The Greek government has defended plans to erect a floating barrier in the Mediterranean to deter thousands of people determined to reach Europe from making the sea journey from Turkey.
Dismissing criticism, the country’s minister for migration and asylum, Notis Mitarakis, said the proposed barrier in the Aegean Sea would send a strong message to people smugglers that the “rules of the game had changed”.
The bulwark, which in its initial stages will be 2.7km long, is to be erected off Lesbos, the island at the centre of migrant and refugee arrivals. It will rise from pylons 50 metres above water.
“First of all it will send the message that we are not a free-for-all place where anything goes, that we’re taking every measure to protect our borders,” Mitarakis told local radio station Thema 104.6. “We see it as a positive measure that will help monitoring of areas near Turkish shores.”
Deportations, he said, would also be accelerated, signalling the much tougher approach Athens’ centre-right administration was willing to take on an issue it said had reached “crisis” proportions, not least in vastly overcrowded camps on Greek Aegean islands.
“The rules have changed. We are not open to people who don’t have the profile of a refugee,” added Mitarakis, who said 72,000 men, women and children had arrived in Greece in 2019, with the vast majority entering the country in the space of six months.
“As of 1 January 2020, anyone who does not fit the refugee profile will be returned to Turkey within months and will lose the money they have given to traffickers. Safeguarding our borders is now our biggest priority.”
