Political asylum: New economic burdens on Greece

Nahla Abdel Moneim

Amid the escalating violence in the Middle East – especially in Syria, where the people are forced to leave to neighboring Turkey, which is using them as a “pressure card” against Europe – Greece is suffering, as it is a gateway crossing from Turkey to Europe for thousands of refugees on its borders, which directly affects its already hurting economy.

On February 29, the Turkish government announced opening its borders so that more refugees could flow towards Europe through its borders with Greece. Fahrettin Altun, the Turkish presidential communications director, explained that the international and European community did not give his country the sufficient support it deserved to contain the Syrian migrants in the country, who numbered about 4 million refugees. However, many observers also connect this decision to the painful military strike that Turkish forces received in Idlib, in which more than 30 Turkish soldiers were killed, meaning that the new influx of refugees is also being employed politically by Ankara.

Economic obligations

Far from the political agitation of the refugee crisis, the most obvious variables regarding this issue include the economic file, the extent to which Greece is negatively or positively affected by the waves of migration, and the financial and moral obligations imposed on all countries in the region.

On March 1, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) confirmed that at least 13,000 immigrants are currently gathered at the border between Greece and Turkey. Greece refuses to receive them and Europe fears them, so the European Union accordingly decided to grant Greece €700 million to overcome the refugee crisis.

Greece had already been suffering from bankruptcy a few years ago, the country entered into a suffocating crisis, and foreign investment declined. In 2010, the state accumulated such a large external debt that it became unable to pay, and the country is still trying to address the negative effects of that crisis.

Greek tourism and the refugee crisis

Consequently, the waves of migrants have put pressure on Greece’s financial policies, and EU countries are trying to help contain the situation. But on the other side, Turkey is taking advantage of the economic crisis faced by Greece, severely affecting tourism through the flow of migration.

According to economic reports, the tourism sector constitutes at least 18% of Greece’s total revenue. The country is visited by about 22 million tourists annually, but the coastal areas are strongly affected by the successive migrations across the Aegean Sea between Turkey and Greece.

In this regard, the government is trying to mitigate the effects of migrants on the popularity of coastal tourist areas in the region to reduce losses. In March 2016, former Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras stressed that the flow of migrants did not constitute a major crisis on the tourism sector and called on the media to stop promoting the crisis since the sector represents an important revenue source for the state.

Turkey insults its guests

Ahmed Saadoun, legal researcher on immigration affairs, said that Turkey opening its borders for migrants towards Europe is inhumane, as it puts refugees’ lives at risk, in terms of the possibility of them being kidnapped for human trafficking. The Syrians are currently paying for Erdogan’s political battles in the region, he added.

As for the European position on this, Saadoun pointed out that Europe has not been right to agree with Turkey on the issue of refugees, as Ankara uses it politically. He noted that Greece is only a point of crossing to Europe and cannot absorb the large number of migrants.