SYRIZA on Sunday condemned a brutal attack on two migrant workers in the industrial zone of Aspropyrgos, west of Athens, on Saturday.

“Yesterday’s attack… comes on top of a string of violent and racist assaults in the area,” left-wing SYRIZA said in an announcement. “The photographs of the victims are revealing of the abhorrent face of fascism that is spreading terror in Aspropyrgos.”

The two workers, identified as Pakistani nationals Safak Mahmud and Vakas Hussein, were working on a farm when they were surrounded by five men hurling racist slurs and brutally beaten. The assailants used knuckled-dusters, rocks and a knife, while also threatening to burn the two laborers alive.

Mahmud was still undergoing treatment at Piraeus’s Tzaneio Hospital for injuries to his head on Sunday, while Hussein was reportedly discharged the previous night after his wounds were treated.

The president of the Pakistani Community in Greece, Javed Aslam, told Greek website News 24/7 that the perpetrators were known to their victims as neo-Nazis who had taken issue with Mahmud’s involvement in protest rallies against numerous incidents of racially-motivated violence directed towards migrant workers in the area over the past few years.

“The beast of racism is alive and provocative,” PASOK said in a condemnation of the attack, which is, like others before it, being attributed to members or supporters of neo-Nazi Golden Dawn.

“The perpetrators and organizers of the attacks need to be arrested and brought to justice,” PASOK added.

The Greek Communist Party (KKE) accused the government of having a “serious responsibility” for this development, “because gangs of fascist are acting unhindered in areas like Aspropyrgos and the broader area.”

The state, the party said, “must immediately find and arrest the perpetrators of the attack and their criminal guides, the leadership of Golden Dawn.”

Dozens of Golden Dawn members, including the party’s leadership, are currently on trial over the murder of rapper Pavlos Fyssas in 2013, as well as several attacks on communist-affiliated activists and migrant laborers.