For Illegal Immigrants, Greek Border Offers a Back Door to Europe

Sunday, May 19, 2013 Last Update: 9:55 PM ET

Community
Greece
Sports
International
USA
Cyprus
Opinions
Culture
Obituaries
Social
Classifieds

For Illegal Immigrants, Greek Border Offers a Back Door to Europe

By J. MICHAEL KENNEDY

Daniel Etter for The New York Times
Shamzur Rahmat, 17, and other Afghans who earn $40 a week in Istanbul. Many are saving to pay smugglers to get them into Greece.

ALEXANDROUPOLIS, Greece — At the train station here, an unshaven man with a weary look leaned against the brick wall of a building, taking in the morning sun. He said that his name was Zulifoar Baht; that he was 38, from Pakistan; and that his train for Athens would not arrive until midafternoon. So there was nothing to do but wait, along with a dozen or so other illegal immigrants who had finally made it into Greece from Turkey, crossing

Already a subscriber?
Sign in to read full article.
Not a subscriber?
Subscribe now and get full access!

Or... enter your email and start reading this article now:

July 14, 2012

Save article

5 readers comments


1. Philip Vorgias wrote on July 14, 2012 7:18 PM	No nation can long exist if it doesn't control their borders. Greece pays a fortune for an Army, why the hell aren't they deployed along the border stopping this flood of illegal immigrants? Can't Greece even do THAT?!

2. Niko Seretis wrote on July 14, 2012 10:34 PM	The EU has done nothing to help Greece deal with these illegals or with Turkey's business of sending them to Greece. This is only adding fuel to the fire already burning in almost every Greek citizen and eventually, the Greeks will take out their frustrations and I'm afraid that it'll be at the expense the immigrants.

3. Aristide Caratzas wrote on July 15, 2012 11:41 AM	The only thing I wish to add to the comments above is that the terms "illegal alien" is preferable, because "immigrant" has some connotation of legitimacy. The problem in Greece is not so much with the immigrants (of whom there are hundreds of thousands, including Greeks from the former Soviet Union and Northern Epirus), but with the hundreds of thousands more of illegal aliens smuggled into Greece mostly from Turkey.

4. Philip Vorgias wrote on July 15, 2012 12:26 PM	Samaras need to demonstrate business as usual is over with and deploy Greek military forces along the border to STOP this flow of illegal aliens. This is an attack on Greek sovereignty as real as an attack by an foreign army. Greece is paying for the Army anyway, why don't they assign it to a real mission which helps Greece? Show some performance addressing a real problem! Demonstrate that Greek governments are not totally useless!

5. Nicholas Kostopoulos wrote on July 16, 2012 5:22 PM	This like all Greek Governments in the past and present which have been failures, and is a failure. It is high time that to control the border mess, crime, illegal aliens, etc. the government must be turned over to the army. They must crush these illegal criminals, and restore order to Greece, which has lost it to the so-called democratic governments of Samaras, and others. There is no other type of government which has the power to get things done, if not now when, The when will be when it to late to do anything because the disaster is to much to save the country.
You must sign in in order to post a comment.