Turkey will start building a wall on its border with Greece to prevent irregular entries into the European Union, the governor of the Turkish province of Edirne announced on Tuesday.
In the first phase, 8.5 kilometres will be constructed this year, stated Yunus Sezer, the governor of Edirne, which borders Greece and Bulgaria.
Sezer mentioned that additional sections of the wall will be erected along the land border between Turkey and Greece, which is approximately 200 kilometres long and largely follows the Meriç River (Evros in Greek).
A 2016 agreement between the EU and Turkey mandates that Turkey hosts Syrian refugees, currently numbering an estimated 2.9 million.
In February and March 2020, tens of thousands of migrants gathered at the Turkey-Greece land border after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to open the borders to Europe.
Migrants from various nationalities continue to attempt to reach Greece from Turkey, primarily by sea. In late February, six migrants drowned in Turkish waters while trying to reach the Greek island of Samos in a rubber dinghy.
In recent years, Turkey has built walls totalling over 1,000 kilometres along its borders with Iran and Syria to prevent irregular crossings.
