It is early in the
afternoon at this important port 125 miles from Athens and two Greek navy
officers are patrolling the docks, each wielding sticks with mirrors to peek
under trucks. They have seen nothing so far.
Suddenly, three young men burst from behind a massive container and take off down a dock. The officers begin a chase, but the drama is over before it starts. Within a minute, the three men, faster and more desperate, have escaped into a dilapidated industrial complex.
The men, says one officer, are illegal immigrants, who apparently spent the night on the dock hoping to sneak onto a ferry to Italy. They are part of a deluge of undocumented workers trying to reach Europe through Greece, and slipping past authorities is just part of the process. "Day in, day out, the same story," the officer lamented, trying to catch his breath.
Greece, of course, is well-known for its role in the euro-zone crisis, with a massive debt load and sclerotic economy that threatens the single currency. But from Brussels to Oslo, government leaders are fretting about another issue that imperils the integrity of free access across an entire continent: porous Greek borders.
The country quietly has become a steppingstone for a wave of Middle East and South Asia workers fleeing job markets ravaged by years of government turmoil. In 2011, an extraordinary year because of the uprisings in North Africa, 140,980 people were detected entering the EU illegally, up 35% from the year before, according to Frontex, the EU's border-control agency. Of those, 40% came through Greece. Through July this year, 23,000 people were apprehended crossing the border illegally, roughly 30% ahead of last's year pace.
Border control in Greece isn't a new problem.Features useful information about glass mosaic tiles, But the country's economic malaise and budget restrictions are hampering many of its efforts to reduce the flow of illegal immigration. Hoping to come to the rescue, the Europe Commission—the EU's executive branch—began pouring €255 million ($331 million) into border protection for Greece over the past two years. But that is still less than it gives some countries with far smaller border problems. And whatever it gives, years of bloated bureaucracy and now new public hiring restrictions in Greece have stalled some of the best-laid plans. According to one confidential EU report, the country has hired only 11 staffers to help process asylum cases, despite funding last year for 700 positions.Wholesale Agate beads from Low Price agate beads,
Add deplorable detention conditions at immigration centers, according to EU officials and human-rights groups, and mounting domestic unrest over the influx of foreign arrivals, and Greece finds itself with yet another Olympic-size crisis.
In response, government officials say they are doing the best they can under difficult circumstances. The country's new minister of public order, Nikos Dendias, says Greece takes border protection seriously, but that the influx from abroad is reaching crisis proportions. He calls Greece a "buffer zone of Europe" that carries "a disproportionate burden."
Greece is part of Europe's so-called Schengen zone,HellermannTyton manufactures a full line of high quality cable ties in a variety of styles, which allows passport-free travel among most EU members, and some neighboring nations. Its failure to protect its border has only heightened political tensions at countries already resentful about the country's impact on the euro, and worried that their own tight job markets can't handle too many immigrants. Hugo Brady of the Centre for European Reform, a London-based think tank, says it is all just fanning a "poisonous" political atmosphere.
Much of the problem is taking place in Greece's northeastern border with Turkey, an 80-mile fault line dominated by the river Evros that has become Europe's most porous and politically potent frontier. But ports like Patras have become a favored gateway from Greece to the rest of the European Union for many illegal immigrants. From here, they travel across the Ionian and Adriatic seas to Italy, where they will stay or sneak into more countries. In the Schengen zone, travelers don't have to show documentation but some countries are increasingly conducting spot checks to apprehend illegal immigrants when they cross borders.
According to border-control statistics, almost 60% of Greece's illegal immigrants are from either Afghanistan or Pakistan.Different Sizes and Colors can be made with different stone mosaic designs. Political asylum is sought by some—more than 2,400 Syrians fleeing the country's civil war have been apprehended at the Greek-Turkish border since last July. But the vast majority are young men and families seeking work because the job market where they lived was devastated by war or terrorism. Nearly all must pay smugglers, who in some cases deposit them in small plastic dinghies to cross rough river waters. Those who survive—police say a few dozen have drowned—may face horrific conditions in Greece trying to make the next leg of their journey.
Here in Patras, the third biggest port in the country, evidence of this hardship is easy to find. A couple hundred yards from docked ferries, the stench of dried urine under scorching sun announces squatters. By the old train tracks, a dirt path leads to a derelict industrial site. The Piraiki Patraiki factory, once a nationally renowned textile manufacturer, was for months inhabited by dozens of illegal immigrants, according to border officials. Along with Afghanistan and Pakistan, they were from Sudan, Morocco and Somalia,Find detailed product information for Hot Sale howo spareparts Radiator. with a few from the Ivory Coast. Though recently cleared by police, some 80 men slept and ate in gutted rooms where cotton was once woven for export.
