Samir Dathi & Marienna Pope-Weidemann report from the Greek-Turkish border and the deadly fence forcing
refugees to cross the perilous Aegean sea
December 2015
Photography by Marienna Pope-Weidemann
'The Monument for Refugees?' the bar woman frowned. 'Sorry, I do not know this
place.' Apparently none of the locals did, and it wasn’t on the town
map. We had just crossed the border from Turkey and arrived in Orestiada,
a small Greek border town founded by Turkish refugees in 1923. The
Monument for Refugees commemorates those families who left Turkey for
Greece—often under duress—as part of the population exchange between the two
countries.
Greece and Turkey are divided by the mighty Evros river, a fierce natural
barrier for those seeking to cross the border. But northeast of
Orestiada, where the Evros bends, 12.5km of that border is dry land. Since time
immemorial, this ‘gap’ in the river has provided safe passage for refugees
through Turkey into Europe.
In recent years it’s been trodden by 100,000s refugees, mostly from
Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq. They pass through in search of asylum from
countries wrecked by war, poverty and climate change. But that’s all over
now. Greece has raised the drawbridge and Orestiada has become a bastion of Fortress Europe.
The Evros fence
The fence was built by the right-wing Samaras administration in 2012. 12.5km of
13ft tall razor wire fencing complete with heat sensors now block this entry
point, and over a thousand special police officers have been deployed to guard
the Evros border. Clearly the austerity regime spares no expense when the
threat of immigration is concerned. The land on both sides is designated a
‘controlled military zone’ and when we visited we were under constant scrutiny
by our police escort and two stern-faced soldiers.
December 2015
