Migrant crisis at Greek-Turkish border in second week, EU mulls more aid

By Lefteris Papadimas and Joseph Nasr

 

Greek riot police officers walk amid clouds of tear gas near Turkey's Pazarkule border crossing, in Kastanies, Greece March 6, 2020. REUTERS/Florion Goga

 

KASTANIES, Greece/PAZARKULE, Turkey (Reuters) - The European Union on Friday pleaded with migrants on the Turkish border to stop trying to cross into Greece but dangled the prospect of more aid for Ankara as a standoff between Greek riot police and refugees entered a second week.

 

Tens of thousands of migrants have been trying to get into Greece, an EU member state, since Turkey said on Feb. 28 it would no longer try to keep them on its territory as agreed in 2016 with the EU in return for billions of euros in aid.

 

Greek and Turkish security forces again deployed tear gas on Friday, witnesses said, sending plumes of smoke above the Kastanies-Pazarkule border crossing. Some migrants dabbed stinging eyes with water. Other trekked through fields probing for chinks in the well-guarded frontier.

 

"The news about the alleged openness (of the Greek-Turkish border) is false and people should not try to move there," the EU's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, told reporters during a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Croatia.

 

The EU could offer more money beyond the 6 billion euros ($6.79 billion) pledged in 2016 to help the refugees but Turkey must first stop using them as a "bargaining chip", he said.

 

Turkey, which hosts nearly 4 million Syrian war refugees, says the EU has failed to honour earlier promises. It also wants more European support in Syria, where its troops are facing off against Russian-backed Syrian government forces.

 

In a sign of the EU's hardening stance since the 2015 migration crisis, when more than a million migrants entered Europe from Turkey, the ministers in Zagreb said they were ready to take "all necessary measures" to stop illegal crossings into Greece, without elaborating.

 

"AT EUROPE'S MERCY"

 

Migrants such as 18-year-old Ahmad al-Sadeq, from Syria's war-ravaged Idlib province, are unlikely to heed such warnings.

 

"We will stay here for months. We hope that public pressure will grow and force the Greek government to change its mind. The situation requires some heart, not tear gas and fences," said Sadeq, who got into Greece on Thursday but was then sent back.

 

"We left Syria to escape a government that murders women and children ... and now we are here at Europe’s mercy."

 

But Fawzi Uzbek, 37, an Afghan national who wants to reach Germany, said he would probably soon head back to Istanbul, where he has been working in a factory for about 18 months.

 

"The Greeks know that if they open the gates they will get many more people (arriving) on this side of the border," said Uzbek, sitting in a makeshift tent he had constructed near the border for himself, his wife and four children.

 

About a quarter of the migrants at the border are Syrian and most of the rest are Afghans, Pakistanis, Iranians and Africans, according to Turkish estimates.

 

Greece says it has repulsed around 35,000 migrants trying to cross its border in the past week. Turkey has deployed 1,000 special police to the area to halt the pushback of migrants onto its territory.

 

Athens plans to extend its border fence by a further 40 km (25 miles), sources with knowledge of the matter said. It has also stepped up naval patrols in the Aegean to deter migrants trying to reach Greek islands such as Lesbos by dinghy.

 

ALL AT SEA

 

Turkey's coastguard rescued about 120 migrants, including small children, early on Friday. The migrants said the Greek coastguard had disconnected their boats' motors, leaving them adrift in the Aegean.

 

On Lesbos, just a few miles (km) from the Turkish coast, fishermen, hoteliers and shopkeepers expressed concern that more migrant arrivals would further harm their island's reputation as a dream holiday destination.

 

"Most businesses, at least tourism businesses, are going to hell," said Vangelis Papastavros, whose wife owns a hotel in Mytilene, the largest town on an island which already houses some 20,000 migrants in camps in mostly squalid conditions.

 

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan discussed the crisis with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday, saying migration regulations between Ankara and the EU were not working and needed to be revised, the Turkish presidency said.

 

The EU's Borrell said a new ceasefire deal brokered by the presidents of Turkey and Russia for Syria's Idlib province could facilitate increased humanitarian help to Syria and for the refugees housed in Turkey. He said the EU would host a donor conference on June 29-30.

 

But such news provides scant comfort for the migrants stranded at the Greek-Turkish border. On Friday night, the occasional pop of teargas was permeated by Christian hymns on a loudspeaker from a small chapel on the border, a service common during a period of abstinence observed before Easter in Greece.

 

Sawsan al-Musawa, who travelled 1,300 km (800 miles) with her four children from a Syrian refugee camp in southeast Turkey to the Greek border, said she had all but given up hope of ever reaching Europe.

 

"We are left to the dogs," she said.

 

(Additional reporting by Robin Emmott in Zagreb, Gabriela Baczynska and Francesco Guarascio in Brussels, Daren Butler in Istanbul, Tuvan Gumrukcu in Ankara, Angeliki Koutantou on Lesbos, Renee Maltezou and George Georgiopoulos in Athens, Luke Baker in London; Writing by Gareth Jones; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-03-07

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A woman had traveled 800 miles with her 4 children why? they were safe in a Syrian refugee camp,could it be she wanted to get to Europe for a free house and benifits? i wonder.

1 hour ago, ivor bigun said:

...could it be she wanted to get to Europe for a free house and benifits? 

No! Never! Impossible! Welcome!

