Greece: navy versus migrants?
In recent weeks, the number of refugees trying to reach Europe via Libya has increased substantially. Now Athens plans to use the navy to patrol the Libyan coast and ward them off. The message Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis wants to send: people smugglers won't be allowed to dictate who comes to Greece. The national press is divided.
Severity of the situation taken on board
The web portal Liberal welcomes the measure:
“Even if the numbers are not alarming, they are still deeply worrying. ... As an example, 729 people entered the country via southern Crete on a single day, 20 June. ... The aim [according to Prime Minister Mitsotakis] is to send a signal that it is not the smugglers who decide who enters the country. No easy task in foreign waters, but it shows that the country's political leaders have understood that if the swelling influx of people is not tackled at source, in other words on the Libyan coast, the situation in Greece will soon become hard to control and in the long term uncontrollable.”
Dangerous and half baked
Documento asks what this strategy will look like in practice:
“It could turn out to be extremely dangerous, both for people's lives and for the country's image internationally. ... A Greek frigate encounters a boat carrying hundreds of migrants in international waters. If that boat is shipwrecked and starts sinking, what will the Greek frigate do? Will it pick up the shipwrecked people as is its duty? Will it let them drown, as happened in Pylos? Will it wait till the Greek or Libyan coast guard comes to the rescue? Where will the people be taken to? When the government plays with frigates to make a statement, the result is not only ridiculous, it is also dangerous.”