Dimitris Koutsoumbas, GS of the CC of the KKE,  intervened in the debate on the despicable bill proposed by the Ministry of Migration and Asylum while speaking in Parliament. He described the bill as “shameful, racist, and inhumane”.

D. Koutsoumbas noted, among other things: “The new EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, the guidelines of which you are trying to implement, is equally racist and inhumane. (...) This racist and inhumane pact, which was jointly voted for by social democratic, neoliberal, and far-right governments in the EU, is —as the KKE emphasized from the outset— an integral part of the EU’s war economy and preparations. This is why it intensifies the brutal repression and persecution of the victims of imperialist wars and modern-day capitalist barbarism. This pact was negotiated by the SYRIZA government and voted on by the New Democracy government together with PASOK. (…)

The purpose of the bill, as well as the overall barbaric policy of the EU and governments on refugees, is not to protect uprooted people who have been forced to leave their homes or to protect societies from the pressure of migration, under the deceptive ideologies of ‘security’ and ‘social cohesion’.

The security of the people is ensured first and foremost by disengaging the country from the imperialist massacre taking place in the region, by providing funding that will cover the needs of the working people and not the war machines of NATO. And you clearly belong to the perpetrators, who will not protect their victims. (…)

(…) Thousands of immigrants who have been living and working in Greece for years, doing some of the hardest jobs, are now considered illegal and face prison sentences. For you, there is no compelling reason for these workers, who produce the country’s wealth alongside Greek workers, to obtain residence permits.(…)

Racist and xenophobic hatred among peoples is an element and expression of the overall repression in the conditions of war preparation. It fuels the terrorization and intimidation of peoples, forcing them to submit to to dangerous imperialist rivalries and plans. (...) What injustice are the persecuted refugees and immigrants committing? What moral depravity is there in trying to escape bombs, destruction, destitution, and hunger?

Under conditions of capitalist exploitation, being a migrant or refugee is not a free choice. These people do not come here for tourism. Imprisoning people who have done no harm is barbaric. They are threatened with a minimum sentence of two years, which can be extended to five years without suspension — a punishment harsher than that given for most misdemeanours in the Penal Code.

Are you going to fill the country with prisons? To imprison and deport unaccompanied children back to the hell that drove them away, without basic safety guarantees,? This takes us back to the Dark Ages; it is the epitome of barbarity. There are no words.

The KKE adopts a principled stance on the issue of migration and refugees, which is inherent in this decayed, corrupt system of exploitation. Because immigration and refugees are caused by wars, destruction, the plundering of countries’ wealth by imperialists, misery and poverty. They express the irreconcilable contradictions and relentless competition in the global division of labour in the pursuit of the price of the commodity known as labour power.

We demand the full implementation of the Geneva Convention on Refugees, contrary to the EU framework and the new Pact on Migration and Asylum, which turns our country into a warehouse for human souls.

Fast procedures for granting asylum and travel documents should be in place so that people can travel to their final destination countries.

All refugees and immigrants living and working in our country should be granted residence permits.

Comprehensive social integration programmes should be developed to ensure decent living conditions, access to work, health, and education, and language learning, under the responsibility of the state and without the involvement of NGOs and various private individuals.

All children should be protected.

All gaps should be filled and asylum and immigration services should be staffed by permanent personnel.

We support the common struggles of Greek and immigrant workers for life and work with rights, against racism and the poison of fascism.

We call on the people to intensify their struggle against our country’s involvement in war and carnage, to declare their solidarity with all peoples who suffer under the imperialist system, such as the long-suffering heroic Palestinian people. We urge them to gather their forces together to fight the final battle and take the keys of governance, power, and the economy into their own hands, to control the wealth they produce, to build their own workers’–people’s state, through mutually beneficial agreements with other states, with all the countries of the world, on the path to a socialist future, in a world free from exploitation of man by man, wars, and uprooting.”

03.09.2025