Is the Evros river at the Greek Turkish northeastern land border the last frontier of Europe? Is it another face of the Greek crisis? Maybe both. The two videos, one prepared by the Swiss television and the second by two independent reporters (Bryan Carter & Sean Carter)
The situation is difficult and irregular migrants are now also becoming a main subject in the Greek election campaign. In the absence of any good news in the economic front or in the front of structural reform, Greek politicians from several mainstream parties including the socialist party PASOK and the conservative party New Democracy seek to capitalise on massive ‘law and order’ operations of arresting irregular migrants at the centre of Athens, making big announcements about the creation of 30 new identification and expulsion centres (euphemistically called “centres of hospitality”) for irregular migrants when little has been done to implement the very good new law on irregular migration and asylum voted more than 12 months ago by the Greek Parliament (in January 2011). Spreading alarming news arguing that irregular migrants are a ‘health bomb’ in the centre of Athens and requesting that all migrants (legal or undocumented) go through special medical examinations (maybe also children born and raised in Greece, and people settled in the country for 5, 10 or 15 years???). Unfortunately in the election campaigns across Europe, the risk of xenophobic and racist discourses taking the toll in a desperate effort of failed political elites to win voters is tangible.