Greece blocks 40,000 migrants at Evros this year

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Since the beginning of the year, Greece has barred over 40,000 migrants from entering the nation along its northern border with Turkey.

Greece is frequently the destination of choice for migrants leaving Africa and the Middle East in search of a better life in the European Union. However, they were never warmly welcomed. 

Many came through Turkey at the Evros border, and Athens tightened border restrictions in 2020 when significant numbers of migrants attempted to cross the Evros River in the north.

Athens has accused Ankara of not doing enough to prevent smugglers from transporting migrants across the border, often in shoddy boats that make for perilous crossings.

Takis Theodorikakos, Greece's Civil Protection Minister, stated on Saturday that tens of thousands of illegal migrants were detained at the Evros border this year.

"In the first four months of 2022, about 40,000 illegal immigrants have tried to enter the country illegally," he told Skai TV, specifying they had been stopped at Evros. "We effectively repel any threat to our country, to our borders."

He also sent a message to Turkey, saying it is not "allowed to tolerate traffickers of desperate people, nor to foster such situations". 

Because of low water levels, the Evros River, which connects Greece and Turkey, has experienced an upsurge in traffic in recent weeks.

According to a migration ministry source, migrant flows to Greece in the first four months of 2022 were approximately 30% higher than in the same period last year.

Greece increased border patrols and constructed cameras, radar, and a 40-kilometer (25-mile) steel fence that was over five meters (16 feet) high in some parts in March 2020.

According to the ministry's figures, over 3,000 asylum applicants have arrived in Greece this year, including over 1,100 last month.

Greece is notorious for its ill-treatment of migrants and asylum seekers amid an influx of refugees to Europe as various regions around the world witness humanitarian crises and wars. 

In February, a media investigation reported that a Cameroonian asylum seeker accused Greek border guards of pushing him into the sea, along with two other men who perished, charges Greece denies.

Last year, at least sixteen people died when a migrant boat sank in the Aegean, according to Greece's Coastguard, just hours after a similar incident claimed another 11 lives.