Special to WorldTribune.com

As threats from jihadist groups such as Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) rise, nations in the Middle East and North Africa are increasingly fortifying their borders with fences and walls.

“The Middle East and North Africa is now the most walled region in the world,” according to Said Saddiki, a professor of International Relations and International Law at Al-Ain University of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi.

The barriers include “fences inside cities to anti-migrant walls and separation barriers to counter-insurgency” barricades, Saddiki said.

Turkey and Tunisia, both recently hit by deadly terror attacks, are the latest to announce huge investments in border barriers, joining Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Israel among countries fortifying their borders.

Prime Minister Habib Essid ordered the construction of Tunisia’s barrier after nearly 40 European vacationers were gunned down by ISIL jihadists at a beach resort in June. Tunisia plans to build a fence that will stretch 100 miles inland from the coast along a vulnerable corridor of the frontier with Libya, into a region where terrorism is said to be fanned by the poverty away from the prosperous northeastern coast.

Turkey will invest $2 billion in its border barrier project. Deputy Pemier Bulent Arinc said on July 22 that the barrier is being built to stop militants entering from Syria, and that the “physical security system” will be aimed at stopping smugglers as well. On June 20, a bomb believed set off by ISIL killed more than 30 people in a border town.

Saudi Arabia has pumped over $3 billion into its “Great Wall” security system that separates its north from Iraq. The wall includes observation towers with cameras and motion detectors.

Israel has also incorporated high-tech cameras and motion detectors in its border barriers.

“Israel’s barriers have worked well for them so far,” said Brent Sterling, author of “Do Good Fences Make Good Neighbors?” and a professor at Georgetown University.

“Wall builders are just trying to improve their leverage and hope for the best,” Sterling said. “They aren’t a panacea, and if you do build a wall, you have to use the time it buys to deal with problems and not sit behind it forever and hope they’ll go away.”

  ISIL, Middle East-North Africa now ‘most walled region in the world’, Tunisia beach attack, WorldTribune.com