Greece announced on Saturday May 28 that it had prevented some 40,000 migrants from entering Greece illegally from Turkey since the start of 2022 via the Evros border in the northeast of the country.
“In the first four months of 2022, around 40,000 migrants tried to enter the country illegally and were prevented from doing so by the border police,” Civil Protection Minister Takis Theodorikakos said on the channel. Skai television. The number of attempts is currently high because the level of the Evros river, which marks the border between Greece and Turkey, is particularly low.
According to Mr. Theodorikakos, Turkey “ authorized neither to tolerate the trafficking of desperate people nor to help them in their attempts to cross the border. Greece also announced on Monday (May 23) that it had prevented an attempt to cross the Aegean Sea to Greece from Turkey by around 600 people, the largest attempt recorded this year.
” Visual and sound signals »
The nine boats had been spotted as soon as they left, and the Greek coast guard used ” visual and audible signals to prevent them from passing through Greek waters, according to Athens. Some turned back, and others were intercepted by the Turkish Coast Guard.
According to a source from the Ministry of Migration, the flow of migrants for the first four months of the year is almost 30% higher than for the same period last year. And more than 3,000 asylum seekers have arrived in Greece this year, including 1,100 last month, according to the same source.
(with AFP)
►Also read : Greece: 600 migrants turned back in one day, a record since 2020