Greece made it once again and beat every record! Congratulations for getting penalized from the European Court for HUMAN TRAFFICKING!

For those who do not know what I am talking about, let me inform you that the Greek municipality showed so much its xenophobia and unwillingness to help a poor, unfortunate Nigerian woman who was a victim of terrible circumstances. To be exact, Greece lost the trial of L.E. vs Greece at the European Court situated in Strasbourg.

To realise what really happened , let’s watch the facts from the beginning.

L.E. was a Nigerian woman promised stable work in Greece so that she may have better chances of living a good life. That promise was made by K.A. He also asked 40.000 euros for making the dream of getting a good life come true. The moment she entered the country KA took her passport and was forced to become a prostitute so that she will pay the debt off.

And so she did! She became a prostitute and when finally she paid KA off she pledged for asylum in Greece. Needless to say her seeking of shelter was denied by the Greek authorities.

In the meanwhile she sued KA. And for one more time she lost the battle against both the Greek government and KA and his wife, who was also sued.

So the Greek state decided to send her back to Nigeria. This happened twice! Fortunately, Greek bureaucracy is so hard to cope with that in the end she was granted a few more months stay in the country.

When she lost the case against KA and his wife she challenged the decision of the court. During the second time of the examination of the same case by another court, she won the case because the accused were not present in order to testify. As a result the Greek court should demand their imprisonement for violating the fourth article of the convention of human rights signed by Greece.

But we are talking about Greece! A country full of both negative and positive surprises. For LE’s bad luck the court just found the defendants guilty and no penalty was to be announced to the accused when found by the police.

Thankfully a very good option for LE came by. She got informed that the European Court was interested in cases like hers and so she turned her face at this very court. And she did well!

After a lot of hard days at court the committee was led to a conclusion. According to the court: Greek authorities neglected a few evidentce of great importance and delayed the trial of the people taking on purpose. So the country itself violated article 4, which forbids slavery and forced labour.

In other terms, was it necessary for our country to experience international humiliation by the European Court in order to change our hearts and finally put an end to human trafficking which is doing nothing but devastating human well-being and human psychology. But this is just the begining. To make matters worse today the level of xenophobia is increasing too quickly especially in modern Europe.

In my humble opinion we must obey the United Nations’  declarations and finally put an end to the uprising racism we see  every day in front of our eyes and for the sake of all, respect all the articles of the European Convention of Human Rights, that a lot of people have dedicated their lifes so that they are followed. In this case,  we may live in peace without the fear of a person enslaving us in both body and mind.
Manos Bozoutsidis