ABSTRACT
From the beginning of 2015, the year that more than 870,000 people 1 entered Europe through the Greek–Turkish maritime border, the year that marked the start of the so-called ‘refugee crisis’, the method and requirements of granting protection to refugees were reformed. The initial adoption of a generous welcoming policy, primarily by Germany and other member states, was soon abandoned to be replaced by a policy of deterrence, inducing the adoption, on behalf of the EU, of a security mindset – controlling rather than protecting refugees. 2 The border security policy attained a clear and well-defined target: to prevent, at any cost, the movement of refugees towards Europe (Fotiadis 2017, 67–76). The ‘Welcome–Farewell’ attitude, which prevailed until early 2016, and was typical of the Greek position, was soon over.
