Greek police fired teargas to push back hundreds of stone-throwing migrants trying to cross over the border from Turkey on Saturday, as a crisis over Syria shifted onto the European Union’s doorstep, Reuters reports.
Greece, which has tense relations with Turkey at the best of times, accused Ankara of sending the migrants to the border post in an organised “onslaught” and said it would keep them out.
The crisis is the first major policy test for Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who was elected in July and promised a tougher stance on immigration.
Turkey said on Thursday it will no longer contain hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers after an airstrike on war-ravaged Idlib in neighbouring Syria killed 33 Turkish soldiers.
Almost immediately, convoys of people appeared heading towards the land and sea borders of Greece, which was a primary gateway for hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers into Europe in 2015 and 2016.
Full story: middleeastmonitor.com
Middle East Monitor
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