Guarding the borders Euro will be at the center of their next meeting Government National Security Council (GNSC), tomorrow Tuesday at 16:30 at Megaros Maximos. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will chair the meeting.

fence extension

Last week, Immigration and Asylum Minister Notis Mitarakis confirmed the government’s intention to extend the Evros fence by 80 kilometers. He pointed out that Greece would not become an “open vineyard” and insisted that “Turkey is not a country at war”. With this rejection, the minister defended his repeated position that immigrants arriving from Turkey could be returned to it.

A corresponding request has already been submitted to the European Union for the use of community funds for a specific project, but the European Commission does not seem to have granted the request. An important deterrent is the fact that in the event that Greece receives funding to expand the existing fence, similar requests will be expressed by other Member States who actually want to build much longer structures, which require funds, many times over. However, the government stressed that it is ready to continue the expansion project even without EU financial assistance, using national funds.

The extension of the fence “as many kilometers as we can” was repeatedly mentioned by Minister of Civil Protection Takis Theodorikakos, whose responsibilities also include designing the fence. However, representatives of the local government of the region report that the border along Evros stretches for a total of 180 kilometers, but the extension of the fence is difficult or even impossible due to the river and its alluvium. The existing fence on Evros today has a total area of ​​38 kilometers, of which 27 kilometers were built a year and a half ago. At the same time, the contractor also began strengthening the fence by adding 5 meters of barbed wire along the entire length of 12.5 kilometers (this section was built by the government of Samara and stretches along the land border from Castañes to Nea). Vyssa), instead of 3.5 m, which were earlier.

The Minister of Immigration defended the position that migrants arriving from Turkey could be re-admitted to it. Regarding the whereabouts of the 38 migrants on the island of Evros, Mr. Mitarakis, speaking to SKAI on Friday, stressed that this is not Greek territory. Both the Army Geographical Service and the Land Registry clearly stated that the footprint left by the immigrants was outside Greek territory.