Thomas Hammarberg, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe visiting the Fylakio Center for irregular migrants in December. (Sandro Weltin/Council of Europe)From International Herald Tribune:
An unstinting stream of the shortchanged - from Asia, Africa and other points in between - seeks each day to penetrate the borders of Europe, whose wealth holds out the promise of a future. But those who try to breach Fortress Europe here often fall victim to one of the Continent's most bitter rivalries.
The 182-kilometer, or 113-mile, land border between Greece and Turkey - the easternmost land border of the European Union - is militarized, and an 11-kilometer section of it is riddled with land mines, a vestige of the countries' 1974 conflict over Cyprus. At the time, Greek authorities buried 25,000 antipersonnel and antitank mines in this rugged terrain after Turkey invaded the island of Cyprus to foil a bid by Athens to unite Cyprus with Greece.
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