A government advertisement run on Greek television during the last six months has been promoting the importance of foreign workers obtaining legal work and residence permits in Greece. It portrays a kindly employer, carefully explaining to "Hassan", (obviously all foreign workers in Greece are Muslims named Hassan, regardless of their nationality), that they should do all they can to ensure that they have both fulfilled all their legal obligations to the state, thus ensuring that he will receive full benefits and legal status. The promotional advert ends something along the lines of, "Isn't that right, Hassan. All legal and above board."

Now, just a few days before the final deadline by which foreign workers have to file their applications for residence permits (31st of December), the state has suddenly changed the requirements for obtaining residence permits. This means of course, that it is now almost impossible for foreign workers to fulfil the conditions necessary to obtain their residence permits. As a result, both in Athens and throughout the country, foreign workers have organised demonstrations to register their protest at both these and other measures which undermine their rights.

On the morning of the 19th of December 2002 more than seventy foreign workers from Albania, Bulgaria, India and Pakistan demonstrated outside Argolida County Hall in the town of Nafplion, Greece. The response of County Hall staff was to lock themselves into the building. The leader of the County Council refused to receive or to listen to the workers' five-member committee. The group of workers were threatened by the leader of the Council and told that the offices would be closed from tomorrow onwards. The workers held aloft three banners, one of which read, "Hassan knows how to demand his rights."

It is significant that the immigrant workers are demanding political rights. They are asking not to be expelled from the country if they are made unemployed but to enjoy the benefits of the welfare state to which they have paid their contributions while in work. There are three main parts to their protest:

1 That the Department of Unemployment does not pay them unemployment benefit.
2 That the Department of Unemployment illegally withholds child benefit payments if their work permit has expired.
3 That the Health Service refuses to renew their health books if they are unemployed or do not have a valid work permit.

Their demands are:

1 That the wok permit should not be issued exclusively for use with one employer but that it should be valid for all employers throughout the country. Otherwise, the worker becomes the slave of one employer.
2 That time spent unemployed should be taken into account for the issue of the residence permit.
3 That the residence permit should be issued directly by County Hall without the intervention of third parties.
4 That the work permit (which is valid for one year), should be issued immediately and not after an interval of six months as this condemns them to a state of permanent illegality.