As the world begins to travel again, Europe is sending a resounding message to immigrants and refugees: Stay away!

The Greek border police are launching a deafening noise from an armored truck across the border into Turkey. Although the remote sound device (or “sonic cannon”) installed on the vehicle is small, it can match the size of the jet engine.

It is part of a large number of physical and experimental new digital barriers installed and tested during the silent months of the coronavirus pandemic that occurred 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the Greek-Turkish border, which prevents people without documents Enter the European Union.

A new steel fence, similar to the one recently built on the U.S.-Mexico border, blocked the usual crossing points along the Evros River that separates the two countries.

The nearby observation towers are equipped with remote cameras, night vision goggles and multiple sensors. The data will be sent to the control center to use artificial intelligence analysis to flag suspicious activity.

“We will have a clear picture of what is happening,” Chief Dimosthenis Kamargios, the head of the border guard in the area, told the Associated Press.

Future monitoring

After the 2015-16 refugee crisis, the EU has invested 3 billion euros ($3.7 billion) in security technology research, when more than 1 million people (many of whom fled the wars in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan) fled to Greece and other EU countries .

The purpose of the automatic surveillance network established on the Greek-Turkish border is to detect immigrants and refugees as early as possible, and use searchlights and remote sound equipment to patrol the river and land to prevent them from crossing the border.

Kamargios said that key elements of the network will be launched at the end of this year. “Our task is to prevent immigrants from entering the country illegally. We need modern equipment and tools to do this.”

Researchers from universities across Europe have worked with private companies to develop futuristic surveillance and verification technologies, and have tested more than a dozen projects along the Greek border.

Artificial intelligence-driven polygraphs and virtual border guard interview robots have been tried out, and efforts have been made to integrate satellite data with the cameras of land, air, sea and underwater drones.

Palm scanners will record unique vein patterns in the hands of people to use as biometric identifiers, while manufacturers of real-time camera reconstruction technology promise to erase leaves virtually, exposing people hidden near the border area.

Tests were also conducted in Hungary, Latvia and other parts of the eastern European Union.

The immigrants arrested after illegally crossing the border from Turkey stand behind the fence of the detention center near the village of Fylakio on the Greek-Turkish border. [Giannis Papanikos/AP]

“Technology Test Field”

In the past five years, European policymakers have proposed more radical immigration strategies, funded with Mediterranean countries outside the group to prevent transactions with migrants and refugees, and transformed Frontex, the EU border protection agency, from a coordination mechanism to a mature one. Of multinational companies. Security forces.

But the regional immigration agreement puts the EU facing political pressure from neighboring countries.

Earlier this month, thousands of immigrants and refugees crossed from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in one day, prompting Spain to deploy troops. Last year, a similar crisis occurred on the Greek-Turkish border and lasted for three weeks.

Greece urges the European Union to allow Frontex to patrol its territorial waters to prevent immigrants and refugees from reaching Lesbos and other Greek islands, the most common illegal border crossing route in Europe in recent years.

European law enforcement agencies equipped with new technological tools are further tilting abroad.

Not all surveillance programs being tested will be included in the new detection system, but human rights groups say that emerging technologies will make it difficult for refugees fleeing war and extreme hardship to find safety.

Patrick Breyer, a European member of Parliament from Germany, has taken EU research institutions to court, demanding that the details of artificial intelligence-based polygraph procedures be made public.

“What we have seen on the border, and the treatment of foreign nationals in general, is that it often becomes a testing ground for technologies that were later used by Europeans. This is why everyone should care for their own interests. ,” Breyer of the German Pirate Party told The Associated Press.

He urged the authorities to allow extensive monitoring of border surveillance methods to review ethical issues and prevent the sale of the technology to authoritarian regimes outside the EU through private partners.

The police patrol by the steel wall of the Evros river near the village of Poros on the Greek-Turkish border [Giannis Papanikos/AP]

“Dehumanize” people on the move

Ella Jakubowska of the digital rights organization EDRi believes that when dealing with complex immigration issues, EU officials are adopting a “technological solutionist” standpoint to consider ethical issues.

She said: “It is deeply disturbing that, time and time again, EU funds have been invested in expensive technologies that are used to criminalize people on the move, test them and make them inhumane. .”

During the pandemic, the flow of immigrants slowed in many parts of Europe, interrupting the growth that had been recorded over the years. For example, in Greece, the number of arrivals dropped from nearly 75,000 in 2019 to 15,700 in 2020, a 78% reduction.

But the pressure will definitely come back. According to United Nations data, between 2000 and 2020, the global immigrant population has increased by more than 80% to 272 million, faster than the growth of the international population.

In the Greek border village of Poros, a breakfast discussion in a cafe was about the recent crisis on the Spanish-Moroccan border.

Many houses in the area have been abandoned and gradually collapsed, and life is adapting to this reality.

Cows use the steel wall as a wind barrier and rest nearby.

Panagiotis Kyrgiannis, a resident of Poros, said the separation wall and other preventive measures have put immigrants and refugees in a deadlock at the border crossing.

He said: “We are used to seeing them in groups of 80 or 100 passing through the village and through the village.” “We are not afraid. … They don’t want to settle here. Everything that happens around us has nothing to do with us. .”