Evros

Evros is the northeastern-most prefecture of Greece, bordering Turkey and Bulgaria. It has a long history of border shifts and population movements. Over the last two centuries these were particularly vigorous, especially around the period of the Balkan wars in the 1920s. Since then, the area has been highly securitised and militarised. Before the 1990s it also demarcated a Cold War border. And especially after the war in Cyprus in 1974, it demarcated a highly sensitive border between arch enemy states Greece and Turkey. Recent migration movements across the border in the river Evros have prompted a re-securitisation of the area. Unlike border security arrangements in the Aegean islands though, it is the Greek military that controls arrangements in Evros. Border security is thus a national rather than EU issue. People dying during their attempts to cross the river irregularly are a frequent tragic occurrence in Evros.

In 2011Greece, constructed a fence on the short stretch of the border that is demarcated on land rather than the river. It has fortified this several times since then. The Reception and Identification Centre (RIC) at the village of Fylakio lies in the municipality of Orestiada on the Greek side of the tripartite Greece-Turkey-Bulgaria border. It has operated as a closed facility for the detention and identification of migrants since March 2013. Its current capacity of 700 (half of which designated as pre-deportation), was to expand in government measures announced in late 2020.

Residents of the area have protested a number of times regarding this expansion. However, much larger protests in the wider Evros region over migration overshadowed them. Meanwhile, pro-migrant activism in the area is much less visible than other locations. Notably, violent protests also erupted in 2020 in the Evros region when police and residents clashed with crossing migrants and refugees. These clashes resulted in the deaths of two people who had been shot with live ammunition while attempting to cross. An ECHR case is ongoing.