Grecia se enfrenta a problemas migratorios parecidos a los de España e Italia
All at sea over illegal immigration, en un interesante artículo de ATHENS NEWS
The Greek coastguard suspects that its Turkish counterpart may be abettinghuman traffickers
EFTHYMIOS TSILIOPULOS
The Greek coastguard and the navy maintain a constant presence in the Aegean
ILLEGAL immigration in Greece has registered a new high watermark for 2007, according to the merchant marine ministry, as thousands of illegal immigrants have been pouring across the border with Turkey, fleeing poverty and war in Iraq, Afghanistan and Sudan, among others.
On October 30, government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos noted that over 50,000 illegal immigrants enter Greece every year - apparently the highest number in Europe - with 13,151 illegal immigrants caught in September alone.
One option is the overland route into Thrace. Earlier this year the commander of the 16th Mechanised Infantry Division, Major-General Frangos Frangoulis, spoke to the Athens News with alarm about the increase. "There are more of them all the time. They come from places as far off as Iraq and even Sudan. It's surprising to see Africans all the way up here," he said.
Frangoulis' unit is charged with protecting the border in the northern part of the Evros prefecture, where most crossings take place because the Evros river widens out into easily crossed marshes.
What surprised the general even more was the ruthlessness of the professional smugglers, who often help migrants cross the tight borders where minefields are ever-present. "They equip these people with wire cutters to cut through the barbed wire, which leads them straight into the minefields."
In response, the general posted minefield warnings in several languages. (Although the Greek army is removing anti-personnel mines under an international initiative, anti-tank mines are also a hazard.) A captain of the army engineers told this newspaper, "Don't think that these [anti-tank mines] are safe. If you're running, like most of these people are, or if you are laden down, they can still go off."
The division's chief of staff said that when questioned, immigrants say that on the other side of the river Turkish smugglers tell them that once they clear the barbed wire "they are in Europe". Asked if some of these unscrupulous traders use the immigrants to probe Greek defences, the officer shrugged and said that in some cases they do, but mostly they just want to get rid of their charges quickly.
At sea
The other route smugglers often use is the Aegean archipelago. Both the Greek coastguard and the navy maintain a constant presence in the Aegean. The army has set up monitoring stations equipped with state-of-the-art radar and optical equipment capable of viewing in both daylight and darkness, at extreme ranges, many of the uninhabited islets.
Things have changed for the worse in a rather surprising fashion recently. Smugglers now use faster boats, reaching speeds of up to 50 knots. These are capable of outdistancing the larger coastguard patrol craft, as well as navy picket ships, although they cannot elude the faster, semi-rigid craft of the army's commandos and the coastguard's special forces.
Recently, human-smuggling activities have focused on the 3km-wide straits between the Greek island of Samos and the Turkish coast.
Brigadier Evangelos Belesakos on Samos, described how boats are spotted: "We usually first pick them on radar. They know this and often attempt to hide behind a larger ship to mask their signature. When we do spot them, we alert the coastguard, which has the legal authority to proceed with arrests. It's their ball from there on."
As soon as coastguard vessels appear to give chase, navy and coastguard officials say, many of the smugglers force their human cargo overboard. Many migrants don't know how to swim, so the chase is interrupted as the coastguard tries to take on survivors. Furthermore, the status of people in the water is that of "shipwrecked", and they have quite a few more rights than illegal immigrants caught in a boat or ashore.
One army officer on the garrison of the islet Farmakonissi commented: "Often they land right here, usually after swimming to shore. They are often quite unaware of where they are. They are wet and frightened. We give them blankets, clothing, food and water. We can't arrest them." It was on Farmakonissi that an army corporal saved a woman this summer who was bit by a snake upon her landing.
One special forces private, a conscript, recalls: "One night, a black man emerged from the water and when he saw me he started crying out 'Italia, Italia'." Apparently his "travel agent" had told him he had booked a trip to Italy.
Dangerous liaisons
The cat-and-mouse game in the Aegean is now embroiling the naval forces of Greece and Turkey. On October 19, a boat with five immigrants tried to infiltrate Greek waters from the Turkish city of Cesme. A high-ranking source in the coastguard tells the Athens News that the boat was discreetly accompanied by a Turkish coastguard vessel. They were intercepted by a rapid-pursuit Greek coastguard vessel before the immigrant smugglers could dump their human cargo just inside Greek territorial waters.
"This time," the high-ranking source says, "the Greek crew reacted before they [the immigrant smugglers] could cross and shone lights and trained guns chasing them off, after firing warning shots across her bows."
The Turkish military claims that the Greeks violated Turkish territorial waters at 7.30am for 20 minutes in the region of Cesme, harassing 'fishing boats' and firing on them. Greek authorities have been getting their stories crossed in response to this and have yet to denounce Turkish claims.
Belesakos said the shift in smuggling activity to the Samos straits supports the theory that the Turkish coastguard is collaborating with smugglers. Smugglers avoid frequenting areas opposite Turkish Army observation posts, hence the shift to Samos from the far easier and narrower stretches opposite Hios.
Under the repatriation agreement between Greece and Turkey, Turkey has three months to respond to a Greek request for repatriation. Usually the neighbouring country's red tape is invoked for delays that lead to the lapse of the deadline. However, Turkish authorities do make some exceptions for certain nationals whose countries border on their own.
1 comentario 10 Noviembre 2007
