The effects of border controls on the redirection of irregular migrants flows: the case of the Greece-Turkey fence

Despite border controls are widely implemented in the European Union, irregular migration flows to Europe have remained significant. In this paper I study the effect of the construction of the Greece-Turkey fence in 2012 on the redirection of irregular migration flows to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea route. I find that after the construction of the fence, monthly border crossings detected on the Eastern Mediterranean Sea route increased on average by 832. These findings reveal that the imposition of border controls does not affect people’s decision to migrate irregularly, but only changes the route migrants choose to take to reach Europe.