blog Greece’s migration problem Thursday, September 26, 2013 | Guest | Tags: EU, Greece, immigration 2 By Nikolas Katsimpras, Dynamical Systems Theory Fellow at the Earth Institute, Columbia University A tale from Samos It was a starless night, a night like many nights, when the beguiling Aegean turned its once inviting crystal blue waters into soulless liquid tar, whipped by the screaming wind and boiling with fury. Imagine being one of thirty tormented souls in pursuit of hope and decency, running away from death and misery, stacked inside a rotten fishing boat. No horizon in sight, no distinction between sea and sky, no difference when you blinked. Children, women and men, faceless sardines inside a wooden can, no name, just a transaction. After a long journey, a lot of tears and pain, they bought a ticket to the elusive Land of Plenty. The smuggler promised he would take them there for $2500 per head, but the beating from the waves scared him. Why risk his life for the sardines? A few years ago, the Hellenic Navy gunboat ‘Ormi’ was patrolling around the Greek islands Chios and Samos. Towards the end of a routine patrol, while the vessel was underway to Chios for replenishment and to take shelter from the upcoming storm, an urgent cable arrived. A subhuman trafficker- or the teenage boys often called to do his dirty work- intimidated by the worsening sea conditions threw the breathing load overboard into the ebony waves off the coast of Samos. After hours of pounding in the rough sea, Ormi finally reached the wet cemetery. The search light revealed only white tipped waves; nothing else, not even a single life vest since such a luxury was not included in the price. The first rays of the sun revealed the diabolical work of the smuggler, lying lifeless against the rocky coastline. Most of them were swallowed by the hungry sea a few hours ago and some were spitted out as cold reminders of a stark reality that has been nothing but routine for the Greek islands of the Eastern Aegean. The rusty gate of dreams Greece has been chronically the recipient of swarms of financial migrants and refugees due to its vicinity with Asia, its relation with the European North and until recently, its elusive financial prosperity. Turkey being an arm’s reach away is such a convenient location for smuggling migrants inside flimsy dinghies. For decades, the deleterious inexistence of an appropriate migratory policy has created an unfortunate situation for both the impoverished migrants who end up in Greece and the local population who bares the toll of the uncontrollable influx. According to FRONTEX, the European Union agency for external border security, there are eight main migratory routes into the EU through land and sea, ranging from the Canary Islands, to the southern borders of the EU in the Mediterranean, all the way up to the eastern borders of the Baltics. Greece is the gateway of the Eastern Mediterranean Route (EMR), which in 2012 attracted a staggering 50% of the incoming migrant traffic towards the EU, as reported by the latest analysis of Frontex. The Circular Greece-Albania route boosts this number to a total of almost 60%, constituting border control a Herculean task for the crisis struck nation. Greece’s migration problem
Posted on: Thu, 26 Sep 2013 18:08:55 +0000
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