Edirne, Turkey: Several hundred migrants who have been blocked by police in northwest Turkey from crossing overland into Greece drew closer to the border yesterday after the authorities briefly opened the route.
From their makeshift camp on the outskirts of the border city of Edirne the migrants — mostly Syrian refugees — began walking in the direction of the city centre, beyond which lies the road to Greece, aP photographer reported.
“We will walk peacefully, we don’t want to fight,” Mohammed, one of the representatives for the refugees said by telephone as the crowd surged forward after the military police barricading the route agreed to escort them along the road.
But less than two hours later they came to a halt, after the police erected a new cordon just outside Edirne.
Situated around 10km from the Greek border and 20km from the Bulgarian frontier, the city of around 170,000 people has become a new rallying point for migrants trying to reach Europe.
Encouraged by the #Crossingnomore social media campaign, which called for migrants to be allowed to travel safely overland to Greece rather than risk their lives at sea, up to 1,000 refugees had flocked to the city since Monday.
But on Tuesday police sealed off the main road into the city from the east and sealed off access to the bus station, preventing migrants arriving from other Turkish cities by bus from continuing their journey westwards.
Provincial governor Dursun Ali Sahin said on Wednesday the migrants would be sent back to refugee camps in southern Turkey. Yesterday’s march came after a meeting between a group of migrants and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu failed to materialise.
Sahin appealed for Europe to show more solidarity with the refugees.
“If a country issues an invitation to the refugees, we will send them on our own planes and buses. But no country has pledged to accept them,” he lamented.
Many of the refugees seeking to leave Turkey have been living in the country for months, sometimes years, after fleeing the bloody civil war in Syria across the two countries’ 911-kilometre shared border.
AFP
