Greece pulls a Trump and erects massive anti-migrant wall
Greece has erected a 40km wall on its border with Turkey amid growing concern over a surge of migrants from Afghanistan.
Though former US President Donald Trump never got the wall he wanted on the Mexico border, the Greek Government has taken a page out of his playbook in response to fears sparked by the Taliban’s return to power.
“We cannot wait, passively, for the possible impact,” said Greece’s Citizens’ Protection Minister Michalis Chrisochoidis on a visit to Evros on Friday.
Report: Government mulling border wall extension. #Greece #Afghanishtan
(Photo from May visit) https://t.co/fe0uSaTXNI pic.twitter.com/2wiBzzl81S— Derek Gatopoulos (@dgatopoulos) August 19, 2021
“We cannot wait, passively, for the possible impact,” he said, adding “our borders will remain inviolable.”
Greece has hardened its migration policy in recent months through fencing off its migrant camps and launching EU-wide tenders to build two closed-type facilities on the islands of Samos and Lesbos.
In a telephone conversation with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said an increase in people fleeing Afghanistan could pose “a serious challenge for everyone”.
Greece says it has completed construction of a border wall extension to deter asylum seekers from entering after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan.
The nearly 25-mile fence borders Turkey, where nearly a million refugees crossed into Greece after fleeing war in 2015. pic.twitter.com/f2SyYSNZV9
— AJ+ (@ajplus) August 20, 2021
Scenes at Kabul airport were chaotic this week as thousands of Afghans tried to flee the Taliban after insurgents took control of Kabul on Sunday.
Chrisochoidis said the escalating situation has created new “possibilities for migrant flows” into Europe.
The new border move has arguably been fuelled through fears of a repeat of the 2015 refugee crisis when nearly a million people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East crossed to Greece via Turkey.
Related links:
- Joe Biden criticised for declaring Kabul chaos was inevitable in interview
- First Afghans land in UK after pledge to take in 20,000 refugees
- Brave Afghan women stand up to Taliban in street protests