I dont see any problem. No one complained when Greece,  Italy , Croatia, Germany let all through their borders couple of years ago

25 minutes ago, JustAnotherHun said:

No! Never! Impossible! Welcome!

a single mother of 4 can't make ends meet without social welfare - this one will probably never work and she is 37.  

8 minutes ago, Opl said:

a single mother of 4 can't make ends meet without social welfare - this one will probably never work and she is 37.  

Most of the 1 million that came to Germany in 2015 never will work and will be a permanent burden to the social security system financed by the tax payer.

2 hours ago, ivor bigun said:

A woman had traveled 800 miles with her 4 children why? they were safe in a Syrian refugee camp,could it be she wanted to get to Europe for a free house and benifits? i wonder.

To be fair, her life must be not idyllic in a refugee camp, no one can blame her for trying some alternatives.

That said, the whole world is getting more messy by the day, no idea how we can expect the situation to improve.

A post using a trolling image has been removed.

 

A post using German language has been removed as this is an English language forum. 

1 hour ago, sead said:

I dont see any problem. No one complained when Greece,  Italy , Croatia, Germany let all through their borders couple of years ago

That was because both Germany and Sweden said that they were welcome.

 

Look where these 2 countries are now regarding immigration

reported off topic and an inflammatory remark removed.

While there's a chance of lots of free handouts, being helped and given the chance of having more money and more things for nothing, millions will come. These are economic migrants trying to flee the corrupt rubbish countries where HR don't exist for what they see as the "promised land" where they'll be given all they need, looked after and allowed to do as they please by those dumb Europeans.

 

The answer is to uphold the law and deport all illegal economic migrants back to their own countries. Or put them in work camps.

 

Genuine refugees can then be treated properly.

And for those who want to have a bit closer look to reality:

 

Unemployment rate of Syrian "refugees" by end of 2019: 44.2%

* Everyone who's in a language- or integration course does NOT count as unemployed.

* Everyone who has a "Geringfuegige Beschaeftigung" (small-scaled employment) with a max income of 450 Euro/month is NOT unemployed.

 

74.9% of all Syrians with granted asylum status depend on social welfare transfers

16 minutes ago, JustAnotherHun said:

And for those who want to have a bit closer look to reality:

 

Unemployment rate of Syrian "refugees" by end of 2019: 44.2%

* Everyone who's in a language- or integration course does NOT count as unemployed.

* Everyone who has a "Geringfuegige Beschaeftigung" (small-scaled employment) with a max income of 450 Euro/month is NOT unemployed.

 

74.9% of all Syrians with granted asylum status depend on social welfare transfers

For a start how about providing credible links to support your claims; lots of English language sites.

 

You seem to place all of the blame on the refugees. At the end of the day it is government ownership for welfare payments, resolve issues such as employment, language education and so on. So far as I am concerned constant negativity towards vetted refugees become a self fulfilling prophecy as to outcomes. I know here in Oz there is a considerable amount of discrimination impacting employment rates for vetted refugees, Vetted refugees receive no more welfare than Oz citizens, but with assistance to initially find housing (they wouldn't have jobs / credit rating) for applications and starter packs for living (e.g. some furniture and kitchen utensils), but primarily sourced from NGOs. 

Edited March 7, 20206 yr by simple1

A post has been removed, please do not post in a foreign language.

9 hours ago, rooster59 said:

But such news provides scant comfort for the migrants stranded at the Greek-Turkish border. On Friday night, the occasional pop of teargas was permeated by Christian hymns on a loudspeaker from a small chapel on the border, a service common during a period of abstinence observed before Easter in Greece.

Had they not tried to illegally enter the EU they wouldn't be "stranded".

 

9 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Sawsan al-Musawa, who travelled 1,300 km (800 miles) with her four children from a Syrian refugee camp in southeast Turkey to the Greek border, said she had all but given up hope of ever reaching Europe.

and who told her they could in the first place?

 

9 hours ago, rooster59 said:

"We will stay here for months.

So, who will be feeding them?

There is a russian greek guy, who wrote detailed about the whole thing there, how greek police acted, what the turks did, so i consider myself as informed. I was more shocked by the german mass media. It callled the greek protestors, who are against taking more migrants, as neonazis. All of them. 

5 hours ago, JustAnotherHun said:

Most of the 1 million that came to Germany in 2015 never will work and will be a permanent burden to the social security system financed by the tax payer.

Link.

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Land of milk and honey. Some Kurdish guy said this to me years' ago, and I guess views haven't changed much.

1 hour ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Link.

You wanted to write "Link please", I guess.

 

Well, though I translated the essential parts of the original german sources, my posts were deleted. So are the forum rules and of course I have to accept that.

 

The sources I used are not available in english, so I repeat only the numbers:

 

70% of Syrians break their professional training

60% of those who took part in "integration courses" did not achieve the minimum language skills needed to be integrated in the labor market.

75% of the Syrian students have problems to write and read even in arabic  and to solve simplest arithmetic tasks.

 

Even if they want to work, they can get only minimum wage jobs just a bit above that what you can get from the social welfare system by doing nothing.

How many toilet cleaners does Germany need?

 

An off topic post has been reported and removed. 

 

A conspiracy troll post has been removed. 

A Generalized derogatory slur has been removed

On 3/7/2020 at 5:26 AM, sead said:

I dont see any problem. No one complained when Greece,  Italy , Croatia, Germany let all through their borders couple of years ago

the jug goes to the well until it breaks