Greece is already grappling with an immigration crisis that has seen more than 128,000 illegals sneak into the country in
2010, the highest influx recorded yet by any European Union member state.
Now, fears that the escalating crisis in Egypt could uncork a fresh wave of illegal immigrants coming into Europe has authorities in Greece concerned and officials scrambling to find ways to shield the country's porous frontiers.
"We have not noted any change in the patterns since the crisis [in Egypt]," Public Order Minister Christos Papoutsis said. "But that," he added after urgent talks with police and intelligence officials, "may change suddenly."
He said authorities had been ordered to intensify sea and land patrols to thwart illegal migrants, many of whom enter through neighboring Turkey. Other measures, though, are also on the charts.
"There is nothing formal yet, but we are considering several options," Greek police spokesman Athanassios Kokkalakis told AOL News. "Asking Frontex to enhance and extend its sea patrols is an option being discussed."
He did not elaborate.
In November, Frontex, the EU's border protection agency, deployed a 200-member force along the Greek-Turkish border area to help fend off illegal immigration. Although the mission was due to come to a close in January, Greece requested the force's extension until March 3.
The agency has said in a statement that it would "provide operation support to Greece after the end of the deployment foreseen for March 11, through Operation Poseidon."
Greece, also grappling with a devastating debt and deficit crisis, has long accused its age-old foe, Turkey, of failing to block migrants from washing up on Greece's shores and floundering in leaky boats in the Aegean Sea. It has also accused the government in Ankara of taking back just a fraction of the illegal migrants who are picked up on the Greek side and pushed back for return according to a 2002 re-entry agreement.
Situated at the crossroads of three continents, Greece has had a long history of immigration. But what's happening now is much bigger and more complicated. What's more, despite Europe's slide into recession, it still offers better opportunities than the places from which the illegal immigrants flee.
Earlier this month, 237 destitute illegal refugees preferred to storm an Athens university and kick off a hunger strike rather than face deportation to their homelands, mainly Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. The immigrants -- all young men -- were relocated to a different building, but they continue their strike. Nine Afghanis have taken to similar action in central Athens, stitching their mouths in protest of the government's refusal to legalize them.
Immigration experts estimate that more than 460,000 immigrants are residing in the country illegally. Only a tiny proportion of them -- by some accounts less than 1 percent -- are granted political asylum.
With 90 percent of all illegal entries to the European Union entering in Greece, Athens has been considering a raft of controversial measures, including a soaring fence along almost eight miles of its northern frontiers, to crack down on illegal immigration.
Other measures being reviewed include floating detention centers to accommodate overflow from overcrowded and decrepit reception centers that international organizations had labeled as "inhumane."
Last week, Denmark, Finland and Norway stopped deporting illegal immigrants back to Greece because of degrading treatment there.
What's more, Doctors Without Borders, a Nobel Prize-winning non-governmental organization that has been minding the state of immigrants in the detention centers in northern Greece said that "men, women, children, pregnant women and unaccompanied minors were experiencing a cruel and inhumane reality that has serious implications for the physical and mental health of the migrants," according to a recent statement.
by Anthee Carasavva
source: AOL