Suddenly, three young men burst from behind a massive container and take off down a dock. The officers begin a chase, but the drama is over before it starts. Within a minute, the three men, faster and more desperate, have escaped into a dilapidated industrial complex.
The men, says one officer, are illegal immigrants, who apparently spent the night on the dock hoping to sneak onto a ferry to Italy. They are part of a deluge of undocumented workers trying to reach Europe through Greece, and slipping past authorities is just part of the process. "Day in, day out, the same story," the officer lamented, trying to catch his breath.
Greece, of course, is well-known for its role in the euro-zone crisis, with a massive debt load and sclerotic economy that threatens the single currency. But from Brussels to Oslo, government leaders are fretting about another issue that imperils the integrity of free access across an entire continent: porous Greek borders.
The country quietly has become a steppingstone for a wave of Middle East and South Asia workers fleeing job markets ravaged by years of government turmoil. In 2011, an extraordinary year because of the uprisings in North Africa, 140,980 people were detected entering the EU illegally, up 35% from the year before, according to Frontex, the EU's border-control agency. Of those, 40% came through Greece. Through July this year, 23,000 people were apprehended crossing the border illegally, roughly 30% ahead of last's year pace.
Border control in Greece isn't a new problem.Features useful information about glass mosaic tiles, But the country's economic malaise and budget restrictions are hampering many of its efforts to reduce the flow of illegal immigration. Hoping to come to the rescue, the Europe Commission—the EU's executive branch—began pouring €255 million ($331 million) into border protection for Greece over the past two years. But that is still less than it gives some countries with far smaller border problems. And whatever it gives, years of bloated bureaucracy and now new public hiring restrictions in Greece have stalled some of the best-laid plans. According to one confidential EU report, the country has hired only 11 staffers to help process asylum cases, despite funding last year for 700 positions.Wholesale Agate beads from Low Price agate beads,
Add deplorable detention conditions at immigration centers, according to EU officials and human-rights groups, and mounting domestic unrest over the influx of foreign arrivals, and Greece finds itself with yet another Olympic-size crisis.
In response, government officials say they are doing the best they can under difficult circumstances. The country's new minister of public order, Nikos Dendias, says Greece takes border protection seriously, but that the influx from abroad is reaching crisis proportions. He calls Greece a "buffer zone of Europe" that carries "a disproportionate burden."
Greece is part of Europe's so-called Schengen zone,HellermannTyton manufactures a full line of high quality cable ties in a variety of styles, which allows passport-free travel among most EU members, and some neighboring nations. Its failure to protect its border has only heightened political tensions at countries already resentful about the country's impact on the euro, and worried that their own tight job markets can't handle too many immigrants. Hugo Brady of the Centre for European Reform, a London-based think tank, says it is all just fanning a "poisonous" political atmosphere.
Much of the problem is taking place in Greece's northeastern border with Turkey, an 80-mile fault line dominated by the river Evros that has become Europe's most porous and politically potent frontier. But ports like Patras have become a favored gateway from Greece to the rest of the European Union for many illegal immigrants. From here, they travel across the Ionian and Adriatic seas to Italy, where they will stay or sneak into more countries. In the Schengen zone, travelers don't have to show documentation but some countries are increasingly conducting spot checks to apprehend illegal immigrants when they cross borders.
According to border-control statistics, almost 60% of Greece's illegal immigrants are from either Afghanistan or Pakistan.Different Sizes and Colors can be made with different stone mosaic designs. Political asylum is sought by some—more than 2,400 Syrians fleeing the country's civil war have been apprehended at the Greek-Turkish border since last July. But the vast majority are young men and families seeking work because the job market where they lived was devastated by war or terrorism. Nearly all must pay smugglers, who in some cases deposit them in small plastic dinghies to cross rough river waters. Those who survive—police say a few dozen have drowned—may face horrific conditions in Greece trying to make the next leg of their journey.
Here in Patras, the third biggest port in the country, evidence of this hardship is easy to find. A couple hundred yards from docked ferries, the stench of dried urine under scorching sun announces squatters. By the old train tracks, a dirt path leads to a derelict industrial site. The Piraiki Patraiki factory, once a nationally renowned textile manufacturer, was for months inhabited by dozens of illegal immigrants, according to border officials. Along with Afghanistan and Pakistan, they were from Sudan, Morocco and Somalia,Find detailed product information for Hot Sale howo spareparts Radiator. with a few from the Ivory Coast. Though recently cleared by police, some 80 men slept and ate in gutted rooms where cotton was once woven for export.
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