Greece has strengthened border controls along its land and sea border with Turkeyin the expectation that a new wave of migrants, displaced by the earthquakes that have devastated the southeast of the country and northern Syria, will head towards Europe through its territory. Hundreds of additional border guards have started patrolling the border Greek-Turkish land in the Evros region, while contingency measures were intensified to avoid the expected flows.
“The massive movement of millions of people is not the solution,” cried Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi, who stressed the need to send aid to Turkey and Syria “before this happens.” Meanwhile, the country reinforced its borders with patrols, increased surveillance infrastructure and additional fencingand extended a claim to the rest of Europe for greater protection of the continent’s borders.
fenced off
Greece expects thousands of homeless people due to the earthquakes of February 6 – a disaster that left more than 50,000 dead – begin to head towards Europe in the spring if humanitarian aid does not arrive: At a European conference on border management in Athens, Mitarachi vowed that the extension of a controversial Donald Trump-esque wall along the land border with Turkey will go ahead regardless of whether it is funded by the EU or not.
Today the 5 meter high barrier is understood along 35 kilometers, and will double its length by the end of 2023. “The fence will extend along the entire length of the Evros River so that we can protect the European continent from illegal flows,” the minister stressed. A harsh measure in response to past migrations from Syria after the conflict that has displaced more than 20 million people since 2015, and some 2 million in the last annual measurement.
Accompanying the hardening of the bloc’s position towards refugees, the center-right Greek government announced that it will also acquire dozens of new coast guard ships to patrol the Aegean islands off the Turkish coast, to prevent the arrival of the dozens of rafts trying to cross the sea.
Policies
Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Greek prime minister whose four-year term ends in July this year, has been noticeably tougher on illegal immigration than his predecessor from the left, Alexis Tsipras. His actions included forced evictions and the mass deportation of refugees in border areas, drawing harsh criticism in the EU, which he called hypocritical: the EU border agency Frontex also reinforced patrols in the Aegean. Furthermore, Brussels allocated more money to Greece than any other EU member state to handle immigration, befitting its role as a front line of defence.
And the enormously expensive “closed and controlled” detention facilities (which have been compared by human rights groups to prisons) have replaced the squalid camps on Samos, Leros and Kos. And similar new centers for asylum seekers are expected to open on Lesbos and Chios later this year.
Rejecting the accusations against him, Tsipras has described his policies as “strict but fair”. The truth is that an increasing number of refugees are risking their lives: by avoiding the Greek islands, the alternative for the refugees who are thrown into the Mediterranean are the ships -usually overcrowded- that look for the Italian coasts from Turkey.
victims
Episodes that usually end in catastrophe: some 59 refugees, including a baby, were found dead last week after his ship ran aground off Calabria.
Calls for tougher action have grown in Greece but also across Europe since the 2015 migration crisis, when nearly a million Syrians fleeing civil war were granted asylum in Europe.
And ministers representing the 15 member states attending the conference in Athens called not only for agreements to be reached with third countries to accept refugees, but also for more financial support “for all kinds of border protection infrastructure.” “It is crucial at this moment that Europe decides what kind of migration policy we want and, more specifically, what kind of border management we want,” Mitarachi hurried to his counterparts, before referring to the NGOs that supposedly “help” at border crossings.
“Clearly, We must offer asylum to people who need protection, but in an orderly way… Today, unfortunately, instead of being proactive in managing asylum, it is human traffickers who are selling places in our societies, not those most in need. but to those who pay the fees, ”he concluded.
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