Turkey will start the construction of a wall at its border with Greece to prevent illegal entrances to the European Union, the Governor of the Turkish Province of Edirne (northwest) announced on Tuesday.
“It is planned to build 8.5 kilometers at first this year,” said Yunus Sezer, the governor of this border province of Greece and Bulgaria. The manager added that other portions of this wall should be erected later along the land border between Turkey and Greece, some 200 km long and almost entirely formed by the Meriç river (Evros, in Greek).
An agreement was signed in 2016 between the EU and Turkey for the country to keep Syrian refugees on its soil, the number of which is currently estimated at 2.9 million.
In February and March 2020, tens of thousands of migrants had, however, flocked along the land border between Turkey and Greece, after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to open its borders with Europe.
Migrants from various nationalities continue to try to reach Greece from Turkey, mainly by sea. Six migrants have still perished in late February in Turkish waters, seeking to rally the neighboring Greek island of Samos aboard a pneumatic canoe.
Turkey has built walls with a total length of more than 1,000 km along its borders with Iran and Syria in recent years to prevent illegal crossings.