Greek police fire teargas on migrants at border with Turkey
Greek police fired teargas toward migrants who were gathered on its border with Turkey and demanding entry on Saturday, as an emergency over Syria abruptly moved onto the European Union's doorstep.The Greek government reiterated its promise to keep migrants out. "
The government can do whatever it takes to protect its borders," government spokesman Stelios Petsas told reporters, adding that during the past a day Greek authorities had averted attempts by 4,000 persons to cross. Live images from Greece's Skai TV on the Turkish side of the northern land border at Kastanies showed Greek riot police firing teargas rounds at groups of migrants who were hurling stones and shouting obscenities.
Media weren't permitted to approach the Greek side of the border in the first morning, however the area smelled heavily of teargas, a Reuters witness said. A Turkish government official said late Thursday that Turkey will no longer contain the thousands of asylum seekers after an air strike on war-ravaged Idlib in Syria killed 33 Turkish soldiers earlier that day.
Almost immediately, convoys of individuals appeared heading to the Greek land and sea borders on Friday. An estimated 3,000 persons had gathered on the Turkish side of the border at Kastanies, according to a Greek government official. Kastanies lies just over 900 km (550 miles)north-east of Athens.
Greece, that was a primary gateway for thousands of asylum seekers in 2015 and 2016, has promised it'll keep carefully the migrants out. However, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that some 18,000 migrants had crossed borders from Turkey into Europe. Speaking in Istanbul, he did not immediately provide evidence for the number, but said it could rise.
Greek police were keeping media in regards to a kilometer from the Kastanies border crossing, however the broader area, where the two countries are divided by a river, was more permeable.Several Afghans with small children waded across fast-moving waters of the Evros river and took refuge in a tiny chapel. They crossed into Greece on Friday morning.
"Today is good" said Shir Agha, 30 in broken English. "Before, Erdogan people, police problem," he said. Their shoes were caked in mud. It had rained heavily the night time before, and by morning hours, temperatures were near to freezing.Greece had already said on Thursday it could tighten border controls to avoid coronavirus reaching its Aegean islands, where a large number of migrants are moving into poor conditions.
Nearly a million refugees and migrants crossed from Turkey to Greece's islands in 2015, leaving an emergency over immigration in Europe, but that route all but closed following the EU and Ankara agreed to stop the flow in March 2016.
