The Changing Seasons of Migration
Greece has been making headlines this year. The country’s economic woes, its political struggles and tough negotiations in Brussels have all served to keep the spotlight firmly on the birthplace of democracy. But away from the front-page news and behind the economic and political headlines lie deeper social and cultural changes for Greek society. Still the main entry point to the EU for irregular migration, the country’s border with Turkey is under similar migratory pressure as it was a year ago. But behind the figures there is always a human story and while the numbers remain similar, the deeper picture is constantly changing in terms of composition, route and reasons for moving.
Political divisions exposed during parliamentary polls this year — in which immigration proved an important electoral issue — was an indication of the strength of feeling the issue evokes.
Many in Greece have grown weary of their nation’s status of ‘gateway to Europe’ for irregular migrants — mostly via the land border with Turkey in the Evros river region — and the social costs of that pressure have been widely reported.
Following an assault on five Indian and Pakistani immigrants in their homes, reportedly by 20 masked men, Greek daily Kathimerini cited anti-racism campaigners in Greece as claiming to have recorded 300 racially-motivated attacks since April, mostly against South Asian migrants, and called for increased protection from a “surge in hate crimes.”
Also in July, the US-based Human Rights Watch issued a report claiming to have documented dozens of such attacks and warning of a surge in xenophobic violence.
Out of the frying pan, into the fire…
Against this backdrop of hostility from some elements of Greek society, and the undeniable economic hardships Greece is suffering, the question many have asked is: Why do migrants still come to Greece? And the answer, as is often the case in migration, is not a simple one.
One thing that is made clear by Frontex analysis of migrants’ interviews following their detection at the border, is that every story is as individual as its teller. However, some patterns do emerge, and those patterns are constantly changing.
Overall, the number of detections at the Greek-Turkish land border, with over 21,000 migrant arrivals in the first half of 2012, was roughly 10% higher compared to the same period last year. But in June there were over 4800 crossings, 33% up on June 2011. The first three months of the year saw only about 4000 detections but the numbers of migrants began to increase in mid-April with some 1000 crossing the border every week since then.
Seasonality in migration is nothing new; low detections in winter and high detections in spring and summer are an established pattern. But a closer examination of the figures shows important changes.
Most migrants intending to cross the Greek border travel first to Istanbul, from where they are transported by people-smugglers to the banks of the Evros according to Frontex ‘debriefers,’ whose job it is to interview irregular migrants after their apprehension. The crossing usually takes place at night when groups of migrants are put on rubber boats or lead across the land border near the city of Orestiada.
Marius Visenescu is a Romanian police officer who works for the general police inspectorate in Bucharest and conducts investigations in the field of illegal migration. He has been deployed to the Frontex-coordinated Joint Operation (JO) Poseidon Land for ten months over the last two years and has interviewed many migrants in that time.
“At the moment we are seeing mostly migrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan [and] Bangladesh but also increasing numbers of migrants from Syria,” he told Frontex in an interview. “In comparison with last year there are definitely fewer migrants from North African countries.”
The turmoil of last year’s Arab Spring was certainly felt in the Evros region with increasing numbers of North Africans arriving. This year, as the focus of change rests firmly on Syria, those nationals’ numbers have jumped. A report on the first quarter of the year by Frontex’s Risk Analysis Network (FRAN) put the growth in Syrian arrivals for the first three months at 467%. But though the percentage growth was high, the numbers in absolute terms remained relatively small at about 2,000 detections in the first half-year. The situation is never static however, and the volatile situation in Syria had led that number to rise to 3,449 by late July as the security situation in Syria deteriorated. The natural tendency perhaps is to assume all Syrian migrants are coming from the increasingly over-crowded refugee camps in Turkey and Syria’s other neighbouring countries, but not so according to Visenescu. “They are mostly young men who have already served in the army and were asked to extend their service,” he said. “These men chose to leave the country instead. Among the Syrian migrants there are also some families who hope to reach their relatives, mostly in Germany.”
In terms of the routes and modi operandi used too, a clear pattern had emerged, according to Visenescu.
“The Syrian migrants usually cross the border between Syria and Turkey by climbing a wire fence that divides the two countries,” he reported. “From the border they travel to Istanbul where they contact facilitators. They stay in hotels until they are transported to the border in vans. They cross the Evros River like other emigrants using rubber boats at night.”
The role of people-smuggling gangs, or facilitators, cannot be ignored. Indeed, intercepting and arresting those who facilitate illegal migration is one of the goals of the Frontex-coordinated operation. In the first six months of this year alone, 27 suspected facilitators were arrested. Two Turkish facilitators who shot at Greek and German guest officers were also sentenced to 31 years in prison by a Greek court.
Moving on?
But there is more to facilitation than getting people into Greece. Once in the EU, most migrants aim to continue their journey, and these “secondary movements” create another revenue stream for the crime groups that smuggle migrants. In terms of secondary movements, the Western Balkans route continued to typify onward travel from Greece in the first quarter, with detections of non-European migrants some 50% higher than in the first quarter of 2011. Conversely, the number of migrants moving on to Italy’s Apulia and Calabria regions fell to the lowest level in over a year though with the onset of summer the Italian option was increasingly being used with a total of 762 detections in the operational area of JO Aeneas in the Ionian Sea by the end of July. An article by the EUObserver news service in June offered more insight into secondary movements from Greece, reporting that migrants were paying up to EUR 5,000 a head to be smuggled into Italy, among other destinations. The service also reported that smugglers often require them to leave their children behind as a “deposit.” Once migrants are settled in a Member State, the smugglers then take the children to Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in Athens with a view to reunifying the family, according to one NGO worker.
“We have become a tool of the smugglers and part of this game,” EUObserver quoted Kenneth Brant Hansen from the Greek Council for Refugees in Athens as saying. “Of course we are not happy about this situation; on the other hand we cannot refuse to reunite families, especially when it involves minor children,” he continued, going on to explain that the men involved were “professional Afghan smugglers.” That statement tallies with the findings of the FRAN Quarterly report, and with accounts from Visenescu: “The largest group of migrants are still Afghans,” he said, explaining that first appearances were often deceptive. “The majority of them come from Iran where they have lived for two or three generations, although most of them never obtained legal status. It is estimated that over one and a half million Afghan nationals live in Iran. Due to pressure from Iranian authorities, many Afghans are now forced to leave the country. Some choose to come to Europe. When they travel from Iran across Turkey, facilitators provide them with false Turkish identity cards or fake Iranian passports. They pay facilitators at least $3,000 to get them to Greece. From Greece they hope to go other European countries, such as Sweden or Norway.”
As Greece struggles to forge an asylum system and reception facilities to accommodate newly-arrived migrants, the flows remain remarkably constant, straining public services and public opinion alike. As the seasons change, so the types and volumes of flows change with them. But as the old saying goes, “the more things change, the more they stay the same."
