Connect with us

Afghanistan

Greece completes border wall extension to deter potential Afghan migrants

SHARE:

Published

5 years ago

on

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Greece said on Friday (20 August) it had completed a 40 kilometre fence on its border with Turkey and a new surveillance system was in place to stop possible asylum seekers from trying to reach Europe following the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan, write Karolina Tagaris in Athens, George Georgiopoulos in Athens and Ece Toksabay in Ankara.

Events in Afghanistan have fuelled fears in the European Union of a repeat of the 2015 refugee crisis, when nearly a million people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and beyond crossed to Greece from Turkey before travelling north to wealthier states.

Greece was on the frontline of that crisis and has said its border forces are on alert to make sure it does not become Europe's gateway again. Read more.

The Afghanistan crisis had created "possibilities for migrant flows," Citizens' Protection Minister Michalis Chrisochoidis said after visiting the region of Evros on Friday with the defence minister and the head of the armed forces.

"We cannot wait, passively, for the possible impact," Chrisochoidis told reporters. "Our borders will remain safe and inviolable."

View of a border fence between Greece and Turkey, in Alexandroupolis, Greece, August 10, 2021. REUTERS/Alexandros Avramidis/File Photo
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan addresses the members of the parliament of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, a breakway state recognized only by Turkey, in northern Nicosia, Cyprus July 19, 2021. Murat Cetinmuhurdar/Presidential Press Office/Handout via REUTERS

Chrisochoidis said the extension to the existing 12.5-kilometre fence had been completed in recent days, as well as a hi-tech, automated electronic monitoring system.

Migrant arrivals to Greece, either by land or by sea, have overall slowed to a trickle since 2016, when the EU agreed a deal with Turkey to stem the flows in exchange for financial support.

Advertisement

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (pictured) and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan discussed Afghanistan on the phone on Friday (20 August), with Erdogan saying Afghanistan and Iran - a key route for Afghans into Turkey - should be supported or a new migration wave was "inevitable," a statement from his office said.

Greece and Turkey, NATO allies and historic rivals, have long been at odds over migrant issues and competing territorial claims in the eastern Mediterranean.

Greece has hardened its migration policy in recent months by fencing off its migrant camps and launching EU-wide tenders to build two closed-type facilities on the islands of Samos and Lesbos, close to Turkey.

It has in the recent past stopped people entering its waters, though it denies widely reported allegations of so-called "pushbacks."

Share this article:

Share this:
Related Topics:
EU Reporter publishes articles from a variety of outside sources which express a wide range of viewpoints. The positions taken in these articles are not necessarily those of EU Reporter. Please see EU Reporter’s full Terms and Conditions of publication for more information EU Reporter embraces artificial intelligence as a tool to enhance journalistic quality, efficiency, and accessibility, while maintaining strict human editorial oversight, ethical standards, and transparency in all AI-assisted content. Please see EU Reporter’s full A.I. Policy for more information.
Advertisement

Trending