Official: Turkey Will No Longer Stop Syrian Refugees From Reaching Europe

World

February 28th, 9:50am

Asharq Al-Awsat

FILE PHOTO: Internally displaced Syrian is pushed in a wheelchair along the tents in an IDP camp located in Idlib, Syria February 27, 2020. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

A senior Turkish official said Ankara will no longer stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe in response to the killing of 33 Turkish soldiers in an airstrike by Syrian regime forces in Idlib. "We have decided, effectively immediately, not to stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe by land or sea," said the official, who requested anonymity. "All refugees, including Syrians, are now welcome to cross into the European Union," he said. After the announcement, hundreds of migrants walked through northwest Turkey toward its borders with Greece and Bulgaria on Friday, Turkish media reported. According to Reuters, around 300 migrants, including women and children, were in the group which began heading towards the borders between the two European Union countries and Turkey's Edirne province. Syrians, Iranians, Iraqis, Pakistanis, Afghans and Moroccans were among those in the group, it said. "We heard about it on the television," said Afghan migrant Sahin Nebizade, 16, one of a group of migrants. "We've been living in Istanbul. We want to go to Edirne and then on to Greece," Nebizade said before his taxi headed for the northwestern province of Edirne and border crossings with Bulgaria and Greece, 200 km (124 miles) west of Istanbul. After the developments, Greece tightened its sea and land borders with Turkey, Greek sources said. They also said Athens was also in contact with the European Union and NATO on the matter, Reuters reported. Greece was the main gateway for hundreds of thousands of refugees streaming out of Turkey in a mass exodus in 2015 and 2016, until a deal brokered with the EU stemmed the flow. However, Erdogan has repeatedly threatened to open the gates for migrants to travel to Europe. Under the 2016 deal, the EU has provided billions of euros in aid in return for Ankara agreeing to stem the influx of migrants into Europe.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/2154061/official-turkey-will-no-longer-stop-syrian-refugees-reaching-europe