Recently, Greece blocked all new asylum applications for the next month following Turkey’s admission of migrants to travel to the EU. Greek officials stated that they have stopped nearly 10,000 migrants crossing the land border with Turkey, claiming that they have increased the level of deterrence at its borders to the maximum. Turkey stated that they cannot deal with the massive number of migrants fleeing Syria’s war, expressing that they wish to allow migrants to get into neighboring EU member states such as Greece and Bulgaria.
Turkey currently hosts 3.7 million Syrian refugees, as well as migrants from other countries such as Afghanistan. However, Turkey previously was in agreement with the EU for financial aid as long as the migrants did not leave Turkey for other European countries. The EU’s border protection agency Frontex has stated that they are on “high alert” monitoring Europe’s borders with Turkey.
Read More: Greece suspends asylum applications as migrants seek to leave Turkey