Contract signed to extend Evros border fortification as barrier to illegal migrants

A closely watched 80-million-euro contract to extend a fortified fence-cum-barrier in the extreme northeast Evros prefecture was signed on Friday between Greece’s relevant public order ministry and a consortium comprised of the local companies Intrakat and Terna.

The issue of extending fortifications and barriers on Greece’s land border with Turkey and along the Evros (Maritsa) River, which separates the two countries in the Thrace province, emerged as an acrimonious “political football” this week in the now official Greek pre-election season. A general election has been called for May 21.

On Thursday, leftist SYRIZA MEP and European Parliament Vice-President Dimitris Papadimoulis supported an amendment in the latter calling on the Commission not to fund the fence extension in Evros. A day later, incumbent Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, speaking from the Evros prefecture city of Ferres (where the contract was signed a day later), said Athens will extend the fence with or without EU funds. Mitsotakis and other ND ministers and lawmakers more-or-less called SYRIZA opposition to the fortification as against national interests. Conversely, a handful of SYRIZA cadres and deputies questioned the effectiveness of a project to prevent would-be third country migrants from entering Greece from Turkey, while also hinting at a “far-right” ideological choice.

The 140-kilometer extension will be constructed in the central sector of the Evros River boundary, on the Greek side (left bank), and south of a “bulge” of Turkish territory west of the Evros, across from the city of Turkish city of Edirne.

A major cross-border crisis erupted in late February and March 2020 when tens of thousands of people, mostly young males ostensibly from the Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan, unsuccessfully attempted to illegally enter Greece from Turkey in the Evros prefecture, with Athens sharply accusing the Erdogan administration of orchestrating the provocation.