Vergennes
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Syrians accused the Turkish army of pushing them into Greece on Tuesday, while security was further tightened at the border crossing between Greece and Turkey where the EU president and the head of the Greek government are expected to come.
"They dropped us by the river and just said to us: + Go! + They left us alone. It was the Turkish army", testified to AFP Taisir, 23, a Syrian refugee from Damascus living for five years in Istanbul.
The young man, who does not wish to reveal his last name, is one of a group of ten people, all Syrians, arrested on Tuesday at dawn by Greek police who confiscated at least four of their mobile phones .
In this 212 km long border area which borders the Evros river (named Meritsa on the Turkish side), thousands of migrants have massed on the Turkish side since Friday in the hope of crossing to Europe.
A worrying situation for the EU, which fears a migration "crisis" similar to that of 2015.
Security at the Kastanies border crossing in the far north-east of Greece was further tightened on Tuesday before the day's visit by EU President Ursula von der Leyen, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and the Presidents of the Council and of the European Parliament, Charles Michel and David Sassoli.
Significant police reinforcements were deployed outside the entrance to the buffer zone that separates the two countries, AFP noted on the spot.
The tension, still high after scuffles on Sunday between migrants and Greek police, had decreased on Monday.
No stones or tear gas were seen on Monday by an AFP team present on the Greek side, while a Greek government source on that assured that the situation was "quieter" than Saturday and Sunday.
According to Greek government sources, between Monday 6:00 am (04:00 GMT) and Tuesday 6:00 am, border guards prevented the entry of 5,183 people on the territory, along the land border where is deployed "a very large police contingent ".
Forty-five people were also arrested during this interval. "Most of them are from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Morocco or Bangladesh," said the source.
- 'Firm support' -
Shortly before his visit, the head of the Greek government said he expected "firm support" from the EU, according to a government source, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country received more than a million asylum seekers in 2015 and 2016, denounced the "unacceptable" pressure from Turkey "on the backs of refugees".
"Greece is not going to be blackmailed by those who use persecuted people to serve their own interests," said the Prime Minister of Greece, reviewing army officers near Kastanies. He repeated that "no one would enter the country illegally".
On the road along the border, the group of Syrians shows their anger at having been pushed to leave Istanbul.
Among these refugees are two babies, five months and one year old, protected from the cold in blankets, and two young little girls, frightened and visibly exhausted.
"Yesterday they chased us out of our houses, they took our money, they took our cell phones," says the young man, distraught as one of the little girls, in tears, receives a little water.
His testimony, collected near the Greek village of Lavara is impossible to verify but it corroborates the stories of migrants massed in front of the fence on the Turkish side since Ankara's decision not to block migrants wishing to go to Europe.
This group of Syrians should come to swell the flood of migrants subjected to prosecution by the Greek justice for illegal entry into the territory.
The migrants, who manage to cross the border, are left to fend for themselves, wandering there on a dirt road, there at the edge of a stream or below an expressway.
Over a hundred kilometers, all along the border, we do not meet any volunteer, any humanitarian organization or NGO to bring them water, soup, medical assistance.
Roads and paths are however subject to the incessant movement of Greek army vehicles, reinforcements of which have been dispatched since last weekend in this rural region among the poorest and most remote of Greece.
https://www.lepoint.fr/monde/l-arme...-une-visite-de-l-ue-03-03-2020-2365430_24.php
Well,that IS surprising. @dBSPL @Constantin84 @Dai Toruko @Nein
"They dropped us by the river and just said to us: + Go! + They left us alone. It was the Turkish army", testified to AFP Taisir, 23, a Syrian refugee from Damascus living for five years in Istanbul.
The young man, who does not wish to reveal his last name, is one of a group of ten people, all Syrians, arrested on Tuesday at dawn by Greek police who confiscated at least four of their mobile phones .
In this 212 km long border area which borders the Evros river (named Meritsa on the Turkish side), thousands of migrants have massed on the Turkish side since Friday in the hope of crossing to Europe.
A worrying situation for the EU, which fears a migration "crisis" similar to that of 2015.
Security at the Kastanies border crossing in the far north-east of Greece was further tightened on Tuesday before the day's visit by EU President Ursula von der Leyen, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and the Presidents of the Council and of the European Parliament, Charles Michel and David Sassoli.
Significant police reinforcements were deployed outside the entrance to the buffer zone that separates the two countries, AFP noted on the spot.
The tension, still high after scuffles on Sunday between migrants and Greek police, had decreased on Monday.
No stones or tear gas were seen on Monday by an AFP team present on the Greek side, while a Greek government source on that assured that the situation was "quieter" than Saturday and Sunday.
According to Greek government sources, between Monday 6:00 am (04:00 GMT) and Tuesday 6:00 am, border guards prevented the entry of 5,183 people on the territory, along the land border where is deployed "a very large police contingent ".
Forty-five people were also arrested during this interval. "Most of them are from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Morocco or Bangladesh," said the source.
- 'Firm support' -
Shortly before his visit, the head of the Greek government said he expected "firm support" from the EU, according to a government source, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country received more than a million asylum seekers in 2015 and 2016, denounced the "unacceptable" pressure from Turkey "on the backs of refugees".
"Greece is not going to be blackmailed by those who use persecuted people to serve their own interests," said the Prime Minister of Greece, reviewing army officers near Kastanies. He repeated that "no one would enter the country illegally".
On the road along the border, the group of Syrians shows their anger at having been pushed to leave Istanbul.
Among these refugees are two babies, five months and one year old, protected from the cold in blankets, and two young little girls, frightened and visibly exhausted.
"Yesterday they chased us out of our houses, they took our money, they took our cell phones," says the young man, distraught as one of the little girls, in tears, receives a little water.
His testimony, collected near the Greek village of Lavara is impossible to verify but it corroborates the stories of migrants massed in front of the fence on the Turkish side since Ankara's decision not to block migrants wishing to go to Europe.
This group of Syrians should come to swell the flood of migrants subjected to prosecution by the Greek justice for illegal entry into the territory.
The migrants, who manage to cross the border, are left to fend for themselves, wandering there on a dirt road, there at the edge of a stream or below an expressway.
Over a hundred kilometers, all along the border, we do not meet any volunteer, any humanitarian organization or NGO to bring them water, soup, medical assistance.
Roads and paths are however subject to the incessant movement of Greek army vehicles, reinforcements of which have been dispatched since last weekend in this rural region among the poorest and most remote of Greece.
https://www.lepoint.fr/monde/l-arme...-une-visite-de-l-ue-03-03-2020-2365430_24.php
Well,that IS surprising. @dBSPL @Constantin84 @Dai Toruko @Nein
