New migrant surge about to leave Turkey, warns Europol
Turkey could open its gates to allow tens of thousands of migrants into Europe in a repeat of the crisis at the Greek border earlier this year, according to Europol.
The European law enforcement agency made the predictions in its annual report on migrant smuggling, saying that it expects ‘‘further – if possibly more subtle – attempts to drive migrants from Turkey towards the borders with Greece.’’ Tens of thousands of people, mostly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, travelled to Turkey’s land border with Greece in February after the Turkish government announced it was opening it to try to win support from Europe for its military operations in Syria.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had warned that Turkey, which is hosting about 3.5 million refugees, had reached capacity and would not be able to look after the hundreds of thousands fleeing the Assad regime’s offensive in Idlib.
Scores of migrants took heed of his offer and boarded buses for the border. However, Greek border guards used brute force to keep them out, causing chaos and violence.
The Turkish government has claimed that the Greeks committed human rights abuses against the migrants. Several were shot dead, either by tear gas cannisters or live rounds.
Ankara claims that hundreds of thousands of people managed to cross into Greece, while Athens maintains only a few hundred managed to do so, with most immediately deported.
However, Turkey has also come under fire for unilaterally opening its border and giving false hope to migrants. Amnesty International concluded that at least two died after they were ‘‘recklessly encouraged’’ by Erdogan to try to enter Greece.
Europol said that it expected ‘‘a recurring decrease if not neglect of Turkish border guarding activities’’ to allow more migrants into Greece. Those still camped out by the border when coronavirus hit in early March were moved by Turkey to a detention centre near by.
However, Yusuf Mohammed, 30, a Syrian who was among those detained, said that they were released after 15 days and taken to a smuggling point on the coast. ‘‘They told us that they had taken us there for quarantine, but there was a different agenda,’’ he said.
The agency found that digital messaging services, which offer a degree of anonymity, are increasingly being used by smugglers to sell their services as well as to organise migrants into large groups that try to force their way across the border. Gangs often use ‘‘burner apps’’, which allow them to create a temporary phone number without needing a burner, or throwaway phone.
The number of crossings into Europe has dropped during the pandemic, with no arrivals on the Greek islands in the second half of March and all of April, according to the UN refugee agency, and only 70 in the first week of May. Europol, however, found that gangs were transporting people in goods trains and lorries, which can still cross borders.