Greece suggested the European Union for extra assist with migration on Saturday, as Athens expands its sprawling border fence with Turkey.
Speaking to EU ambassadors, plus the ones from the United Kingdom and Switzerland, Citizens’ Protection Minister Takis Theodorikakos known as for added monetary and logistical make stronger, mentioning Greece’s border used to be additionally the bloc’s exterior border.
Greece avoided round 260,000 migrants from getting into illegally in 2022 and arrested 1,500 traffickers, an professional stated on Saturday.
Athens is extensively accused of expelling folks once they succeed in Greek soil in a tradition referred to as pushbacks. They are unlawful beneath global legislation — combating refugees from looking for coverage — and regularly contain top levels of violence and drive.
“The task [of protecting the border] needs the support … of European public opinion, the European Union itself and its constituent members individually,” Theodorikakos stated. “It is our steadfast position that member states of first reception cannot be (the migrants’) only European destinations.
“There must be solidarity among member-states and a fair sharing of duties…close coordination is a must,” he added.
Greek officers have lengthy complained that migration control has been outsourced onto their nation by way of richer European states, with maximum migrants short of to visit UK, France and Germany, however avoided from doing so.
“Our priority is to protect the human life and dignity endangered by the criminal trafficking networks … even though we are no longer an EU member, we are closely cooperating,” stated UK Ambassador Matthew Lodge.
Greece has erected a five-metre metal border wall, isolating it from Turkey around the Evros River.
It recently snakes greater than 27 kilometres, although Athens is increasing the wall by way of an additional 35 kilometres, with without equal function of extending it to hide lots of the 192-kilometre frontier.
Greece accuses Turkey of weaponising migrants by way of encouraging them to move the border to force Athens and Brussels.
Ankara, house to five million migrants, in go back accuses Greece of violent pushbacks that endanger the lives of migrants.
The EU’s border coverage company, Frontex, will upload every other 400 border guards in Greece — 250 of them in February — to the prevailing 1,800-member drive, Theodorikakos stated.
