While the Turkish government has closed its border to Greece due to the Coronavirus, migrants are still attempting to storm the border using improvised ladders.
Footage of the migrants along the Greek border near the Evros river showed them building makeshift ladders using tree trunks and tree branches in order to scale the Greek border fence, which has largely kept out the large numbers of migrants who have assembled in the area.
The video footage of the migrants circulating on social media was sourced to a report by Greek media outlet Proto Thema, which in turn stated that Turkish media had first published the recordings.
The paper added that the attempts by the migrants to cross the border near Kastanias were not successful as Greek border officials, supported by the European Union border agency Frontex, were able to repel them.
According to the Minister for Citizens Protection, Michalis Chrisochoidis, several thousand “provocateurs” remain on the border, mostly comprised of young men.
“The aim of the Turks is to break our borders and blackmail Europe into a better position,” he said.
Chrisochoidis stated that most of the families and elderly who had previously been at the frontier had left following the Turkish move to close the border due to fears of spreading coronavirus.
Chrisochoidis also went on to accuse Turkish forces of throwing tear gas toward the Greek border, a situation which saw the Greeks end up deploying large fans in the area to blow the gas back.
“In Europe, they did not believe that Greece would withstand this border attack, they were pleasantly surprised by our resistance,” he added.
Following Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s move to open the border to Europe in late February, Greek authorities have said that over 50,000 migrants attempted to break into Greece, with 410 being arrested.
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