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EU guards arrive in Greece for border mission

02 November 2010, 23:03 CET
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(ATHENS) - Border guards from 26 nations began arriving Tuesday in northeastern Greece to help curb a wave of illegal immigrants crossing over from Turkey, European border agency Frontex said.

Coordinated by Greek police, some 170 guards will be on hand as of Thursday and until the end of December to monitor borders and scout for illegal immigrants, Frontex spokesman Michal Parzyszek said.

"We want all people who are crossing the border to be identified and we want to put the migratory flow under control," Parzyszek said in a telephone interview.

Germany heads the list of contributing nations, having dispatched 41 police officers to monitor Greek frontiers.

The guards will carry out day and night patrols, and interview and identify illegal immigrants in order to send them back to their home country, Parzyszek said.

Greece became the first European Union country to ask for help from the EU's Rapid Border Intervention Teams after hundreds of migrants from north Africa and war zones such as Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan began flooding through the porous Greek-Turkish border in recent weeks.

More than three-quarters of the 40,977 people intercepted while clandestinely immigrating into the EU in the first half of 2010 entered through Greece, mainly coming from Turkey, according to Frontex.

The vast majority are economic refugees exploited by human traffickers.

A Greek NGO supporting migrants slammed the border operation and Frontex, describing the European agency as an "immigrant hunter".

FRONTEX

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