The whole of Evros is “sealed” with a 215 km fence, after Turkey’s continued attempt to “fill” Greece with immigrants.
Evros: Fence everywhere! This is the “slogan” that prevails in the Government after the meeting held recently by the Prime Minister, on the subject of shielding Greece against Turkey, which is constantly trying to “push” illegal immigrants into our country.
The incident with the abandonment of 38 migrants on an island in the river Evros by Turkey and the cooperation with NGOs, in order to issue a temporary order for Greece to intervene and collect them, while they, based on the geographical coordinates, were within Turkish territory.
The Government is afraid of the proliferation of such incidents, which is precisely why it is taking its measures. As “protothema” reports, the Greek officials have identified the main passages of illegal immigrants.
More specifically, these are mainly located between Mandra and Soufli, in the north near Didymoteicho and in the south in Tychero and Feres.
In the first, the border line is extremely close to the national road, where the migrants are informed by the traffickers what time and in what car another member of the ring will come to pick them up. This first passage, as reported by competent sources, is for this reason also the “most popular” these days, with the competent police and border guards observing increased mobility.
Evros: The Fence is extended to 215 km – Priority 80 km
Somehow, the decision of KYSEA to extend the fence along the border line was a one-way street. A competent source tells “THEMA” that the map will be extended to the 215 kilometers of the border, while today it is just over 40 kilometers long.
Priority will be given to the 80 km extension, which, as a high-ranking source at the Immigration Ministry estimates, could be completed within a year.
It remains to be seen, based on operational needs, at which points of the border line the expansion will take place in the coming months, as this is also determined by which are the “popular” passages for traffickers.
Soon, however, the Ministry of Immigration and Asylum will announce a general tender for the project, as is done in other public projects, with competent sources estimating that its completion can be done in about three years.
As for the financing of the expansion, if necessary, only national resources will be mobilized, as the money is available. However, our country will also request European funding. Of course, with the current data, the approval of such an amount seems difficult, as the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, as well as the competent Commissioner for Migration, Ylva Johansson, do not want to support the choice of a fence for political reasons, while, at the same time, in the Commission they estimate that, if the Greek project is financed, then a precedent will be created, on which other countries will be able to step for fences of much greater scope than ours.
More immediately, both the upgrading and strengthening of the logistical infrastructure at the border are underway, e.g. with new thermal cameras, while, at the same time, the process for the appointment of 250 new border guards in Evros, for whom a notice has been issued for months, is also underway.
However, the problem of illegal immigration for Greece from the land borders does not stop at the Evros fence. And this as immigrants, as well as traffickers, seeing the strengthening of our country in the Evros, try to find other passages in their attempt to reach countries in central and northern Europe.
It is typical that in the last few days there has been an alarming concentration of migrants in Idomeni and there is a fear of creating situations like in 2015 when thousands of migrants had gathered there, wanting to then pass to Skopje to move towards the “heart” of Europe.
