Estonia, a member of the European Union and Schengen Area, is prepared to fully close its borders as Europe continues to experience an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and the beginnings of a new migration crisis, Estonian Interior Minister Marte Helme said on Monday
HELSINKI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd March, 2020) Estonia, a member of the European Union and Schengen Area, is prepared to fully close its borders as Europe continues to experience an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and the beginnings of a new migration crisis, Estonian Interior Minister Marte Helme said on Monday.
"If necessary, we are prepared to instate full document checks at our border crossing points and along our external borders, as well as the return or isolation of undesirable people or people [deemed] dangerous to the state," Helme said, as quoted by public broadcaster ERR news.
Helme also expressed support for Greece and Bulgaria, which are actively pushing back refugees transiting through Turkey by using tear gas and mass arrests against asylum-seekers at their respective borders, according ERR News.
The minister went on to offer sending a support force within the framework of European Border and Coast Guard Agency to Greece and Bulgaria.
"If necessary, Estonia is prepared to send additional forces to protect Europe's external borders in order to demonstrate our solidarity," he added, according to the outlet.
The crisis unfolding in Syria's Idlib, which shares a border with Turkey, has spurred the latter to open its borders with the EU, threatening to spark a migration crisis akin to the one in 2015. Violence erupted at the borders as asylum-seekers attempted to break through barriers and make it to European soil.
In addition, Europe has become a hotbed of the coronavirus infection with nearly 100 deaths from over 2,000 infections, the largest concentration of the virus outside East Asia.
