Greek authorities are bracing for the impending arrival of refugees on the country’s northeastern borders with Turkey at Evros following the developments in Afghanistan.
Robots, cameras, drones, lie detectors, pulse scanners will be used to bolster border security, while the Ministry of National Defence in cooperation with the Ministry of Civil Protection is further strengthening the fence at the Greek-Turkish border in Evros, through the use of high technology of guarding, monitoring, recording, but also early warning and detection of traffic on the opposite bank of the river.
False detectors, pulse scanners, roborders (autonomous border surveillance systems with unmanned mobile robots), steel railings, artificial barriers, and the construction of new infrastructures, such as outposts and observatories, are just some of the technological additions that are currently being implemented, transforming the area into a vast construction site.
Greece has installed, along the Greek-Turkish border, a large number of infrared cameras with extremely sensitive high definition motion sensors, having a real-time picture of everything that happens in the riparian areas.
Meanwhile, drones have been deployed along the entire Evros borderline in order to achieve 24-hour monitoring even over the most inaccessible river crossings, which are the ones that human traffickers usually choose to “push” illegal immigrants to the Greek side.
Developments in Afghanistan and the possibility that Ankara will exploit the ongoing migration flow of hundreds of thousands of Afghans to Western countries via the Iran-Turkey-Greece route has sounded the alarm in the government, with Defence Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos and Citizens’ Protection Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis visiting Evros the day before yesterday, accompanied by the Chief of Hellenic National Defence General Staff Konstantinos Floros and EL.AS. Michalis Karamalakis.
The government officials were briefed on operational plans to guard the border, and inspected ongoing projects.
The most common route for Afghans is to cross the northern border of Afghanistan and from there enter Turkey through Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. From there they continue to Europe with the sole gateway on their journey being Greece – either from Evros or from the Aegean islands through the organised human trafficking rings.
Within September, 400 new border guards are expected to take up positions in the guarding of the river Evros, while at the same time the reinforcement of the units of the Army and the Police with additional personnel is progressing rapidly. In addition to the bolstering of manpower, there is an ongoing supply of ground vehicles, such as armored patrol jeeps, inflatable boats, etc.
