Turkey's migrant strike: Brussels panics, Greece fights back, Croatia flaunts
In total, a hundred migrants managed to enter the EU through the border opened by Turkey, two (including a child) allegedly died, about 15 - 16 thousand accumulated in the border areas, and another 50 to 100 thousand headed there from Istanbul.
Balkan and European media reported this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Syrian migrant Ahmed Abu Emad from Aleppo was killed today by Greek border guards while trying to enter Greece along with hundreds of other migrants,” BBC correspondent Mughira Al Sharif said on Twitter. – He was shot in the neck at 9:07 near Ipsala. His body was returned to Turkey."
Greek police open warning fire
The correspondent also published a video of the body of a murdered Syrian, filmed by his Syrian colleague Abdalaziz Alhamza, but the authenticity of the recording has not yet been confirmed.
At the same time, Reuters reported another death who was on an inflatable boat with 47 migrants trying to land on the Greek island of Lesbos. However, the craft capsized.
The tragedy occurred, among other things, because local residents picketed near the piers and did not allow boats with migrants to enter, shouting: “Go back home, you are not needed here.”
Lesvos residents do not allow migrant boats to enter
Others picketed the notorious Moria migrant camp, preventing new arrivals from entering. In total, according to the Greek police, on the eve of February 1, at least a thousand migrants reached the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea.
The next round of the migrant crisis began after Turkey’s decision to open its borders to “Syrian refugees”, in response to the refusal of other NATO countries to support the aggressive actions of this state in Syrian Idlib.
And this is despite the fact that, according to an agreement with the EU in 2016, the Turkish country has received about six billion euros over all these years for the settlement of refugees on its territory.
Different countries reacted differently to the Turkish threat. So Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov went to Turkey to meet with its leader Recep Erdogan, although it is not yet entirely clear what he is trying to bargain for his country.
In turn, Greece, which historically has had rather difficult relations with Turkey, simply closed the border to anyone trying to enter its territory illegally, without any conditions.
“I warn those who are trying to illegally enter the country not to do so,” warned Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. “Because they will be returned anyway.”
Having received the go-ahead from the authorities, the Greek police began to act extremely harshly, throwing stun grants at those storming the border, dousing them with asphyxiating gases, and watering them with water cannons.
After, on February 29, about four thousand people, the vanguard of which, by the way, were not Syrians, but Afghans, tried to break through the border and wounded a policeman, law enforcement officers opened warning fire.
night assault on the Greek border, video of migrants
Athens also introduced a month-long moratorium on foreigners applying for asylum in Greece.
“We will certainly help to protect the external borders of the EU, in particular the borders of Greece and Bulgaria,” said Andrej Plenkovic, Prime Minister of Croatia, which will chair the EU Council for the next six months. “The Croatian border is mainly guarded by the Croatian police, but if there is a serious escalation, we will consider involving the Croatian army in this problem.”
“It is obvious that we in the EU have not learned our lesson, and now the situation is similar to 2015, except that the borders are not open, and Germany and Austria do not want to accept anyone,” the chairman of the Croatian parliamentary committee said while inspecting the border for Internal Security Ranko Ostojic. “At this point, Croatia should be the only one to take the lead, as it holds the presidency of the European Council and must push for an urgent Union response, a summit and a common approach.”
Let us recall that earlier Brussels, through European officials, human rights activists and journalists, quite strongly criticized Croatia for the harsh, even cruel measures applied by this country to illegal migrants, mainly entering its territory through neighboring BiH.
At the same time, the conclusions of the special report of the EU External Border Security Agency Frontex leaked to the media do not sound as confident as the statements of Croatian officials and politicians.
“It will be very difficult to stop such large numbers of people heading to Europe and the pressure will only increase in the coming days,” the report said.
The authors of the report are convinced that even if the Turkish authorities come to their senses and stop the refugees by closing the border with Greece, the situation will still remain uncontrollable. They also noticed that migrants were actively incited to desperate actions on social networks.
“Between 50 and 60 migrants have now left Istanbul towards the border,” Peter Van Der Auweraert, head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) mission in BiH, commented on the situation. Another 000-15 are on the border between Turkey and Greece, but cannot yet enter Greece.”
In Serbia, in turn, non-systemic oppositionists from the “No Surrender of Kosovo and Metohija” movement, under the leadership of Damnjan Knezevic, organized volunteer People’s Patrols in places where migrants gather. They also held an anti-migrant rally and procession in Subotica.
anti-migrant march in Serbian Subotica
These people refrain from participating in pro-Western opposition actions, but at the same time actively criticize the current government for allegedly insufficient attention to the problem of migrants in Serbia.
According to the latest data, there are currently about 5800 migrants on the territory of Serbia who live in special detention centers, another thousand are in the Center for Protection and Assistance to Asylum Seekers and in its camps.
It can be assumed that in the near future the migrant problem will indeed only intensify, since, judging by the mood of the migrants, they intend to penetrate the EU by any possible means.
In particular, a shocking video appeared on social networks where those storming the border are holding their children over fires to make them cry, in order to pity the border guards.
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