Turkish border forces are said to have driven 92 migrants towards Greece without clothes or belongings. On Sunday the government in Athens once again condemned the incident, which it said took place at the border river Evros on Friday.
Turkey’s behavior were “a shame for civilisation”, tweeted Notis Mitarachi, Greece’s Minister of Migration and Asylum. Ismail Catakli, Turkey’s Deputy Minister of the Interior, called the story “manipulation”.
According to the Greek Ministry of Citizen Protection, officials from the EU border protection agency Frontex were also on site on the Greek side. Frontex did not confirm the incident when asked over the weekend.
Mitarakis said Ankara was expected to investigate the incident.
There have been plans by Athens to seal off the border on the Evros River due to an increasing number of illegal border crossings from Turkey. The existing 35-kilometre border fence is currently being extended to 80 kilometres.
The number of irregular crossings into the European Union rose 70% in the first nine months of 2022 to its highest level since 2016, Frontex said Thursday.
The Frontex agency said a total of 228,240 entries were detected, including 106,396 through the Balkans, a 170% increase from the same period in 2021.
“The high number of illegal border crossings can be attributed to repeated crossing attempts by migrants already present in the Western Balkans,” Frontex said in a statement.
The second highest number was for the Central Mediterranean route, where 65,572 entries were detected - a 42% rise from the first nine months of last year.
The main nationalities of the migrants attempting to cross into the EU through the Balkans were Syrian, Afghan and Turkish.
Through the Central Mediterranean, the main nationalities were Tunisian, Egyptian and Bangladeshi, the statement said.
The agency also said the number of migrants detected in the Channel trying to cross into Britain so far in 2022 was 52,700 - higher than the figure of 52,000 for all of 2021.
“As the winter approaches, the number of attempts might increase before the sea conditions worsen and make the crossing more dangerous,” Frontex said.
