4 Jan 2011

12km border fence proposed by Greece

1:17 pm on 4 January 2011

Greece is planning to build a 12km fence along part of its border with Turkey to keep out illegal immigrants.

Public Order Minister Christos Papoutsis said more than 100,000 people entered Greece illegally last year and Athens had a duty to act.

Greece has long complained to Turkey about border security.

The BBC reports the proposed fence would cover a short section of the Greece-Turkey border in the Orestiada area of north-eastern Greece.

According to Frontex, the EU border agency, the area is the main route into Greece for migrants from Africa and Asia with an average of 245 people crossing illegally every day in October 2010.

In a statement, Mr Papoutsis said Greece could "no longer tolerate this".

"Greek society has exceeded its limit in its capacity to accommodate illegal immigrants," he said.

"This is the hard reality and we have an obligation to the Greek citizen to deal with it."

He said the Greek coastguard would also be upgraded and modernised to tackle illegal migration.

Officials say that around 90% of all migrants who illegally enter the EU, come through Greece.

UN figures

The UN's refugee agency says 38,992 arrived in the 10 months to November 2010, compared with 7,574 for the same period of 2009.

In November, Frontex deployed 175 border control specialists to the Orestiada area to help Greece tackle the problem.

The agency says this led to a fall of 44% in the numbers of people successfully crossing the border.