Europe's Grecian wall of shame is completed

Europe’s wall of shame has been completed in Greece’s northeast ground border with Turkey.

The wall is four-metre-high and is blocking a 10.365 meters-long strip of land from army guarding post of Kastanies down south to river Evros. The name of the company constructed the wall on behalf of the Greek state is DAGRES A.T.E ( ΔΑΓΡΕΣ Α.Τ.Ε).

The construction of the wall has been partially funded by the EU. The rest of the border between the two countries is formed by the Evros river that is impassible during the winter/spring months. Additional ‘protection’ to Europe’s Grecian borders is provided by a few good unstable* mine fields spread alongside the borderline. Every year dozens of people try to cross into Europe via Greece loose their lives, drowned in the river or tore apart into pieces by mines.

130,000 immigrants entered Greece via the land crossing in 2011 according to the Greek government.

* the flooding of the land by the seasonal burst of the banks of river Evros, moves the mines out of their original position, sometimes even outside the designated lines of the bar wired minefields.

(article by Glyko Symoritis  http://atenecalling.blogspot.it/2012/12/europes-grecian-wall-of-shame-is.html )

Comments by CrisisMirror:

Τhe US has built a similar but much longer wall in order to prevent migration from Mexico, yet it has been proven that walls do not contibute in decreasing the numbers of migrants who enter illegaly. Research shows that migrants and trafficking agents find
new ways to overcome obstacles.

In the case of Greece, the majority of migrants enter via sea, with various vessels (of low safety standards), since the vast sea-borders are much more difficult to control.

Therefore the wall in Northern Greece is partially a waste of money, and partially a
symbolic move that signifies the turn of EU towards more harsh and
inhumane immigration policies, and partially an occasion for construction companies or security contractors to make profit.
Not only the wall is useless, but the only statistics that this wall might change is the number of migrants drowning while attempting to cross over the nearby river Evros. The Evros river can be extremely inhospitable especially in the winter when it floods and runs in wild currents. The Aegean sea is also not that kind: last week there was an accident when a boat carrying 27, most probably Iraqi, migrants capsized near Lesvos. 20 of them drowned: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/15/greece-boat-idUSL5E8NF28E20121215

People that have traveled thousands of kilometers until they reach the Greek-Turkish border will definitely seek other entrances with some of the obvious choices being the ones mentioned above. The wall increases the death hazards that one risks while attempting to enter the EU without the necessary papers that EU laws require.
Research indicates that the motivations for migration to the West tend to vary. Migration can be fuelled by various reasons, but data prove that it is fuelled mostly by economic factors.

We have to be bold and start talking about the fact that many migrants and refugees are not directly escaping zones of conflict, even though their country of origin might be devastated by, for example, war. They are mostly fleeing unemployment, poverty, lack of access to resources, destruction of traditional modes of production, and more.

The discussion on migration will never reach any sustainable conclusion if we don’t expose the relations of inequality and exploitation between developed First-world countries and the impoverished Third-world countries, and seek to overthrow the effects of global capitalism.