The Greek-Turkish land border of Evros, on the other hand, had for years constituted
the main entry-point for third-country nationals/non-nationals fleeing persecution or
destitution towards Europe. That is, until 2013, when increased security controls and a
border fence built in 2012 led, on the one hand, to drastically reducing the number of
arrivals and, on the other, to “displacing” them towards the well-known, by now, Aegean islands. Yet despite its “low profile” in terms of media and political attention, as
the latter have for three years now been predominantly focused on the situation in the
Aegean, Evros remained and is once more gradually becoming a significant entry-point
for mixed migration flows, with reception-related problems of its own.8
YEARLY ARRIVALS AT THE EVROS LAND
BORDER
54974
60000
47088
50000
40000
30433
30000
20000
8787
10000
1122
1914
2013
2014
4907
3784
5677
2015
2016
2017*
0
2009
2010
2011
2012
Source: Hellenic Police.9 *To be noted, as per a Press Release issued by the Ministry of Citizen Protection on 30.01.18,10 Evros-based arrivals well exceeded the numbers provided by the police (7,544).
The city-port of Patra, lastly, though not a border point of entry has traditionally been
a border point of exit from Greece to Italy, and from there to the rest of Europe. Significantly, since the summer of 2017, Patra saw a renewed surge in (secondary movement)
arrivals of asylum seekers who, tired of their forced entrapment in Greece, once more
reached the city in a last, desperate attempt at continuing their journey onwards into
Europe via “other” means. Throughout this process, they resided in two of the city’s
derelict factories, becoming virtually invisible and forgotten by the official system of
protection (i.e. the state), while exposed to daily living conditions that only served to
further aggravate their health. That is, up to mid-May 2018, when following a series of
incidents between the port’s authorities and refugees, a belated transfer of the latter was
undertaken by the state. In this context, Patra represented a devastating example of the
effects that the overall policy pursued following the Statement’s implementation in both
Greece and Europe has had on vulnerable persons’ lives, and accordingly its selection
as a destination was deemed mandatory.
Preliminary Findings
More than two years have passed since the much debated and controversial implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement. That is, more than two years during which the Greek
5