Rights group slams Greek floating-barrier plan

ATHENS, Greece — Amnesty International on Thursday criticized Greece’s plans to deploy a floating barrier as a way to prevent migrants from reaching the Greek islands from nearby Turkey.

The international rights group’s research director for Europe, Massimo Moratti, described the plan as “an alarming escalation in the Greek government’s ongoing efforts to make it as difficult as possible for asylum-seekers and refugees to arrive on its shores.”

Greece’s Defense Ministry has invited private contractors to bid on supplying a 1.7-milelong floating fence within three months. A government official told The Associated Press the contract process would be executed by the Defense Ministry but was for civilian use, similar to the military’s supply of equipment for housing in refugee camps.

“The plan raises serious issues about rescuers’ ability to continue providing life-saving assistance to people attempting the dangerous sea crossing to Lesbos,” Moratti said in a statement. “The government must urgently clarify the operational details and necessary safeguards to ensure that this system does not cost further lives.”

Greece’s six-month-old center-right government has promised to take a tougher line on the migration crisis and plans to set up detention facilities for migrants denied asylum and to speed up deportations back to Turkey. Government spokesman Stelios Petsas said there would be returns every Friday, with an aim to have 10,000 returns in 2020.

Petsas said the floating barrier system “will have to be tested to see whether it will safely bring the results we want.”