In 2012, the Greek government in response to pressure from the EU, sealed off its border with Turkey. Greece applied the Melilla (Spain) model and built a 10.5-kilometer border fence at the Evros River, deployed 1,800 additional police officers and opened new internment camps for migrants.
A few kilometers to the north, Bulgaria, with EU support, completed a 30-kilometer metal fence along a section of the border.
Since its construction the fence, that cost more than 5 million euros, has proved impregnable but has also shift migration flow to the Aegean Sea.
With thousands of refugees arriving daily on the eastern Aegean islands the Greek government is facing increasing pressure to take down the fence in order to stop refugees from making the deadly journey to Europe via the Aegean Sea.
However the government does not seem very willing to do so.
Citizen Protection Deputy Minister Nikos Toskas said that there were no prerequisites to take down the fence at the moment, but he refuted the argument that the fence has shift migration to the islands.
“The Greek fence should not be compared to the “inhumane” fences in Central Europe. Such a comparison would be “unfair”, the minister said.
However when the fence was built the European Commission had said at that time that it “would not effectively discourage immigrants or smugglers who would simply seek alternative routes into the European Union”.
Minister for Migration policy, Yannis Mouzalas, said that the fence cannot be brought down for technical reasons, without giving more details.
“We want to, but we cannot [tear down the fence] due to technical reasons,” he was quoted saying.
Christiana Kalogirou, Governor of the North Aegean region said that the EU should put pressure on Turkey to take more measures against smugglers and urged the EU to unlock the funds allocated to the refugee crisis.
“We are trying to do our best […] Lesvos island receives 5,000-6,000 people every day,” she said.