Greek-Turkish border crossings are closed in the Evros region, the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced. The reason for this decision is another wave of refugees from Syria and riots on the Greek-Turkish border. Transportation of goods is also suspended.
According to the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during the last 24 hours approximately 10,000 refugees, mainly Syrians, flooded the Greek border with Turkey. Some of the refugees tried to get from Turkey to Greece, that is the territory of the European Union, through the shallow parts of the Evros river on the border – reports Reuters.
Our @lannatw talks about the hardship migrants are enduring as they try to cross into the #EU from Turkey: pic.twitter.com/Fmh96X3SQH
— IOM – UN Migration 🌎 (@UNmigration) March 1, 2020
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania has informed that since Saturday morning the land border between the Hellenic Republic and Turkey in Kastan (Evros region) has been closed for the transportation of persons and goods. Also, Greek officials said increased control measures would be taken at other border crossings as well as at the maritime border with Turkey.
On Sunday, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) announced that it had raised the alert level for all borders with Turkey and sent reinforcements to the Greek-Turkish border, where thousands of migrants were trying to enter the European Union.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Micotakis warned immigrants against attempts to cross the border illegally.
Greece’s borders are the EU’s external borders, we will protect them – the Greek Prime Minister on Twitter on Sunday. He also said that asylum applications would not be accepted for a month.
We will keep you updated on further details.