DESTABILIZATION THROUGH ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION IN GREECE |
Strategic Analysis
Copyright: www.rieas.gr
Greece
over the past decade has become a source country concerning the
entrance of an unspecified amount of illegal immigrants, mostly from
Asian and African states, that enter mainly through the Greek-Turkish
borders and with the complicity or indifference of the authorities of
the neighbouring country, despite the bilateral and international agreements that have been sealed for this matter.
Illegal immigration is actually an asymmetrical threat aimed at destabilizing the Greek state
and it is of critical interest to view it under the prism of Ankara’s
stance concerning Greece’s role in the region. In simple terms Turkey
uses the masses of desperate people being gathered in its territory in
order to inflict great losses in the Greek economy and alter its ethnic
and social profile. The latest information that have verified the above
writings are videos and images depicting the Turkish Coast Guard
deploring immigrants in the Greek Islands; that were shown in Greek
national TV without any denial from the other side.
Turkey as a Eurasian Crossing
The
Turkish authorities have announced from time to time that they expel
some 100,000 illegal immigrants from their territory each year, whilst
between 1995 and 2005 they managed to expel over 575,000 and arrest
6,100 smugglers. Even though the flow of people from the East to the
West seems unstoppable, and an 8 billion USD illegal industry has been
created, cantered on the main metropolitan Turkish centres.
The
same criminal groups that are apt into securing great earnings from the
modern slave trade, are also involved in the narcotics and arms trade,
thus presenting the real magnitude of the threat involved which is the
multiplication of organized crime activities and the existence of a
multifunctional parallel crime syndicated state in Turkey that is also a
threat to Greek and European stability.
The
prices for a “crossing” between the Turkish shore and the Aegean Islands
– a few miles apart- costs from 2,000 to 5,000 US dollars and for an
illegal route from Turkey to Northern Europe the smugglers demand up to
15,000 USD. The immigrants from the African countries travel to Izmir,
Istanbul and Mersin through vessels crossing the Mediterranean Sea,
whilst Arabs come mostly through the Syrian-Turkish borders. The Asians
(Pakistani, Kurds, and Afghani) pass through the Iranian-Turkish borders
and it has to be noted that both countries do not have a visa regime,
although Teheran is accused by the world community as a sponsor of
terrorism. Therefore the flow of people from Iran to Turkey is in fact
unconstrained and there has not been pressure to Ankara to alter this
state of affairs with its neighbour.
At this point
it has to be noted that between Middle East, Iran and Greece there is
only one country apart and that it Turkey. That is one of the main
reasons USA does not lift the visa between Greece and the States because
there is a real threat of terrorists, criminals and other travelling
through the Atlantic once reaching Greek territory. As it was mentioned
before that is much easier that originally though, judging by the fact
that from Central Asia to the Aegean the border controls are either lax
or non existent.
Once reaching Turkish territory
the immigrants are literally stashed in old warehouses or decaying
apartments and wait for their transfer. In the meantime -a period up to 2
years- they work as underpaid manual workers in the local tourist and
industry businesses, thus minimizing labour costs in Turkey.
Currently
it can be safely estimated that there are 1 million illegal immigrants
“in transit” from Turkey to Europe and many of them will end up in
Greece and allocate themselves in the newly founded ghettos in the
centre of Athens, in the port of Patras or in various locations in the
countryside, thus adding up to the 2.5 million illegal aliens already
present in Greece.
Greece and Turkey had
signed a bilateral agreement concerning organized crime and illegal
immigration (17/12/2005), although it has not been practically put into
action and most importantly Athens already accuses the other side that
it does not conform at all in the obligations written in the official
documents, such as re-acceptance of expelled people from Greece that had
left previously the Turkish coastline.
The Stakes Involved
Greece
is on the front line of the European periphery, meaning its actions
have wider ramifications for the overall security architecture of the
Continent.
There are three parameters by which the
issue can be viewed upon.Firstly there seems to be a trial by the
Turkish state to exhaust the Greek security, police and military forces
that apart from their conventional duties have to deal with the
increasing problem of persons crossing daily and in great numbers the
borders in land and in the sea. Additionally to that the creation of
large Muslim communities will play a destabilizing role concerning the
societal balances of Greece as recent experience in France, UK, Italy
and the Netherlands has shown.
Moreover the
undocumented aliens are responsible for the introduction of hygiene
issues into the Greek territory and diseases such as tuberculosis that
were almost extinct, have gain in strength recently. Further the Greek
state budget is pressured due to the increased health, education,
security, humanitarian and transport needs of a large number of people
that don’t pay taxes nor do they bring capital into the country but
instead they transfer abroad the largest amount of the wages they gain
in Greece.
Lastly illegal immigration is a
suitable terrain for the infiltration of European space by terrorists,
criminals, espionage agents and any other category of the population
wishing to avoid control and detention. Thus the future of Europe and
Greece is being compromised due the lack of the basic principles of
security in the international system, which is the verification of the
identity of the passengers, a key factor for the existence of a stable
and peaceful environment in the present day globalized era.
Estimations
Athens
should realize that the time has passed where the issue could have been
resolved though the use of intellectual debates and non-practical
dialogue between oblivious politicians.Actually the climax is near
judging by the fact that the overpopulation in the East and the global
economic crisis will arrive shortly, thus creating further strain in the
borderlines.
Therefore some practical steps are needed:
The
domestic intelligence network of Greek informants and collaborators
that cooperate with their Turkish counterparts should be neutralized and
disbanded before any sustainable gain could be made.
The
role of Turkey as discussed above and the regime relating to border
crossings in the Middle East, should be made vocally known by the Greek
Foreign Ministry to the global forums, conferences and the international
organizations. The pampering of states and regimes that degrade the
security of other societies should be brought to a halt and the full
consequences of their actions should be publicly known.
For
the moment the Greek diplomatic authorities are extravagantly at ease
with the current distressful situation and completely out of tune in
relation with the above proposed action.
Moreover
the Greek patrol guards and teams should be able to make sensible use of
their light firearm arsenal, since illegal crossing is in direct
violation of a country’s independence and the numbers are so great that
they constitute a sort of an invasion.
Furthermore
that does not mean the killing of innocent civilians, but rather the
use of hard power composed by the new technology “non lethal weapons”,
the targeting of the smugglers-criminals involved, even the use of
psychological warfare techniques into the territory of the neighbouring
country before even the preparation of the crossings begins.
The
Greek state could also make use of its bilateral relations with
countries such as Pakistan, Iran, Syria and others in order to persuade
and pressure the foreign governments to take responsibility for their
citizens ending up in Greece, many times without documents and
passports. The creation of online data-bases with the latest techniques
of facial recognition that verify for the identity of every immigrant
can assist to that. It has to be noted that any initiative by Athens to
those states will only have a minimal effect since the governments in
there are mostly interested in dealing with their social issues by
allowing the immigration of large numbers of unemployed and unskilled
citizens and there are also indications concerning the initiatives by
Islamic groups to form strong communities in Europe by exploiting the
religious faith of the newly comers.
The
stance of Greece should be in overall terms, that of a state that
considers it s territory a “non suitable illegal immigration route” and
make it know in an international level. Although the Greek governmental
officials seem rather hesitant into implementing the above
recommendations, the historical necessity and the international
obligations of the country might activate them rather soon than latter.
Nicht nur Griechenland wird derart destabilisiert und dabei muss die Migration nicht illegal sein.
AntwortenLöschenDie Migration in den meisten europäischen Ländern erfolgt in keiner Weise unter vernünftigen Maßstäben. Das Gegenteil ist der Fall.