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Migrants Sue Greece in European Court Over Human Rights Violations

10 January 2016 04:42 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Article 4 of the European human rights convention outlaws forced labor and slavery, APA reports quoting Sputnik.

"It is the first time such a case has been filed against Greece, and the first time that the large-scale phenomenon of forced labor is to be addressed at a European level. At the same time four international human rights organizations and an academic institution have announced their plan to support the lawsuit. The Greek authorities are invited on January 20, 2016 to comment on the breach of obligations under Article 4," the council's press release said Friday.

The Bangladeshi migrants had been working on strawberry plantations in the Nea Manolada community, where around 200 migrants, mostly from Bangladesh and Pakistan, protested against a six-month long delay in wages in 2013. Overseers responded by opening fire on the workers, injuring 28, according to police reports. Numerous labor and human rights violations have been reported in the area.

Refugees and migrants walk after disembarking from the passenger ferry Eleftherios Venizelos from the island of Lesbos at the port of Piraeus, near Athens, Greece, December 26, 2015

Legislative intervention and plans to curb labor abuses is necessary to prevent such incidents, the GCR said, stressing the resonance of the 2013 events across Greek society and politics.

In July 2014, two of the plantation's employees were sentenced to over 14 years and seven months and eight years and seven months for illegal use of firearms and inflicting grievous bodily harm. The indicted overseers were then allowed to pay monetary fines instead of serving the terms.