NEWS

Greece completes anti-migrant fence at Turkish border

Greece has completed a 10.5 km fence at its border with Turkey to prevent a wave of unregistered immigrants from flowing into the country, according to reports.

Construction of the 4-meter-tall, barbed-wire fence lasted almost year. Works cost more than 3 million euros, reports said.

Most of Greece’s 125-mile border with Turkey, a very popular entry point among Europe-bound immigrants, runs along the Evros River. Stretching from Kastanies to the village of Nea Vyssa, near the northeastern town of Orestiada, the wall is designed to block a short stretch of dry land between the two states.

About 100,000 immigrants were arrested while attempting to cross the border between the two countries in 2011.

Earlier this month, border guards told Kathimerini newspaper that the project has already had a huge impact on the influx via the land border with illegal arrivals down by 95 percent.

However, the sharp drop in undocumented immigrants entering Greece through Evros has been accompanied by a renewal in the illegal influx via the islands of the Aegean Sea.

From the beginning of the year until the end of July, police and coast guard officers on the Aegean islands detained 102 undocumented migrants while more than 10 times that number – 1,536 – were intercepted over the following three months.

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