BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd March, 2020) Europe is currently attempting to respond to the new migrant crisis, as more than 15,000 migrants have moved to the Turkish-Greek border after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that he would not stop those who want to go to Europe.
Last week, Turkey claimed to be unable to deal with the migrant and refugee flow any longer, opening its border with Greece.
"Do not try to enter Greece, you will be sent back," Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis posted as a reaction on Twitter after a security cabinet meeting on Sunday.
Some Greek politicians have accused Ankara of weaponizing migration.
"The migrants didn't come here on their own. They are being sent away and being used by our neighbor, Turkey ... Greece faces an organized, massive and illegal attempt to violate its borders and it withstands this attempt", Greek Public Order Minister Michalis Chrysohoidis told the press at the Greek border crossing of Kastanies.
Turkish officials have responded with equal apprehension.
"Look who's lecturing us on international law! They're shamelessly throwing tear gas bombs on thousands of innocents piled at their gates. We don't have an obligation to stop people leaving our country but #Greece has the duty to treat them as human beings!" Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu tweeted.
EUROPEAN POLITICIANS CHANGE THEIR TUNE ON MIGRATION
As the crisis is unfolding, several prominent figures in European politics are beginning to issue statements on the matter of migration to Europe that are at odds with their previous positions.
One such politician is the current president of the European Council, Charles Michel, who, as the prime minister of Belgium, was a great supporter of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's policy of open borders to migrants and signed the 2018 Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration with both hands.
"Support for Greek efforts to protect the European borders. Closely monitoring the situation on the ground. I will be visiting the Greek-Turkish border on Tuesday with [Greek Prime Minister] Mitsotakis," Michel tweeted.
Donald Tusk, Michel's predecessor, who had chastised European leaders who were against Angela Merkel's "open borders" decision, has now made a U-turn and is saying the exact opposite.
"The EU and its institutions should support the Greek government and its latest decisions. I call on all the European leaders to cooperate closely with [Greek Prime Minister]. It's in our common interest," Tusk opined on Twitter.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who in 2018 criticized then-Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini when the latter closed the Italian borders to migrants across the Mediterranean. Back then, Macron claimed to be "against anti-migrant politicians in Europe."
"Full solidarity with Greece and Bulgaria, France is ready to contribute to European efforts to give them rapid assistance and protect the borders. We must act together to avoid a humanitarian and migration crisis," the French president tweeted recently.
Erdogan's recent decision has prompted some European politicians to call for efforts to push back against what they consider to be an attempt at blackmail.
"Europe must pro-actively stop the blackmail by Erdogan, who is busy trying to destabilize the European Union, probably to increase the European contribution, already in the billions of EUR, for the Syrian refugees and migrants 'camping' in Turkey," Tom Vandendriessche, a Belgian member of the European Parliament, told Sputnik.
According to him, most migrants coming from Turkey are not even Syrians.
"Most of the migrants trying to cross the border into Greece are not Syrians, by the way, but Afghans, Pakistanis, Somalis and others. We have information that buses are used by the Turkish authorities to bring refugees from the Syrian border region faster to the border with the European Union. It is clearly an operation managed by Ankara," he added, saying that the EU should sanction Ankara in response.
His sentiment is echoed by Alexander Gauland from the Alternative for Germany political party.
"The cynical blackmail by the Turkish leader Erdogan confirms all our warnings. The German chancellor's so-called Turkey deal is not only dead, it was a fatal political mistake right from the start ... Erdogan can now ruthlessly use migration as a weapon against the Europeans," Gauland, who is the leader of the party's group in the German parliament, told Sputnik.
He also slammed the request by Germany's Green Party leader, Annalena Baerbock, to bring refugees from the Turkish-Greek border to Germany as irresponsible, claiming the Greens to be helping Erdogan, as well as human trafficking gangs.
GREEKS ARE EXTREMELY ANXIOUS AS MIGRANTS KEEP COMING
The Greek islands' inhabitants, especially those close to the Turkish coast, which have had to welcome hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants since 2015, are also reacting drastically. There are already some 40,000 migrants stuck on the islands � such as Lesbos, Samos and Chios � tourism has totally collapsed and the Athens government wants to build centers to shelter the migrants on each island. This was too much for the locals, who demonstrated, sometimes violently, last week.
This Sunday, shouting "return to Turkey!", a group of residents of the Greek island of Lesbos prevented 50 migrants from docking with their raft after several hours at sea.
At the port of Thermi, in Lesbos, locals furious at the arrival of several boats prevented the migrants, including several minors, from disembarking, shouting insults at the local representative of the High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
On the road to the overcrowded camp in Moria, where more than 19,000 migrants are staying, another group of locals with chains and stones tried to prevent police buses carrying asylum seekers who arrived on Sunday from accessing the reception and registration center.
On Sunday evening, residents set fire to an unoccupied reception center for migrants near the Skala Sykamineas beach. The center, formerly managed by the UNHCR, was closed at the end of January, but residents fear it will reopen.
In Brussels, Greek Commissioner Margaritis Schinas is deploying all his energy on the phone, calling all European heads of state to get help stopping the flow of migrants for Greece at the border with Turkey and in the Aegean sea.
EU's border guard, Frontex, has announced sending reinforcements to Greece in order to assist the Greek security forces in protecting its borders.
