Greece: the government wants to build a floating anti-migrant wall at sea
Environment — di Andrea Barolini
Greece's conservative government has put forward a project aimed at installing a floating anti-migrant barrier in the Aegean Sea.
Greece: the government wants to build a floating anti-migrant wall at sea
Greece's conservative government has put forward a project aimed at installing a floating anti-migrant barrier in the Aegean Sea.
A wall three kilometres long to "defend" against migrants. Because "all means are useful to protect our borders and those of Europe." Greece's government announced with these words its intention to build a barrier — not on its own territory, along the lines of what happens, for example, between the United States and Mexico. No: the plan is to build a floating wall, at sea.
As refugees continue fleeing conflict, nearly 20K migrants are crammed into camps on Lesbos. In response, Greece recently proposed a plan for a "floating wall" to deter migrants—a plan likely to fail, writes Jacqueline Bhabha and Vasileia Digidiki. hvrd.me/9Rmh30qgCxa
On the Greek islands, 41,000 asylum seekers in facilities with 6,200 places
The initiative was announced by the government in Athens at the end of January. It confirms the radical change in approach by the Greek executive on the issue of migration flows, following the years of the left-wing government of Alexis Tsipras.
The situation on the islands of the Aegean Sea is indeed unsustainable: according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, there are more than 41,000 asylum seekers on Lesbos, Samos, Chios, Kos and Leros — concentrated in camps that should accommodate a maximum of 6,200 people. "In the Moria centre alone, on Lesbos, last summer there were no more than 7,000 people. Today there are over 20,000. In increasingly precarious sanitary conditions, with conflicts multiplying both among migrants and with the local population," Epaminondas Farmakis explained to the newspaper Le Monde, director of the non-governmental organisation HumanRights360.
Half a million euros for the anti-migrant wall
For humanitarian organisations, however, the solution is to address the problem at a European level. Not to push back desperate women, men and children. Instead, the Greek government wants to turn its islands into fortresses. To do so, it has planned to spend half a million euros, covering design, installation and maintenance of the wall.
#Grèce Pour restreindre l’arrivée de migrants depuis la Turquie, le gouvernement grec vient de lancer un appel d’offres pour la construction, en pleine mer Égée, d’un «système de protection flottant». Par @ElisaPerrigueur #Migrants bit.ly/2vl7cjC
"The majority of refugees arriving on the Greek islands come from war zones and cannot be turned back, under the Geneva Convention," Farmakis warned. But the project is also failing to enthuse local politicians: the governor of the northern Aegean region described the idea as "ridiculous. They want to build a three-kilometre floating wall when the eastern coast of Lesbos is 40 kilometres long!".
Opposition party Syriza: "A gift to builders, not a solution"
The conservative prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis nevertheless remains convinced of the need to crack down. Since the start of his mandate in July 2019, he has already deployed 400 additional naval patrols in the stretch of sea separating the European nation from Turkey. He has also had a new law on the right to asylum passed, which makes it possible to extend the duration of detention for asylum seekers and to speed up repatriations.
Choices that, according to former prime minister Tsipras's party, Syriza, are worthy of the far right: "The floating wall will be nothing more than a gift to the companies that build it, not a solution."