National security, not human rights

This report reveals that the situation with illegal immigrants is now so bad in the Dodecanese that islanders are threatening to block ports to prevent any more arrivals. In fact, on Patmos and Agathonisi, the illegals now outnumber the locals, who are overwhelmed and complaining that their livelihoods are in jeopardy.

Patmos hoteliers are so concerned by the situation that they have written to the Interior Ministry arguing that their island 'cannot be promoted as a destination for high-end tourism on the one hand and permit hundreds of illegal immigrants to wander around hungry and dirty, begging and stealing from tourists.'

Now, these illegals obviously are wretches and victims of sorts; but to dwell on their status and condition is to miss the point; which is that we all know who is behind the dumping of these people on Greek shores and the reasons why they are doing it.

It is the Turkish government that is aiding and abetting the people-smugglers in an effort to destabilise and embarrass Greece, particularly in relation to the islands off the Turkish coast, where Turkey disputes Greek sovereignty.

Clearly, then – as with the Muslims in Thrace and the Slavophones in Macedonia – what we are dealing with here is not a human rights issue, but a matter of national security. In fact, anyone who pretends that the question of the Muslims in Thrace, the tiny Slavophone population in Macedonia or the illegal migrants arriving from Turkey, is anything other than one of Greek national security is either ignorant or malicious.