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The Greek Minister of Citizen Protection, Takis Theodorikakos, assured this Wednesday that in August some 25,000 migrants have attempted to enter Greece illegally from Turkey and reported that the Government will gradually expand the separation fence along the entire land border.
“Every day the Greek security forces, mainly the Greek Police and Army have an extremely difficult task, which is made even more complicated because the Turkish side is instrumentalizing in a systematic, methodical and complex way to these unfortunate people who have left their countries,” the minister said in an interview with the private network ANT1.
Theodorikakos made these statements following yesterday’s decision by the National Security Council to expand the fence that separates the land border between Greece and Turkey in response to what the government calls a “hybrid war” by Turkey.
According to the minister, a large number of people trying to cross the border they come from syria and the Turkish authorities force them to choose between returning to their country or moving towards Greece.
Currently, the evros rivernatural border between both countries, is the easiest place to break into in Greece, since, the minister stressed, over a length of tens of kilometers the water level is very low, “it does not even reach half a meter”.
“One can easily cross and reach the islets in the middle of the Evros river. They go there, declare that they are in danger and try to get the European authorities, usually the European Court of Human Rightstake steps to rescue them. These people are not in real danger, their lives are not in danger,” he said.
With this, the minister referred to the multiple cases of groups of people stranded on islets in the river registered in recent months, situations that have led the aforementioned European court to issue precautionary orders in which it requires Greece to assist migrants before the passivity of the authorities.
The last case that turned to about forty people in political arms between Greece and Turkey, was registered in mid-August and after being trapped in an area that Greece claims belongs to sovereign Turkish territory, this group was finally rescued by the Hellenic Police to the clamor of international organizations and political parties.
The Minister of Migration, Notis Mitarakis, assured that these people had been “pushed” by the Turkish authorities to cross into Greece.
During the days they were on the islet in question a 5 year old girl lost her life by a scorpion sting.
According to Thedorikakos, there is “organized interests” who abandon them to their fate and then call the Greek police to pick them up. “So I will repeat it categorically: the Greek police are not going to be a trafficker of false hope for irregular migrants,” stressed the Conservative minister.
Theodorikakis pointed out that the National Security Council decided on Tuesday to expand “little by little” the fence between the two countries along the entire border that reaches about 200 kilometers. Currently, the fence has a length of 37.5 kilometers -12 kilometers in the northern part, where the border between Greece and Turkey is only land, and about 25 kilometers in the southern part-.
The bidding procedures to carry out the project, which is in charge of the civil protection ministry, “will begin in the coming weeks, without the slightest delay,” he added. In addition, it has been decided update the technical and electronic means of surveillance.
Last May, Mitarakis had advanced plans to extend the fence by another 80 kilometersalthough so far the tasks have not started.
After Tuesday’s meeting, the Government did not specify the length of the new constructionand simply noted that they will start on the hottest spots.
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