Syrians, Afghans, Iraqis ... Several thousand flocked to Greece, the gateway to Europe, on Sunday March 1st. The day before, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, again threatened to leave the doors of Europe open by opening the borders of Turkey. Blackmail carried out in order to obtain Western support in Syria, where Ankara faces the Damascus regime.

So Greece says it blocked the "illegal" entry of 10,000 migrants in 24 hours, at least 2,000 more migrants arrived at the Greek border on Sunday, running across fields to reach the Pazarkule crossing (Kazstanies, Greek side).

Turkish gendarmes waved at them

Since Turkey's first announcement on Friday, Europe has feared a new migration crisis similar to the one that shook the continent in 2015.

The European Union expressed its "concern" on Saturday, saying it is ready to provide additional aid to Greece and Bulgaria, bordering Turkey, which have barricaded themselves.

For its part, the UN had estimated at least 13,000 the number of migrants massed along the some 200 km of land border between Greece and Turkey.

Stranded in Pazarkule, a few thousand of them spent the night bundled up in blankets, lighting campfires to keep them warm.

Hygienic mask on the face, Turkish gendarmes waved their hand to move forward.

>> Read also: Greeks and migrants: empty pockets and a heavy heart

By land, but also by sea

On Saturday, migrants cut holes in the Turkish border fence to enter no man's land before the Greek border, but were repelled by tear gas grenades fired by Greek police.

Skirmishes broke out all day, migrants responding to police intervention with stones. Athens said more than 130 migrants have been arrested since Saturday.

Migrants from Turkey cut the border fence on the Turkish side to enter the no man's land before the Greek border, on February 29, 2020. © Bulent Kilic, AFP

While most of the migrants trying to cross the land border appeared to be stranded, others set sail to reach Greece via the Aegean islands.

Four inflatable boats loaded with some 220 migrants docked on Sunday morning in Lesbos and a fifth in Samos.

Ankara said more than 76,000 migrants had left Turkey through the northwestern Turkish province of Edirne since Friday. An unverifiable figure which seems overvalued compared to the reality observed on the ground by AFP.

With AFP

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