The
fence shall be 4 meters high, topped with razor wire and coupled with
a network of fixed night-vision cameras providing real-time video to
a new command centre. Should we wish to have an idea of what this
will look like, we just have to look to Melilla, Spanish border with
Morocco in the African continent: the description sounds familiar
(and a picture can be found
here:http://www.flickr.com/photos/clarecita1/2057427198/in/set-72157603275100017).
The
Evros region is unluckily quite well known for being the crossing
point into the EU for thousands of asylum seekers namely from
Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh coming via Turkey. The
Greek-Turkish border is for the most part a 180-kilometre-long river
(called Evros in Greek and Meric in
Turkish) patrolled in part by Frontex, the controversial EU borders’
control agency. Near the city of Orestiada, the river loops east and
runs for about 12 kilometres on the Turkish side, with the land
border between the two countries located in this loop. The new fence,
which Turkey’s government has not opposed (and is a rare historical
example of cooperation between the two Governments), will block
exactly that short stretch of dry land between the two countries.
A minor detail is that
the construction of this fence will cost 3 to 5 millions euros: an
important amount for every country, an absurd amount for a country
like Greece in a time when it’s suffering a deep financial crisis
that might even lead it to default. But Greek Government had found a
solution: the EU could pay for it!
Greek government lodged a
request but happily enough the spokesman for EU Home Affairs
commissioner Cecilia Malstroem, said that ”the Commission has
decided not to follow up on the request because it considers it
pointless.” Should this not be clear enough, he added that fences
and walls are ”short-term measures”.
I guess this declaration
has quite upset Minister Papoustis, who is besides a former European
commissioner. I couldn’t welcome it more. A new wall is an horrible
symbol (hadn’t we welcomed so much the fall of another wall?), puts
at serious risk thousands of lives (Melilla is again to be looked
at), prevents asylum seekers from finding a way out (are we not
feeling at least a little bit ashamed for this?) and furthermore is
even not effective: haven’t we learnt that when we close a path
another one is to be open some kilometres away?
Indeed, the perilous
journey across the Mediterranean Sea, which killed almost 1,500
people last year, makes the Greek-Turkish crossing a more attractive
alternative. And the Mediterranean way had become attractive after
Frontex had blocked the Canary islands’ way. The history of
migration routes is just this: passing from one route to the other,
changing strategies to counter Governments interventions.
Only a silly person could
think that such an intervention will stop irregular border crossing:
it will just move it some miles away. It will just force people to
yet more dangerous routes. Hundreds of Afghani are already coming to
Italy by boat in order to avoid transit through Greece. Families
fleeing violence in Afghanistan and Syria might try to pass through
the western Balkans or Ukraine. Press reported that three men entered
Greece last Monday at the point where the fence is to be built; they
said they had fled the violence in Syria and one of the three said
that they had been walking for seven days and that he hoped to reach
an uncle in Hungary.
As Human Rights Watch
correctly said, the real problem is not the flow of people but the
fact that Greece does not have the capacity to cope with EU asylum
rules. And the so-called Dublin regulation (see my post of last
month) makes it even worse.
The parliamentary group
of the European United Left is in favour of helping Greece cooping
with its gaps in the asylum system, but not of helping them build yet
another shame in migration’s management history. We are in favour
of a deep reform of the Dublin system, that would relief both asylum
seekers and border’s countries. And we have immediately proposed a
delegation of the European parliament to Evros that will hopefully
help the Greek government to change its mind.
