Ioannis Grigoriadis and Esra Dilek (2018, p. 7), argue the fence disseminated ‘the message that Greece is not an ‘open gate’ to Europe’; thus, it can no longer be considered a liability for ‘fortress Europe’. The fence was constructed in 2012, amid great controversy over its rationale and potential effects (Public Issue, 2011). In addition, given the irony behind European Commission’s rejection of funding such a venture as ‘pointless’ and a ‘shortterm measure’, Greece bore the brunt of its erection during the economic crisis that had plagued Greece since 2008 (European Parliament, 2012; Ekathimerini, 2012). The final construction was 10.3 km long, consisting of two cement walls with barbed wire inbetween, and run along the north-eastern side of the Greek-Turkish borders, between the villages of Kastanies and Nea Vyssa. It cost 3,16 million euros and was paid for by Greek taxpayers (Angeli et al., 2014). However, the fence would only secure a very small part of the 290km land border, leaving the river border uncontrolled. According to police data, the rise of ‘illegal migration’ in the area had acquired troubling proportions. The first six months of 2012, apprehensions in Orestiada rose by 151,56%, compared to the same period in 2011 (Ministry of Citizen Protection, 2012b). As a former police officer recalled his experience at the border ‘What I noticed, and it’s tragic, has to be heard. I was going to the [border] station at 6 in the morning and by 7:30 we had plenty of immigrants knocking on the doors and surrendering themselves. They came on their own; we didn’t have to go out on patrol…Just consider this. During an 8hour shift, we had not 5 or 10 people but 50 immigrants. If you add all the shifts in all police stations…there are 3 or 4 in every region’ (Interview, Petrou Ralli detention centre, 2011) As the quote above implies, the numbers of new arrivals were so high that the focus could not be just on deterring them with the construction of a fence but also on controlling all irregular arrivals through the tightening of border controls; a realization that was shared along the political spectrum. Yet they were not implemented solely in response to party political ambitions. Partly subsidised by the European Union to the tune of 250 million euros, the origins of the aforementioned plans appear to have come, as with much Greek border control, from further north. National Operation Aspida (shield), which involved the deployment of more border officers, was launched in the summer of 2012 (Frontex, 2012). ‘The Greek Police have played and continue to play an important part in the implementation of measures for the control of the legality of entry of alien immigrants in Greek territory’, explained the 99