Greek police clash with refugees at Turkish border

Greek police have clashed with refugees attempting to break into Greece from Turkey, which has stopped holding the refugees back.

Footage released by the Greek government on Monday showed Greek officers firing tear gas and clashing with refugees on the Turkish border.

A Greek government source said on Sunday that the Greek army and police had stopped thousands from entering Greek territory.

“From 0600 Saturday morning to 0600 Sunday morning, 9,972 illegal entries have been averted in the Evros area,” the government source said, referring to the northeastern region along the Turkey border.

Huge crowds tried to cross into Greece via the Kastanies Forest in the early hours of Sunday, the source said.

Greece’s Skai TV said Greeks were using loudspeakers in the Kastanies border area to tell migrants, in English and Arabic, “The borders are shut!”

Greece has said it will not allow another mass influx of refugees. “This country is not a free-for-all,” Migration Minister Notis Mittarachi told Greece’s Ant1 TV.

Nearly 10,000 refugees have been blocked from entering Greece since Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country would allow refugees into Europe in an attempt to pressure European Union (EU) governments over the Syrian conflict across its southern border.

Refugee child dies

A refugee child died when a boat capsized off the Greek island of Lesbos, officials said on Monday.

The child’s death was the first reported fatality of the latest refugee influx, which started after Turkey relaxed curbs on refugee movement in the country.

Ankara said on Thursday it would no longer restrain the movement of hundreds of thousands of refugees hosted by Turkey.

34 Turkish troops killed in Syria's Idlib as govt. forces continue gains

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 34 Turkish soldiers have been killed in air strikes in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib.

Ankara complains that funds promised by the EU to help it deal with the 3.7 million Syrian refugees already in the country have been slow to arrive. Turkey’s government had warned in the past that it would open the floodgates if it did not receive more funding.

On Sunday, residents on Lesbos set fire to a disused migrant center after blocking dozens of people from landing on a nearby beach.

More than 40,000 migrants are stuck on the Aegean islands, living in severely overcrowded camps and filthy conditions.

Last week, there were clashes on Lesbos between riot police and locals protesting over a plan to create closed detention centers to house refugees. Local residents say the islands are carrying a disproportionate burden.

The EU’s border protection agency Frontex said on Sunday that it was preparing back-up along the Greek border.

“We... have raised the alert level for all borders with Turkey to high,” a Frontex spokeswoman said in a statement to AFP. “We have received a request from Greece for additional support. We have already taken steps to redeploy to Greece technical equipment and additional officers.”

Meanwhile, officials at EU headquarters in Brussels called for emergency meetings of migration and foreign ministers to decide joint measure to be taken by the bloc.

Greece was the main gateway for hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers into Europe in 2015-16.

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