ATHENS – A year after Turkey tried, and failed, to get 10,000 migrants across the border along the Evros River, Greece is stepping up patrols and surveillance teams using radar and cameras that can see 15 kilometers (9.32 miles) across the other side.

They are being set up in an area between Sofiko in Orestiada and the river delta in Alexandroupolis, said Kathimerini, reporting that authorities said 11 cameras and long-range radars have been installed and will soon be operational. They will be linked to Hellenic Police headquarters and six other operational centers.

The project has a budget of 14.9 million euros ($18.1 million) and is funded by the European Commission’s Directorate General Migration and Home Affairs, the area also monitored by European Union FRONTEX border patrol teams.

Human rights groups and activists have complained that Greece has pushed back refugees and migrants in the Aegean back toward Turkey, which let human smugglers try to get them to Greek islands, and that Greece has also done the same on the land border, which the government denied.