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Greece to build 128-mile anti-migrant wall
Greece has announced plans to build a controversial new wall along its 128 mile-long land border with Turkey to keep out illegal immigrants.
Arrests of illegal immigrants entering Greece from Turkey increased five-fold in the first nine months of 2010 Photo: GETTY
By Bruno Waterfield, Brussels 4:18PM GMT 03 Jan 2011
Christos Papoutsis, a Greek interior minister, insisted the wall was necessary after Brussels intervened last year to prevent an immigration crisis by sending in an elite taskforce of border guards to protect the frontier between Greece and Turkey, the EU’s most insecure boundary.
He compared the planned barrier to the 650-mile fence along sections of the United-States-Mexico border.
“Co-operation with other EU states is going well. Now we plan to construct a fence to deal with illegal migration,” he said.
”The Greek public has reached its limit in taking in illegal immigrants. We are absolutely determined on this issue. Greece can’t take it anymore.”
Critics said the planned wall would be viewed as a symbol of widespread opposition, led by France, Germany and Greece, to Turkish EU membership and an emblem of a new Christian-Muslim divide between West and East.
”It is easy to imagine how a permanent structure would quickly symbolise the anti-Turkish camp or give the impression of a fortress Christian Europe that wants to keep Muslims out,” said a European diplomat.
“Putting up fences would not be helpful at a time when it is more important to build bridges.”America’s wall, built at a cost of £1.6 billion over the past five years is a high-technology barrier backed-up by CCTV cameras, radar surveillance, armed patrols and predator drones.
The first stage unveiled yesterday was a proposed a 10-foot high, eight mile long trial wall by a weak entry point on the Turkish border, near the Evros river and the town of Orestidada, that was overwhelmed by immigrants last October.
Arrests of illegal immigrants entering Greece from Turkey increased five-fold, to 31,219, in the first nine months of 2010, the only EU land border to show a rise.
Frontex, the EU’s border agency, has estimated that the Greek-Turkey border is responsible for up to 90 per cent of illegal immigration, mainly from Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Two weeks ago, the European Commission said it will extend, until March, the deployment of 175 armed EU border guards and criticised Greece for conditions in its detention centres, described as “inhuman” and “degrading” by the UN late last year.
”These measures could just be short-term when Greece, in particular, needs to reform in order to better manage their borders,” said a Commission official.
Turkish foreign ministry officials have reacted angrily to the suggestion that illegal immigration is caused by Turkey.
”We are actively fighting against such attempts. Each year thousands of people are caught in Turkey’s territories before passing the border to Greece.
This is an international issue and needs international action,” said an official.
