Greece fortifies border to block refugees from Turkish-Syrian earthquakes

Greece has reinforced border controls along its land and sea frontier with Turkey amid expectations of a new wave of arrivals by people displaced in the earthquakes that have devastated south-east Turkey and northern Syria.

Hundreds of extra border guards began patrolling the Greek-Turkish land frontier in the Evros region at the weekend as contingency measures were stepped up to stave off the expected flows.

“The mass movement of millions of people is not a solution,” said Greece’s migration minister, Notis Mitarachi, emphasising the need for emergency aid to be sent to Turkey and Syria “before this happens”.

It is anticipated that some of the people made homeless by the 6 February earthquakes – a disaster that has left more than 50,000 dead – will start heading towards Europe in the spring if humanitarian assistance does not arrive.

The patrols were dispatched as Mitarachi called for the enhanced protection of the continent’s frontiers with increased surveillance infrastructure and additional fences.

At a European conference on border management held outside Athens on Friday, he vowed that the enlargement of a controversial wall along the land border would go ahead irrespective of whether it is financed by the EU. The 22 mile-long, 5 metre-high barrier is due to double in size by the end of the year.

“The fence will be extended along the entire length of the [Evros] river so that we can protect the European continent from illegal flows,” he said.

Indicative of the bloc’s hardening stance towards refugees, the centre-right government has said it will also procure scores of new coastguard vessels to patrol Aegean Sea islands facing the Turkish coast.

The prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, whose four-year term ends in July, has been noticeably tougher on the issue of migration than his leftist predecessor, Alexis Tsipras. The government’s approach, which has reportedly included forcible evictions or pushbacks of refugees in border areas, has engendered widespread criticism, not least from the EU. Rejecting the allegations, the administration has described its policies as “strict but fair”.

With the EU border agency, Frontex, also fortifying patrols in the Aegean, ever greater numbers of refugees are risking life and limb by circumventing the Greek isles to travel in vastly overcrowded boats from Turkey to Italy.

The 59 refugees, including a newborn baby, found dead on Sunday after their vessel ran aground in rough seas off Calabria had started their journey from the Turkish coast.

Brussels has allocated more money to Greece to handle migration than to any other EU member state, citing its frontline role. Hugely expensive “closed controlled” holding facilities have replaced squalid camps on Samos, Leros and Kos, and similar centres for asylum seekers are expected to open in Lesbos and Chios this year. The installations have been likened by human rights groups to prisons.

Calls for tougher action have increased since the migration crisis of 2015 when nearly 1 million Syrians fleeing civil war were granted asylum in Europe.

Ministers representing the 15 member states attending last week’s conference in Athens called not only for agreements to be struck with third-party countries to accept refugees but for further financial support “for all types of border protection infrastructure”.

“It is at this point crucial for Europe to decide what type of migration policy we want, and more specifically what type of border management we want,” Mitarachi told his counterparts, before making passing reference to NGOs allegedly “assisting” border crossings.

“Clearly we need to offer asylum to people in need of protection but in an orderly way … Today, unfortunately, instead of us being proactive in asylum management, it is people-smugglers who sell places in our societies – not to those most in need but to those who pay the fees.”