Protecting our porous borders
The arrival of a team of more than 100 guards, dispatched by the European Union’s border monitoring agency Frontex – with the promise of at least 100 more in the coming weeks – to help Greece protect its porous frontiers against the influx of illegal migration is a welcome development for the country. The persistent inflow of illegal migrants is a huge threat to the country and there can be no further delay in taking measures to tackle it. It is believed that up to 350 migrants try to breach the land border every day. The dispatch of the EU guards shows that the 27-member bloc has finally realized the need to support the continent’s first line of defense. At the same time, the gesture demonstrates that the government is finally making use of the opportunities provided by membership in the Union. Sooner or later, Greece’s European peers will have firsthand experience of the role played by Turkey, Greece’s eastern neighbor, in the facilitation or even encouragement of the wave of illegal immigration to Europe.
