(Reuters) Greece warned on Tuesday that it would not allow the illegal entry of migrants by land or by sea, after a sharp increase in attempted entries through its Aegean islands and land border with Turkey over the past few days.
The Mediterranean country was the frontline of Europe’s migration crisis in 2015 and 2016 when a million refugees fleeing war and poverty from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan arrived, mainly via Turkey.
The number of arrivals had fallen sharply since then, but in recent weeks, Greek authorities said they had stopped a significant number of people from entering.
About a dozen vessels with hundreds of migrants on board have attempted unsuccessfully to cross from Turkey’s coast to the Greek islands in the past 48 hours, according to police data.
