Greece prepares 140-km steel wall on border with Türkiye

As a gateway for migrants into Europe, Greece plans to build a 140-kilometre (87-mile) steel fence on its border with Türkiye along the Maritsa (Meriç) River, Greek Citizen Protection Minister Takis Theodorikakos has announced.

Speaking to local Skai TV, Theodorikakos said his ministry has launched a project on building a fence to prevent migrant crossings. In December, Greece announced it would deploy 250 border police to tighten patrol and surveillance measures near the Maritsa region on the Turkish border, Daily Sabah reports.

Athens built a 40-kilometre steel barrier on the land border between Türkiye and Greece to prevent irregular migration, and the construction process was completed in August 2021.

The country is repeatedly accused of mistreatment of migrants who enter the country, mostly to reach other European countries in pursuit of better lives.

Earlier Türkiye's National Defence Ministry revealed that a Turkish naval drone recorded footage of Greek forces illegally pushing back a boat carrying irregular migrants to Turkish territorial waters. The illegal Greek pushback was recorded north of the Greek island of Lesbos in the Aegean Sea on December 30, the ministry said in a tweet.

Ankara and international human rights groups have repeatedly condemned Greece's illegal practice of pushing back asylum-seekers, saying it violates humanitarian values and international law by endangering the lives of vulnerable people, including women and children.

A report in 2022 by Türkiye's Ombudsman Institution said that Greece had pushed back nearly 42,000 asylum-seekers since 2020. The report titled "Pushbacks and Drowning Human Rights in the Aegean Sea" exposes the violation of international immigration law by Greece. According to the data from the Directorate of Migration Management that the report used, Greek forces pushed back 41,523 asylum-seekers between 2020 and May 31, 2022. "The pushbacks in themselves are against international law, and many of the pushback practices are accompanied by grave rights violations," the report said.

In recent years, hundreds of thousands have made short but perilous journeys across the Aegean to reach Northern and Western Europe in search of a better life. Hundreds of people have died at sea as many boats carrying refugees sank or capsized. The Turkish Coast Guard Command has rescued thousands of others.