numbers in detention but is considerably more than the nation’s prison population.17 In Athens and Korinthos alone, building works are taking place in order to facilitate the detention of 4,000 migrants in each centre.18 These developments appeared, on the one hand, designed to siphon away voters who were otherwise attracted to the anti-immigrant sentiments of Golden Dawn. Yet they were not implemented solely in response to local ambitions. Partly subsidised by the European Union to the tune of 250 million euros, the origins of the plan appear to have come, as with much Greek border control, from further north. Even before its current economic problems, Greece was considered a liability for ‘fortress Europe’. The country’s repeated failure to protect its borders has only heightened political tensions as EU states worried that their own tight job markets cannot handle the tide of irregular migrants pouring into the rest of Europe via Greece. The influx from abroad has not only sustained a backdrop of a wider social unease and anti-immigrant sentiment within Greece but has lead to widespread critique of Greece from EU member states. In June 2012, Greece failed its five-yearly Schengen evaluation due to ‘serious shortcomings’ in its border management, leading to the possibility that member states may reintroduce internal border controls at their own discretion in emergency cases19. If this happens, Greece could be effectively isolated from the rest of the Schengen zone. Irregular migration, then, has become crucial for developing rhetoric surrounding the need for stricter border controls and tougher policies that would at the same time satisfy Greece’s EU partners. Required on the one hand to secure its border with Turkey on behalf of all of Europe and hence effectively deliver a secure external border, Greece must do so, 17 Greece’s current prison population is estimated at around 12,000 people. The total detention capacity in specialised detention centres at the moment is 2,500. 18 See, for instance, Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants, (2012) http://picum.org/it/attualita/bolletino/38052/ 19 http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/en/jha/130761.pdf? 8