Lawyers’ group condemns bar association event with far-right minister

‘Today we will be there. To remind us that law cannot coexist with racism and death at the borders,’ the bar association faction stated.

The Alternative Intervention of Lawyers opposed the Athens Bar Association conference, saying that ‘it constitutes a profound political choice to legitimise the most violent and authoritarian expressions of the government’s immigration policy’.

‘The presence and greeting of the Minister of Migration and Asylum, Athanasios Plevris, at a conference co-organised by the Athens Bar Association and the Piraeus Bar Association is a challenge for every lawyer who perceives their function as defending rights and freedoms and not as a management service of state arbitrariness,’ it said in its complaint.

The faction recalled that ‘Thanos Plevris has repeatedly directly incited a policy of death at the borders, violence and the dehumanisation of migrants and refugees. From the statements about “dead at the borders” to the rhetoric about the “final solution to the migration issue” and the transformation of the lives of refugees and migrants into “hell”, the current minister has not renounced anything from his far-right and racist past. On the contrary, he is attempting to turn it into official state policy.’

The lawyers of the faction made clear: ‘We do not want bar associations that function as a laundromat for government policies. We do not want conferences without the voices of refugees, migrants, movements and rights defenders. We do not want immigration law cut off from the social and political reality of violence, exclusion and repression.’

They also warned: ‘Today we will be there. To remind us that law cannot coexist with racism and death at the borders. To remind us that lawyers are not administrators of barbarity. To remind us that defending rights is not a “thematic unit” of a conference but a fundamental obligation of the legal profession.’

The announcement of the Alternative Intervention of Lawyers in full:

‘Today’s conference of the Athens Bar Association entitled “Current issues in immigration law” is not a neutral scientific discussion. It is a profound political choice to legitimise the most violent and authoritarian manifestations of the government’s immigration policy.

‘The presence and greeting of the Minister of Migration and Asylum, Athanasios Plevris, at a conference co-organised by the Athens Bar Association and the Piraeus Bar Association is a challenge for every lawyer who perceives their function as defending rights and freedoms and not as a management service of state arbitrariness.

‘Lawyers, according to article 5 of the Lawyers’ Code, must respect the Constitution, the European Convention on Human Rights, the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and all international and European law protecting human rights. Thanos Plevris has repeatedly taken a public position in a way that not only goes against these principles but directly incites a policy of death at the borders, violence and the dehumanisation of migrants and refugees. From the statements about “dead at the borders” to the rhetoric about a “final solution to the migration issue” and the transformation of the lives of refugees and migrants into “hell”, the current minister has not renounced anything from his far-right and racist past. On the contrary, he is attempting to turn it into official state policy.

‘The full political cover-up in the Coast Guard for criminal practices of pushbacks, abandonment of people at sea, causing shipwrecks and exposing lives to danger is moving in exactly the same direction. From the crime of Pylos to the recent shipwreck in Chios, state policy at the borders produces deaths and the government systematically attempts to cover up responsibilities.

‘At the same time, policies of complete illegalisation of migrants and refugees are being promoted: daily revocations of asylum statuses, targeting of communities and activists, as in the case of Javed Aslam, attacks on lawyers and solidarity organisations, interruption of social benefits and housing, special repression against unaccompanied minors, and an overall hardening of the institutional framework.

‘Within this context, the stance of the bar associations is politically and institutionally unacceptable. Today’s conference is typical: no substantive discussion on the violations of rights, on the setbacks of immigration law, on the collapse of any concept of good administration in the Directorates of Aliens and Immigration, on pushbacks, on the criminalisation of solidarity, on unaccompanied minors. No representatives of civil society organisations, migrant communities or refugee collectives. On the contrary, a programme oriented almost exclusively towards the “technical” issues of file management, residence permits, golden visas and “new legal material”.

‘This choice is not neutral. It reflects a dangerous logic of compromise between the administration and associations around cases that are of financial interest to part of the legal profession, while the fundamental rights of thousands of people are being crushed.

‘The issue of legal assistance for asylum seekers is also particularly critical in view of the implementing law for the European Asylum Pact. While the European framework provides for substantive legal representation, the Greek implementing law transforms this right into mass “legal advice” by a lawyer to groups of 15 to 50 people. This is a direct deprivation of the right to effective legal protection, cynically presented as yet another “professional opportunity” for lawyers.

‘And in the face of this slide, the bar associations not only do not react, but appear to be co-shaping the relevant regulations.

‘We do not want bar associations that function as a laundromat for government policies. We do not want conferences without the voices of refugees, migrants, movements and rights defenders. We do not want immigration law cut off from the social and political reality of violence, exclusion and repression.

‘We will be there today.

‘To remind us that justice cannot coexist with racism and death at the border.

‘To remind you that lawyers are not administrators of barbarity.

‘To remind us that defending rights is not a “thematic unit” of a conference but a fundamental obligation of the legal profession.’

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