[EN] THROUGH THE WIRE
Nick Malkoutzis
If building a 12.5-kilometer barbed wire fence along a
section of the Greek-Turkish border is the answer, then I’m really not sure
what the question is. It certainly can’t be “What will keep undocumented
migrants from entering Greece?”
There is no way it’s “What will solve Greece’s immigration problem?” And
it’s highly unlikely that it’s “What will deal a blow to the multimillion-euro
trafficking rings that smuggle people across the border?” However, if the
question is “What’s the best way of making it look like we’re doing something
to tackle illegal immigration while doing very little at all?” or “How can we
shift the public debate so people are talking about immigrants rather than the
economy or our own failings?” then perhaps the government has hit upon a
fantastic solution.
The recent announcement by Citizens’ Protection Minister
Christos Papoutsis that the government plans to erect the fence, equipped with
thermal cameras, between the villages of Nea Vyssa and Kastianes in Evros,
northeastern Greece,
bears all the hallmarks of a populist move designed to pander to the masses and
obfuscate the real issue. It’s a piece of vacuous policymaking that will play
well on the TV news but will do nothing to alleviate the hardship of thousands
of migrants in Athens, Patra and other parts of the country, nor instill any
long-term confidence in Greeks who are concerned by the inability of successive
governments to muster a coherent immigration policy.
The fence idea is a waste of time because it simply won’t
work, on any level. First of all, it won’t stop or even stem the steady flow of
exasperated people from Pakistan,
Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine,
north Africa and various other parts of the world from trying to reach Europe either to escape persecution or death or in the
hope of finding work and getting a foothold on a viable future. Papoutsis’s
concept overlooks the fact that those who make this often perilous journey
cover thousands of kilometers in difficult conditions, over mountains, along
valleys and across rivers and seas. And then, when they reach Greece, it gets
even more treacherous. According to the UNHCR, some 50 immigrants drowned last
year while trying to cross the Evros
River. The International
Campaign to Ban Land Mines says that more than 80 migrants have died and over
70 have been injured while attempting to cross through minefields in Evros
since 1994. So some latticed wire is hardly going to deter them, especially
when they have paid their life savings (a few thousand euros) to get as far as
the Greek border.
Greece is not the first country to consider the folly of trying to block access
to illegal immigrants by putting physical barriers in their way. Perhaps the
best-known recent example of a similar venture is the construction in 2005 of a
fence on the US-Mexico border in Arizona.
Spanning almost 1,000
kilometers and constructed at a cost of more than $2
billion, the fence appears to have had only a marginal impact on illegal
immigration. Earlier this month, documentary maker Roy Germano highlighted the
barrier’s futility by filming two teenage girls climbing it in 18 seconds. It’s
estimated that it would cost $6.5 billion over 20 years to maintain this
monument to nonsense. Last year, the US
ditched plans to construct a virtual fence consisting of cameras, radar and
sensors, but no wire, across its border with Mexico. After spending $1.4 billion
working on it for three years, the contractor, Boeing, admitted that the
virtual fence only “sort of” worked.
This spectacular failure on the other side of the Atlantic makes the Greek government’s choice even more
galling. Greece will never be able to prevent illegal immigration on its own:
As long as Turkey turns a blind eye to the trafficking rings operating on its
territory and the European Union does not treat people smuggling as a breach of
its own borders rather than just Greece’s, then very little progress will be
made. Apart from a string of ministers sounding off to the local press in an
attempt to appear tough, Greece
has done little to draw Europe’s attention to
the issue. The first real breakthrough was convincing late last year the EU’s
border agency, Frontex, to send a clutch of its officers to help with patrols
in Evros.
The opportunity for Greece to gain know-how and for EU
representatives to see first-hand what is turning into a humanitarian crisis is
priceless. Building trust has always been much more effective than building
walls or fences. However, the exercise has also exposed Greece’s
failings. Germany,
for instance, has expressed concern about the way illegal immigrants are
treated and has warned its 26-man contingent of officers that it would be
illegal for them to participate in some of the actions carried out by their
Greek counterparts. Perhaps the government should be concentrating its efforts
on creating a fair and competent immigration process if it wants to force the
EU into action. As long as Greece
fails to get its act together, other Europeans can point the finger of blame at
the perennially hapless Greeks. But if Athens can show it’s able to behave
humanely and set up an efficient process for dealing with undocumented migrants
and asylum applications, then the onus would be on its partners to assume their
responsibilities, which are considerable given that the vast majority of the
thousands of people who cross the Evros border clandestinely each month do so
because they want to end up in another EU country, not Greece.
Greece will not get anywhere with public relations stunts
like building fences if it cannot untangle its own bureaucracy and overcome its
own incompetence. It will not convince anyone that it wants to get tough on
illegal immigration when it allows people smugglers to operate in various parts
of Greece
with apparent impunity. It will fail to earn any sympathy if it cannot take the
initiative in dealing with a problem whose impact is being felt in
neighborhoods of Athens, Patra and Thessaloniki, not in Brussels,
Berlin or Paris.
Papoutsis’s barrier might stop a few thousand would-be
migrants each year but Greece
currently has a backlog of 47,000 asylum applications. These are people who
have not only crossed into the country but are here, living and, if they are
lucky, working but doing so while in an emotional limbo, not knowing where
their future lies. It’s hypocrisy to blame other Europeans for not providing
assistance or to pin your hopes on nothing more than a jumped-up garden
structure when you have not made the slightest effort yourself until now.
The government submitted to Parliament last week a bill
foreseeing the creation of an independent asylum service to handle applications
rather than dumping them in the lap of the overburdened and undertrained police
– something that human rights groups and the UNHCR had been calling for. It’s a
travesty that PASOK should not hold this policy up as an example of how 21st-century
Greece
should respond to a 21st-century problem. Its insistence on giving
the Evros fence top billing is the sign of a government that is desperate to be
liked and which wants to tap into the growing skepticism about migrants. To do
so at a time when nationalism is on the rise and when illegal immigrants are
becoming soft and defenseless targets is politics of the lowest order. To nudge
the public debate from the dire state of the economy, what our politicians did
to lead us into this situation and what they are doing to get us out of it is
political opportunism of the worst kind. Papoutsis may like to think that his
fence will be high and mighty but it’s already clear that it’s as low and dirty
as they come.
Nick
Malkoutzis
