CHAPTER 2. BORDER CONTROL AND APPREHENSION Greece's revised National Action Plan Greece foresaw that an effective migration policy should ensure “access to international protection for all illegal migrants entering its territory”. In practice, however, the primary focus was on the deterrence and apprehension of irregular arrivals.48 Most funding was absorbed in this area, but Greece delved also deep into its national resources, in order to speedily implement the proposed policies. Greece's policy developed along the lines of a prevalent EU framework that views irregular migrants as ‘illegal migrants;’ a terminology that places the emphasis on policing, security and criminality and leaves little space for rights-based approaches. 49 Under the Greek law, an irregular migrant is a criminal offender. Entering, staying or exiting the country, without the necessary legal formalities, is punishable with at least three-month imprisonment and a minimum fine of €1,500.50 In practice, public prosecutors most often refrain from initiating criminal proceedings against irregular migrants, who in turn become subjects of administrative proceedings and return procedures. 51 From 2012 onwards, efforts focused on two major courses of actions: firstly, the reinforcement of the Greek-Turkish land border, which was at the time the main entry point of irregular migrants into the Greek territory;52 secondly, the identification (and removal ideally) of all illegally residing migrants in the country. The former was achieved through the erection of a fence along the Greek-Turkish border and launch of Operation Shield in the region; the latter was realized through Operation Xenios Zeus, which was a ‘stop and search’ policy targeting irregular migrants. Both measures were pioneering for national standards. The Fence at Evros The idea to construct a physical barrier along the 206-kilometer land border with Turkey, analogous to the fence between the US-Mexico borders, was first announced by the Ministry of Citizen Protection in January 2011. While Greece and Turkey are naturally separated by river, there is a 10km land strip through which migrants cross the border on foot, making it in turn an increasingly common entry point. Erecting a fence would not only offer a solution to the 48 See Commission Staff Working Document on the Assessment of the implementation of the Greek Action Plan on Asylum and Migration management, fn 23 49 See Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, Mission to Greece, 17 April 2013, p. 15 50 See the New Migration Code, entering force on 4 June 2014; see also Law 3386/2005, in particular Articles 76,77,78,80,81,82,83 & 89 paras 1-3 that are still in force 51 If the expulsion does not take place within three months, the public prosecutor who may revoke the decision on refraining from criminal proceedings provided that no more than a year has lapsed from the date of illegal entry of the third-country national in the country, Law 3386/2005 52 Interview with Major General Tsouknadis, who estimated the number of irregular arrivals through the GreekTurkish land border at 300-400 per day, N. Vafeiadis, “Ο Έβρος δεν είναι πια “ξέφραγο αμπέλι', Kathimerini newspaper, 04. August 2014, available at http://www.kathimerini.com.cy/index.php?pageaction=kat&modid=1&artid=179753 Page 26