Macedonian Human Rights Movement International (MHRMI) - Press Release
Toronto, Canada and Melbourne, Australia - Greece continues to blacklist Macedonians who are
active in human rights organizations abroad or who are political refugees*. The latest reported incident occurred on
December 19, 2009, when Macedonian citizen, Nikola Kosturski, a member of the Association of Child Refugees (Detsa
Begaltsi) in Bitola, was denied entry because he "is a person for whom an alert has been issued for the purposes of
refusing entry" and is "in the national register".
Greece's blacklisting of ethnic Macedonians affects citizens of Canada, Australia, the United States, and many
Western European countries.
MHRMI and AMHRC ask the governments of these countries, among others, to protect the rights of their citizens and
demand from Greece that this practice be ceased immediately or face repercussions. Furthermore, we ask that Greece
be forced to provide a reason why certain individuals are refused entry and why Greece's blacklist contains only
members of ethnic minorities.
MHRMI and AMHRC call on Macedonians abroad to contact our organizations if they have been denied entry into Greece,
or have experienced discrimination by Greek Consulates or Embassies worldwide.
*This year marks the 61st anniversary of the evacuation by the International Red Cross of 28,000 Macedonian children
(Detsa Begaltsi), aged 2-14, during the Greek Civil War. They were subsequently stripped of their Greek citizenship
and have been consistently denied entry into Greece simply because they assert their Macedonian ethnic identity.
They were excluded from the 1982 law that allowed the free return of political refugees who were “Greek by genus”.
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Established in 1984 the Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee (AMHRC) is a non governmental organisation that informs and advocates to governments, international institutions and broader communities about combating discrimination and promoting basic human rights. Our aspiration is to ensure that Macedonian communities and other excluded groups throughout the world are recognised, respected and afforded equitable treatment. For more information please visit www.macedonianhr.org.au, or contact AMHRC at macedonian_rights@hotmail.com or via +61 3 93298960.
Macedonian Human Rights Movement International (MHRMI) has been active on human and national rights issues for Macedonians and other
oppressed peoples since 1986. For more information, please visit www.mhrmi.org,
or contact MHRMI at 416-850-7125, or info@mhrmi.org.
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