Most of the migrants hoping for safe passage from Turkey into Europe are not Syrians, but Afghans and others
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on February 28th that his government would no longer stop refugees from crossing into Greece, Nabila’s parents packed her and her five siblings onto a bus, left their house in the Turkish town of Tokat and headed west. The 12-year-old Afghan refugee had no chance to say goodbye to her Turkish classmates. No one bothered to tell Nabila and her family that the Greek side of the border would be closed.
Nabila and the tens of thousands of other migrants who took up Mr Erdogan’s empty promise of free passage to Europe are now trapped in an international standoff. Turkey is home to 3.6m refugees from the war in Syria, and polls show most Turks want them to leave. Turkey says it opened the border to Greece in the face of an imminent influx of another 1m refugees from bloody fighting in Idlib . More likely, it wants to divert attention from its military problems there.
In response, Greece began forcibly turning back migrants. It sent riot police, armoured vehicles and 1,000 soldiers to the border, and suspended the right to apply for asylum for a month. The European Union rushed to Greece’s aid.
The other main route into Greece has been via inflatable dinghy to Lesbos, an island just five miles off the Turkish coast. The number of migrants rose there too, with some 1,200 arriving on March 1st and 2nd alone. But the island is already overcrowded with migrants, including 19,000 in a camp built for 3,000, and locals have grown weary of the burden. Some migrants say their boats have been attacked by unidentified men who push them back towards Turkey.
Greece’s tough response has forestalled another crisis like that of 2015 , and it has the support of the. But its suspension of the right to apply for asylum violates international and European law. The International Convention on Refugees bars countries from turning away people seeking asylum, a practice known as “refoulement”.
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