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Local
residents attempt to stop migrants on an inflatable boat from landing on the
island of Lesbos on March 1, 2020 | Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images
Após um conselho
de ministro extraordinário, o governo grego assumiu que o país tinha sido
objeto de "uma tentativa organizada massiva de violação de
fronteiras." De acordo com o porta-voz governamental, Stelios Petsas, as
forças de segurança gregas evitaram no sábado mais de 4.000 entradas ilegais,
face à concentração de mais de 13.000 pessoas ao longo da fronteira de 200
quilómetros que separa a Grécia da Turquia. Só 66 dessas pessoas terão conseguido
entrar - ou seja, só 66 foram apanhadas já em território grego. "O governo
fará o que for preciso para proteger as nossas fronteiras", garantiu
Petsas.
OVOODOCORVO
Greece says
it will stop accepting asylum requests amid migrant crisis
Prime
Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis warns those attempting to enter illegally will be
turned away.
By NEKTARIA
STAMOULI AND HANS VON DER BURCHARD 3/1/20, 2:46 PM CET Updated 3/2/20, 4:45 AM
CET
ATHENS —
Greece said it will stop accepting new asylum applications for a month and step
up border security measures as an increasing number of migrants arrive through
Turkey.
Prime
Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Sunday the national security council had
decided to increase the “level of deterrence at our borders to the maximum.” He
added that his government had invoked an article of the Treaty on the
Functioning of the European Union that calls for the EU to adopt “provisional
measures” to support a member country confronted by “an emergency situation
characterised by a sudden inflow of nationals of third countries.”
Government
spokesperson Stelios Petsas also said migrants will be returned immediately if
possible without being registered.
Mitsotakis
also said he would visit the country's Evros land border with Turkey with
European Council President Charles Michel on Tuesday and warned that anyone
entering the country illegally would be turned away.
“The borders of Greece are the external borders of
Europe. We will protect them,” Mitsotakis wrote on Twitter.
Michel voiced his "support for Greek efforts to
protect the European borders" in his own tweet and said he was
"closely monitoring the situation on the ground."
Thousands
of migrants have amassed at the border after Turkish officials said last week
they would no longer work to stop migrants entering Europe, a stance reiterated
by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Saturday.
Greek
authorities registered about 9,600 attempted border crossings overnight, Greek
Deputy Defense Minister Alkiviadis Stefanis said Sunday, according to local
media. Another 5,500 attempted border crossings were prevented by Sunday
afternoon, government officials said. Around 500 migrants arrived on the
islands of Lesbos, Chios and Samos by boat on Sunday.
The EU’s
border protection agency Frontex also said Sunday it was deploying equipment
and officers to Greece.
“Frontex is
in close contact with Greek authorities regarding additional support we can
provide. We are redeploying equipment and additional officers to Greece and
closely monitoring the situation,” the agency wrote on Twitter.
A Frontex
spokesperson said it was still unclear how many officers it would send to
Greece because the agency was “still assessing the needs.” The spokesperson
said Frontex was on “high alert” concerning the EU’s borders with Turkey and
was monitoring the situation in Bulgaria, which also shares a land border with
the country.
European
Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas tweeted Sunday he had requested an
extraordinary meeting of EU interior ministers to “urgently” discuss the
situation.
This
article has been updated.
Authors:
Nektaria
Stamouli and Hans von der Burchard
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