(Reuters) Syrians camped on Turkey’s border with Greece believe their hopes of finding sanctuary in the European Union are being undermined by the thousands of other migrants at the frontier who have relatively safe homelands.
Vastly outnumbered by Afghans and Pakistanis at the border, Syrians who have fled their country’s protracted civil war say most of their fellow migrants are jumping on the bandwagon for economic reasons, and then pretending to be Syrian refugees.
“It makes me angry when I meet people from Morocco, Pakistan and even Afghanistan,” said 20-year-old Yehya Rais from Aleppo, the scene of some of the heaviest fighting during the war.
“If only two to three thousand Syrians were here, maybe Greece would open the border. They know we are genuine refugees,” Rais said.
