Groups of refugees as well as travelers are heading towards the EU after Turkey stated it is not going to settle for a bargain to quit them entering Europe.
Turkey’s decision comes after an airstrike on Thursday night in Syria’s Idlib province killed at least 33 Turkish soldiers recently deployed to support the Syrian opposition in the face of a bruising Russian-backed Syrian government offensive.
Turkey’s interactions principal stated the nation had actually not obtained sufficient assistance in organizing countless Syrian refugees.
The move prompted both neighboring nations to shore up their borders as their governments insisted they would not allow anyone to enter. Greek police used smoke grenades at one border crossing, while Bulgaria sent extra 1,000 troops to its frontier with Turkey.
The European Union, meanwhile, warned the Turkish president, RecepTayyipErdoğan, that it expected Ankara to abide by a €6bn (£5.2bn) deal to stem migration to its member states.
Under the 2016 agreement, Turkey agreed to halt the flow of people to the EU in return for funds. Turkey currently has about 3.6 million refugees from Syria. There was alarm in Brussels as footage of hundreds of refugees and migrants heading for the land and sea borders with Greece were aired by the Turkish state news agencies.
Turkey’s police, coastguard and border guards were ordered to stand down overnight on Thursday, Turkish officials briefed reporters. The change in policy has not yet been officially confirmed.
Turkey often threatens to reopen the migrant route from the Middle East, which at its peak in 2015 saw thousands drown in the Mediterranean and a million people reach Greece and Italy, where many still live in miserable displacement camps.
Greece boosted border patrols on Friday. An army source said about 300 people had been spotted on the Turkish side of the border in the north-eastern Evros region but that the numbers were “not out of the ordinary”.
“They will not enter the country. They are irregular migrants, we won’t let them enter,” a Greek government official told Reuters. The Greek Prime Minister KyriakoMitsotakis tweeted: “Significant numbers of migrants and refugees have gathered in large groups at the Greek-Turkish land border and have attempted to enter the country illegally. I want to be clear: no illegal entries into Greece will be tolerated.”
Bulgaria also increased security. The Prime Minister, BoykoBorissov, announced that army units, border police and the National Guard had been deployed to the border.
This decision, however, would in effect reverse a 2016 deal Turkey struck with the EU to cut the numbers of migrants entering Europe. It appears to be designed to force the EU and NATO to support Ankara’s new military operation in Idlib.Under the impression that the window to leave Turkey may be short-lived, some of the 3.6 million Syrians living in the country began to move quickly.
A Turkish news agency showed footage of what it said were 300 people, including women and children, walking on highways and through forested land in north-east Turkey towards the EU border early on Friday. Syrians, Iranians, Iraqis, Pakistanis and Moroccans were among those in the group, it mentioned.
Turkish television also reported that people were leaving the western Turkish coastal district of Ayvacık, in Çanakkale province, on small boats and dinghies with the aim of travelling by boat to the Greek island of Lesbos. At least one small boat successfully made the perilous journey, while another boat carrying about 50 people reached the island of Samos, police said.
Despite the footage of people travelling to Europe’s border, EU officials insisted on Friday they had not been officially informed that Turkey was reneging on the deal. A European commission spokesman said: “We expect Turkey to deliver on this part of the deal. We have heard the statements from the Turkish officials that there is no change to the Turkish policy in this respect, so far.”
The EU’s foreign policy chief, JosepBorrell, called for a halt to the bloodshed in Syria, warning of a “risk of sliding into a major open international military confrontation”. He tweeted: “It is also causing unbearable humanitarian suffering and putting civilians in danger.”
