Greeks fear ‘invasion’ of migrants across border with Turkey: report

GREECE was on a state of alert Sunday as it faced an influx of thousands of migrants seeking to cross the border from Turkey, with locals fearing a new immigration crisis.

“This is an invasion,” said Giorgos Karampatzakis, mayor of Marassia village, a common border crossing near the Evros River.

More than 13,000 migrants have gathered on the Turkish side of the river which runs 200 kilometres (125 miles) along the frontier and separates them from Greece and therefore the European Union.

The flow of migrants from Turkey has triggered EU fears of a re-run of the 2015 migrant emergency when Greece became the main EU entry point for a million migrants, most of them refugees fleeing the Syrian civil war.

“This is what happened in 2015, it’s repeating itself. Thousands at our borders, God help us,” said a 63-yearold resident of the border village of Kastanies who gave her name only as Panayiota.

Back then it was Greek islands like Lesbos and Chios that bore the brunt.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has raised the stakes by vowing to allow refugees to travel to Europe from NATO-member Turkey as a way to pressure EU governments over the Syrian conflict across its southern border.