11 Evros river 3. Evros ■ The length of Greece’s border is 1,228 km. The river Evros constitutes more than 190 km of the borderline between Greece and Turkey (total border length is 206 km). A 12,5 km patch of it is not delineated by the River Evros, which elsewhere marks and defends the land border between Greece and Turkey. This is the stretch of land where government is planning to build a fence to distract immigrants from entering Greek territory. When they arrive they ask us to call the police or they want to know the direction to Athens. Then they leave.« He showed towards the minefields some 50 meters away. »There are about 100 acres of fenced minefields with warning signs. They are anti-tank mines. The government cleared the area from the antipersonnel mines but the others have been renewed. I wonder when we will get rid of these mines to make the area safer for our animals.«29 Evros prefecture is situated at the eastern land borders with Turkey. The population is in great parts used to live in a highly militarised area side by side with the Turks. It is also one of the last remaining mined areas of Europe – a heritage of the Greek-Turkish tensions. It’s a place where there’s a strong presence of Frontex border guards and Greek police, military and border guards. In 2009, Greece announced that it completed the clearance of antipersonnel mines in the 57 mined areas it laid along the border with Turkey. The total area of clearance was Driving through the area by daylight gives you the impression of an idyllic landscape, a world of small villages and farms somewhere at the end of Greece. It is calm. The land is once flat close to the river Evros, once mountainous near to the border with Bulgaria. But if you start taking the small country roads close to the river Evros, suddenly you see rusty signs warning of »danger« and »mines«; you see barbed wire and, occasionally, tanks passing by. Shepherds walk over the fields with their sheep. Their daily lives have always been directly interwoven with the border crossing experience of refugees since the beginning of the phenomenon. »They come from everywhere walking on foot,« an old Greek shepherd told us only 2 km from the border to Turkey in the area close to Isakio, »they don’t stay but move on. We don’t have any problems with them. 29 Information on landmines in Greece: http://www.the-monitor.org/custom/index.php/region_ profiles/print_profile/71 (2010); Map of Greece and Evros http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/world/europe/ 06iht-mines.4.19133102.html (2009); http://www.athensnews.gr/old_issue/13298/18177 (2008)