Greek border police arrested people for the second consecutive day on Sunday who tried to cross the border illegally from Turkey. Police used tear gas against a group of five hundred migrants who threw stones during attempts to cross the border.
Meanwhile, Greece and Bulgaria intensified controls along the Turkish border. The European Union expects Turkey to continue complying with the 2016 agreements on controlling refugee flows. No official message has come from Ankara indicating a change in policy or a termination of the deal. A spokesperson for the European Commission said this after a Turkish official stated that Turkey would no longer stop Syrian refugees wishing to move to Europe.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte shared his concerns about the situation at the Greek-Turkish border with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. He believes Turkey must adhere to the 2016 agreements on hosting refugees from Syria. The EU’s executive body will investigate the accuracy of reports that migrants are moving toward Europe. Greece is pushing for an additional EU ministerial meeting.
NATO demands that the warring parties urgently grant access to humanitarian aid workers. The alliance is monitoring the situation from the air with AWACS planes. The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres earlier stated that he is following the escalation in northwest Syria with “deep concern.”
According to Ankara, it is becoming difficult for Turkey to accommodate new flows of refugees. Turkey has previously threatened to cancel the hard-won agreement with the EU, but this turned out to be part of diplomatic maneuvering aimed at obtaining new concessions. According to the Turkish government, the EU has been slow for years in transferring compensation funds, and the costs Turkey bears are disproportionate to what it actually receives.
Since the outbreak of the war in Syria, Turkey has taken in more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees. Additionally, on the other side of the Turkish border, in the Syrian province of Idlib, there are another 950,000 refugees fleeing the Assad regime. The latter group is now gripped by great fear as the Syrian army advances further.
The Turkish police, coast guard, and border control have now been ordered not to keep the borders closed anymore. According to Turkish media, hundreds of refugees and migrants walked toward border posts between Turkey and Greece on Friday. Among them were not only Syrians but also Iranians, Iraqis, Pakistanis, and Moroccans. However, since the Greeks had not opened their side of the border, the refugees got stuck anyway. They were pushed back by Greek border posts with tear gas and warning shots.