Greece fortifies its borders to prevent refugees from the Turkish-Syrian earthquakes | Greece

Greece has strengthened its border controls along its land and sea borders with Turkey, amid expectations of a new wave of arrivals by people displaced by the earthquakes that devastated southeastern Turkey and northern Syria.

Hundreds of additional border guards began patrolling the Greek-Turkish land border in the Evros region over the weekend as emergency measures were stepped up to stave off expected influxes.

“The mass movement of millions of people is not a solution,” said Greece’s Migration Minister, Notis Mitarachi, stressing the need to send emergency aid to Turkey and Syria “before that happens.”

Some of the people made homeless by the February 6 earthquake – a disaster that left more than 50,000 dead – are expected to start heading towards Europe in the spring if no humanitarian aid arrives.

Patrols were sent out as Mitarashi called for enhanced protection of the continent’s borders with increased surveillance infrastructure and additional fences.

At a European conference on border management held outside Athens on Friday, he vowed that the expansion of a controversial wall along the land border would continue regardless of whether it was funded by the European Union. The barrier, 22 miles long and 5 meters high, is set to double in size by the end of the year.

The wall will be extended all along [Evros] So that we can protect the European continent from illegal flows.

In a sign of the bloc’s hardline stance on refugees, the centre-right government said it would also buy dozens of new coast guard vessels to patrol the Aegean islands off the Turkish coast.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, whose four-year term ends in July, has been noticeably tougher on the immigration issue than his leftist predecessor Alexis Tsipras. The government’s approach, which has reportedly included forced evictions or pushbacks of refugees in border areas, has drawn widespread criticism, not least from the European Union. The administration, which has dismissed the allegations, described its policies as “tough but fair”.

With the European border agency, Frontex, also patrolling the Aegean Sea fortifications, growing numbers of refugees are risking life and limb by circumventing the Greek islands to travel in overcrowded boats from Turkey to Italy.

Fifty-nine refugees, including a baby, were found dead on Sunday after their ship ran aground in rough seas off Calabria and began their journey from the Turkish coast.

Brussels has allocated more money to Greece to deal with migration than any other EU member state, citing its frontline role. Expensive “closed, controlled” detention facilities have replaced squalid camps on Samos, Leros and Kos, and similar centers for asylum seekers are expected to open on Lesbos and Chios this year. Human rights groups have likened the facilities to prisons.

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Calls for tougher action have grown since the migration crisis of 2015, when nearly a million Syrians fleeing civil war were granted asylum in Europe.

Ministers representing the 15 member states who attended last week’s conference in Athens called for not only agreements with third-party countries to accept refugees, but more financial support for “all kinds of border protection infrastructure.”

“At this point, it is crucial for Europe to decide what kind of immigration policy we want, and more specifically what kind of border management we want,” Mitarashi told his counterparts, before making a passing reference to NGOs allegedly “helping” border crossings.

“It is clear that we need to offer asylum to people in need of protection but in an orderly way… Today, unfortunately, rather than being proactive in managing asylum, it is people smugglers who sell places in our communities – not to those who need it most but to whoever pays.” Fees.

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