by Theodora
Matziropoulou
Friday, 14th of
December, early morning. With daylight, one more tragedy was revealed in the
Aegean Sea. The trip of 28 irregular immigrants attempting to pass from Turkey
to Lesvos Island ended in dramatic way because of bad weather. Midway, due to
overload and due to strong winds, the boat overturned and disappeared into the
icy waters. Dream destination: Europe.A 20-year-old man was found alive in
hypothermic shock state and he is hospitalized. According to the survivor, all
of them had paid $ 2000 each for their transportation from Turkey toGreece.
21people found dead by the Coast Guard, which since that afternoon continues
search the sea area in cooperation with forces of FRONTEX. 6 people are
missing. Because of the cold and inclement weather cannot have survived some.
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| Theodora Matziropoulou |
The fence extends
along the greek-turkish land border, from Kastania outpost to the Evros river
(natural border between Greece and Turkey). The total length of the
four-meters-high barrier is 10,365 meters and is considered insurmountable
without mechanical means. Implementation of the project delayed due to
difficult weather conditions in the area during winter months and due to
finalization of the alignment, which eventually finished on May 3rd. The project began to run on May 5th with
original budget of 5,500,000 euros. Finally cost 3,160,000 euros and ended on
December 15th. 20,700 meters of barbed wire, 140,000 meters concertina wire and
210,000 meters of wire (selvage) were used for the construction of the “wall”.
The Wall divided not
only a city but also the whole world in two parts, in two worlds: Western world
and Eastern world. Europe tried hard to tear down the Wall and still tries in
the case of Cyprus, where the Green Line (United Nations buffer and
demilitarized zone) divides the island in Northern and South part. Having in mind
that for Europe the era of walls was over more than two decades ago, the main
question raises is if the fence will stop the migration flows. The answer is:
not really. Such measures can increase exploitation and abuse. Traffickers
change the routes and the entry points to the country. If you reduce the flow
from the terrestrial part of Evros, where the fence is, migration flows will
continue coming from the river; or from the sea.
One other aspect
(mentioned by Secretary-General of United Nations Ban Ki-moon) is that such
measures reinforce the impression that immigrants are partly responsible for
the consequences of the crisis, fueling xenophobia and xenophobic attitudes.
Such attitudes are quite “popular” in Greece the last 9 months after the unexpected
entry of Golden Dawn (far-right party) in Greek parliament during last
elections.
It is estimated that
2% of the world’s population, around 150 million people, live outside of their
homeland. December 18th is declared by United Nations as International Migrants
Day, in an effort to strengthen the UN’s campaign to protect immigrants. On
this date in 1990 “International Convention for the Protection of the Rights of
All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families” was adopted by the General
Assembly of the United Nations.
However, this fence
gains importance if we take into consideration the fact that this is an
external border of European Union. How proud are we about the fact that our
external terrestrial border is a 10,000 km fence made by thousands meters of
barbed wire in order to protect fortress Europe from “the others”, the
outcomers? How humanistic finally fortress Europe is when it comes to human
beings born outside its internal borders?
Posted on December
19, 2012
http://www.futurelabeurope.eu/blog/death-trips-dream-destination-europe/