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Great Big Walls

Keep out! 10 of the world's most significant border 'walls'

Imposing structures, soldiers with guns and strict rules.

DONALD TRUMP WANTS to build a great big one between Mexico and the US but there are already 65 border walls either planned or erected in the world.

That figure is up from just 16 when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, according to University of Quebec expert Elisabeth Vallet.

Experts say they serve a primarily political and symbolic function, but they have become increasingly popular with governments as they try to look tough on migration and security.

As the so-called migrant crisis escalates, AFP has taken a look at the most significant walls built for the sole purpose to keep people out.

Hungary

Hungary Anti-Migrant Fence AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

The most recent wall is the work of Hungary’s right-wing government, which began building a 177-kilometre fence along its border with Serbia in July after receiving a record 80,000 asylum applications this year.

Morocco

Spain Migrants AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara: The oldest functioning security barrier in the world, this 1,700-mile sand wall (or berm) separates the Moroccan territory from land controlled by Polisario rebels, who have been fighting and negotiating for control of the Western Sahara since the 1970s.

Saudi Arabia-Iraq

Mideast Saudi Arabia Yemen AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

Responding to the rise of the Islamic State group last year, the Saudis are supplementing the existing seven-metre-high sand berm on the Iraqi border with a 560-mile fence, 78 watchtowers, eight command centres, 10 mobile surveillance vehicles, 32 rapid-response centres, and three rapid intervention squads.

Israel-West Bank

Mideast Israel Palestinians Israeli border police officers fire tear gas towards Palestinian protesters during a demonstration against the separation barrier. AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

Israel began building its barrier in 2002, saying it would stop attacks by Palestinian insurgents, though critics say it has been used to seize land and establish a de facto border in breach of international law.

US-Mexico

Immigration Busiest Border Crossing AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

Then-US president Bill Clinton launched concerted efforts to tighten the border in the 1990s. Fears that the porous border could be exploited by Al-Qaeda – and now the Islamic State group – have led to more and tougher barriers, forced to the top of the political agenda in recent weeks by tub-thumping presidential hopeful Donald Trump, who said in June that he would make Mexico pay to have a wall built along the border.

Greece-Turkey

Greece Fence Border AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

A side-effect of improving relations with Turkey and the removal of landmines along their border was that Greece became the leading entry point for migrants into Europe at just the moment when its economy was collapsing. So in 2012 it built the seven-mile Evros wall along the boundary.

Northern Ireland

Britain Northern Ireland G8 Belfast Walls AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

 

Belfast has 99 “peace lines” designed to separate Protestant and Catholic communities, the earliest dating back to 1969. They are focused on the north of the city, known as “murder mile” during the period of The Troubles, which lasted until the 1998′s Good Friday Agreement. Despite the ceasefire, the walls have remained.

Spain Morocco

YE Spain Migrants AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

The Spanish-owned enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla on the North African coast are protected by high-tech border fences. Many have died trying to storm the fences, some shot by Moroccan forces.

India-Bangladesh

India Bangladesh Anupam Nath Anupam Nath

Since 1993, India has been gradually surrounding Bangladesh with a barbed-wire fence aimed at restricting immigration, leading to drawn-out arguments over the precise line of the frontier and leaving up to 100,000 people abandoned in a no-man’s land with no public services.

Cyprus

Cyprus Civil War United Nations Forces Danish Troops Danish Troops of UN peace force remove a roadblock of sandbags outside Ledra palace hotel on 2 June 1964 in Cyprus, one of the worst danger spots of the Greek Turkish Cypriot border in downtown Nicosia. AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

A wall continues to split the island and its capital Nicosia between its Turkish and Greek Cypriot parts, dating back to Turkey’s invasion in 1974.

© AFP, 2015 

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