As attacks on migrant homes spike, group fears Golden Dawn threat

Attacks against migrant workers, and Pakistani nationals in particular, in the Piraeus suburbs of Renti and Nikaia have spiked since Christmas, a rights group warned on Thursday, saying the assaults bear the hallmarks of Golden Dawn’s so-called “assault divisions.”

According to the Movement Against Racism and the Fascist Threat (KEERFA) more than 30 houses tenanted by migrants have been attacked in less than a month in those two areas by black-hooded assailants throwing stones, sticks, bottles and even bitter oranges at the houses, breaking windows and frightening their tenants.

“Despite complaints filed by the migrants with police, the group continues to be active in the neighborhood,” KEERFA said on Thursday, adding that the assaults have escalated since Christmas.

“It looks a lot like new Golden Dawn assault divisions are being trained,” the activist group’s coordinator told Kathimerini, referring to teams allegedly formed to terrorize migrants on the orders of the far-right party’s leadership, currently on trial for ordering several such attacks, at least one deadly.

“It is characteristic that the attacks happen somewhat steadily, three times a week,” Petros Constantinou said. “This is the area… where Golden Dawn’s attacks started, long before the terrorism of black-clad squads became more prevalent, culminating with Pavlos Fyssas’s murder,” he said, referring to the stabbing of the rapper in nearby Keratsini in September 2013.

“This is what is causing so much concern; that these attacks may be in preparation for something bigger,” said Constantinou.