"We can arrest them, but we have nowhere to put them"

The Minister of Citizen Protection, Christos Papoutsis, announced the new Police operational plans which will combat the problem of illegal immigrants. Once again, the minister announced the joint patrols of police teams DELTA, DI.AS and “Z” in the city center, OPKE checkpoints with the use of special dogs, and inspections and raids in abandoned city center buildings, while he also stated that Police can - in a few hours - arrest the illegal immigrants in the center. However, as he noted, there is a problem of what to do with them after the arrests have been made.

For this reason, he once again mentioned the idea of creating five centers for immigrant reception in Greece, without specifying where these points would be. The reason for that is to avoid opposition from local communities, which Mr. Papoutsis urged not to oppose the plans when they are decided upon.

The Evros fence is in the works

Also noteworthy is that the famous Evros fence, which would solve the problem of illegal immigration and crime in the city centre, is still in the works. Even though the original timeline stated that the fence should already have been built Mr. Papoutsis, without giving further clarification, merely stated that he is awaiting the decisions of the State Council within the next few days, which will resolve whether to provide new funds for its construction. In other words, no funding has been found since last January which would lead this plan to fruition.