EU says Greece-Turkey border walls won't thwart illegal migration

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English.news.cn 2011-01-04 06:50:04

BRUSSELS, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- Fences and walls between the Greek and Turkish borders are only short-term measures that will not provide real help in fighting illegal migration, the European Commission said here on Monday.
Greek junior minister for citizen protection Christos Papoutsis said on Friday that Greece was planning to construct a fence along its border with Turkey in order to deal with illegal migration.
"Fences and walls have proven in the past to be very short- term measures that don't really help managing the migratory challenge in a more consolidated and structural way," the commission noted at a daily press briefing.
Management of borders in the European Union (EU) is a national competence and border disputes should be solved through dialogue between countries of origin and transit of migration, the institution's spokesman reminded.
He highlighted the importance of surveilling and managing borders to fight traffickers and smugglers that exploit immigrants, and also underlined the need for a final readmission agreement with Turkey, which is of huge importance to address the current challenges Greece is experiencing.
"The country needs sound and long-term structural reforms and measures in order to better manage its border, in order to better address the challenges linked to migration flows and in order to create a sound and efficient asylum system in the country," the commission said.
In November, following a request from the Greek government, the EU deployed 175 officers from the Rapid Border Intervention Teams (RABIT) at the Greek-Turkish border to control the massive inflow of immigrants from Turkey, resulting in a fall of illegal border crossings of more than 40 percent.
Editor: Mu Xuequan

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