In Post-Pandemic Europe, Migrants Will Face Digital Fortress

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Last edited Wed Jun 2, 2021, 08:36 AM - Edit history (1)

- Police patrol a steel wall area in Greece at Evros river, near Poros at the Greek -Turkish border. An automated hi-tech surveillance network is being built there to detect migrants early & deter them from crossing. River & land patrols with searchlights & long-range acoustic devices will also be used. May, 2021. (AP Photo, G. Papanikos)
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- 'In Post-Pandemic Europe, Migrants Will Face Digital Fortress.' AP News, By Dereck Gatopoulos and Costas Kantouris, May 31, 2021. -Excerpts, Ed.

PEPLO, Greece (AP) — As the world begins to travel again, Europe is sending migrants a loud message: Stay away!

Greek border police are firing bursts of deafening noise from an armored truck over the frontier into Turkey. Mounted on the vehicle, the long-range acoustic device, or “sound cannon,” is the size of a small TV set but can match the volume of a jet engine. It’s part of an array of new digital barriers being installed and tested during the quiet months of the pandemic at the 200-kilometer (125-mile) Greek border with Turkey to stop people entering the European Union illegally. A new steel wall, similar to recent construction on the U.S.-Mexico border, blocks commonly-used crossing points along the Evros River that separates the 2 countries. Nearby observation towers are being fitted with long-range cameras, night vision, & multiple sensors.
The data will be sent to control centers to flag suspicious movement using artificial intelligence analysis.. “We will have a clear ‘pre-border’ picture of what’s happening,” Police Maj. Dimonsthenis Kamargios said.

The EU has poured 3 billion euros ($3.7 billion) into security tech research following the refugee crisis in 2015-16, when more than 1 million people — many escaping wars in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan — fled to Greece and on to other EU countries.. Researchers at universities around Europe, working with private firms, have developed futuristic surveillance & verification technology, and tested more than a dozen projects at Greek borders. AI-powered lie detectors & virtual border-guard interview bots have been piloted, as well as efforts to integrate satellite data with footage from drones on land, air, sea & underwater. Palm scanners record the unique vein pattern in a person’s hand to use as a biometric identifier, & the makers of live camera reconstruction technology promise to erase foliage virtually, exposing people hiding near border areas.




- Electronic surveillance tower near Lagyna village, Greek-Turkish border, Greece.

Testing has also been conducted in Hungary, Latvia and elsewhere along the eastern EU perimeter. The more aggressive migration strategy has been advanced by European policymakers over the past 5 years, funding deals with Mediterranean countries outside the bloc to hold migrants back and transforming the EU border protection agency, Frontex, from a coordination mechanism to a full-fledged multinational security force.. But regional migration deals have left the EU exposed to political pressure from neighbors. Several thousand migrants recently crossed from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in one day and Spain deployed the army. A similar crisis on the Greek-Turkish border lasted 3 weeks last year.. Not all the surveillance programs being tested will be included in the new detection system, but human rights groups say the emerging technology will make it even harder for refugees fleeing wars and extreme hardship to find safety.

- Patrick Breyer, a European lawmaker from Germany, has taken an EU research authority to court, demanding that details of the AI-powered lie detection program be made public.
- “What we are seeing at the borders, and in treating foreign nationals generally, is that it’s often a testing field for technologies that are later used on Europeans as well. And that’s why everybody should care, in their own self-interest,” Breyer of the German Pirates Party told the AP. -
He urged authorities to allow broad oversight of border surveillance methods to review ethical concerns and prevent the sale of the technology through private partners to authoritarian regimes outside the EU...

Read More, + A few more photos at link.
https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-europe-migration-technology-health-c23251bec65ba45205a0851fab07e9b6



- A police officer works inside the operation center at Nea Vyssa village near the Greek-Turkish border, Greece. The center's surveillance network being built on the Greek-Turkish border is to detect migrants early & deter them from crossing the border.







- Police drone operator pilots a drone during a patrol at Evros river, near the village of Feres, at the Greek -Turkish border, Greece, May, 2021.