Developments on the refugee crisis front continued unabated around Greece on Thursday and Friday morning amid ominous reports out of neighboring Turkey of yet more obstacles by Ankara to implementing an EU-Turkey agreement returning Syrian refugees – and irregular migrants – that sneak into the Union from Turkey.
Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan warned that his country would not take back migrants if Europe didn't start taking Syrian refugees from Turkey.
Back in Greece, 250 war refugees and third country irregular migrants were transported to the island of Leros from Chios (Hios) due to the tense situation in the latter. Coast guard officers later evacuated the port of Chios of Syrians nationals who had held a sit-down protest there for roughly a week.
Activation of the EU-Turkey agreement caused a skyrocketing of requests for the asylum by the third country nationals, who previously anticipated a ferry boat ride to the Greek mainland and from there the use of any transportation available to reach central and western Europe.
The gradual but eventual closing of borders to refugees and irregular migrants, followed by the agreement, rendered the filing of asylum applications as one way to delay possible deportations to Turkey or migrants’ home countries -- extending from Morocco to as far away as Myanmar.
Meanwhile on Lesvos (Lesbos) on Friday, three people identified as supporters of migrants’ rights fell into the Mytilene harbor in a bid to prevent the sailing of a vessel repatriating 45 third country nationals to Turkey. The three individuals swam to the vessel’s anchor and held on.
Elsewhere on Lesvos, 100 third country nationals from Pakistan and Bangladesh continued to occupy the entrance of a “hotspot” at the Moria site. The group of irregular migrants are demanding that they not be deported to Turkey.
Back on the mainland, and specifically the port of Piraeus, some 4,600 migrants and refugees were still camped out at the port, with most unwilling to be transported to temporary shelters.
In the extreme north of Greece at the Idomeni border crossing, groups of women and children protested outside a makeshift refugee camp set up on the border, while a smaller group again occupied the rail line connecting Greece with the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (fYRoM).
