Meeting on illegal immigration

"I wake up every morning and say: Did something happen in Syria today? If something happens in Syria, thousands of people will flow into Greece. Illegal immigrants are already a big problem for us and we are fighting against it. Imagine if this number is multiplied by ten," Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said in an interview in the U.S. newspaper Washington Post.

At 14.15 today, Monday, Samaras will convene a government meeting with the participation of the ministers of Public Order Nikos Dendias, Defense Panos Panagiotopoulos and Shipping Costas Mousouroulis, in an attempt to deal with this problem.

Three years ago the bulk of illegal immigrants passing from Turkey to Greece chose the sea route, traveling on boats or dinghies. Since 2009 the flow of illegal immigrants has found a way into Greece from the Evros river, where hundreds of people without travel documents have been taken to Greece daily by Turkish human trafficking rings.

Since August, when operation "Xenios Zeus" was implemented to address illegal immigration, the number of foreigners trying to enter Greece from the Turkish border has dropped considerably. But durig the same period there has been an increase of illegal immigrants to the Greek islands. Information from the Greek authorities holds that thousands of Syrian refugees are at the Turkish coast seeking a way to pass on to European soil.

Trying to close the Turkish border to immigrants who do not have the necessary documents is utopian. Along with the Coast Guard patrols and the activation of the European Frontex force to patrol the borders, the government is looking for a way to put an end to a situation reminiscent of the bridge of Arta. When they find holes in the Evros region, traffickers send illegal immigrants to Greece from the Aegean islands and when guarding of the marine borders with Turkey is increased again, Turkish traffickers push through the illegal immigrants from land borders.

The fact that anyone from anywhere in the world can reach a Turkish airport undocumented due to the policies of Turkish airlines plays a very important role in the case of illegal immigration. When illegal immigrants arrive unchecked at the airport in Istanbul, it is an easy matter for traffickers to take them to Greece and other European countries in order to receive a reward of several thousand euros for each illegal immigrant…