Greece to extend fence along entire Turkish border

ATHENS

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis shas that Athens will expand its border fence along the Meriç River, also knowns as Evros, to span the full length of the country’s land frontier with Türkiye, reinforcing what he described as a long-term strategy to secure Greece’s borders.

Speaking during a visit to the flood-hit Evros region and later at his New Democracy party’s pre-congress gathering in Alexandroupoli, Mitsotakis reiterated the government’s commitment to completing the barrier.

“The fence will cover the whole of Evros, so that we are permanently secure against any threat,” he said, calling the expansion a strategic choice.

The premier added that additional border guards and surveillance cameras would be deployed to the area, though he did not specify a timeline.

The land border was the scene of heightened tensions in 2020, when tens of thousands of migrants gathered on the Turkish side in an attempt to cross into Greece.

Citing the events of 2019, Mitsotakis said Greece had chosen at the time to shield its borders from what he called a “hybrid threat” originating from Türkiye, using available intelligence to avert what he described as potentially dramatic consequences for both Greece and Europe.

“We made the decision to build a fence. Is Europe not giving us money? We will build it ourselves. And we built it and we will continue it,” he said.

According to United Nations data, 1,100 of the 3,090 people who have entered Greece irregularly so far this year crossed via the Evros land border. In 2023, roughly 7,000 of the 41,700 migrants who reached Greece entered through the same region.

Ankara and international human rights organizations have repeatedly accused Greece of carrying out illegal pushbacks of asylum-seekers, arguing that such practices breach international law and humanitarian principles by putting vulnerable individuals, including women and children, at risk.

In recent years, hundreds of thousands of migrants have undertaken dangerous crossings of the Aegean Sea in hopes of reaching northern and western Europe. Many have died when overcrowded or unseaworthy boats sank or capsized during the journey.