African migrants, alright let's be honest - 'climate migrants', are now seeking the safety of Europe by travelling through Turkey into Greece. The European Union responded to Greek's plight this week by sending special EU border teams to help Greek authorities stem the influx of migrants.
From the Sydney Morning Herald:
It is the first time that a rapid-intervention border team has been deployed to an EU member state since the Frontex teams were created in 2007.
Frontex agreed to send the team of 175 officials last month after Greece asked the EU agency for help because of the increasing number of refugees - mainly from Africa and Afghanistan - attempting to cross the border to find their way into the EU.
Personnel and equipment from Germany, Romania, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia and Denmark will be deployed along the border. The mission is expected to last for two months and efforts will focus on policing a previously unguarded 12-kilometre river border between the towns of Nea Vyssa and Orestiada.
The Greek daily Kathimerini said more than 30,000 migrants had entered the EU across the narrow stretch of river. Frontex recorded a sixfold increase there in the number of immigrants trying to enter Greece in the second quarter of this year.
More people are trying to cross via Turkey because a previously used route from Libya to Italy was closed last year by a controversial bilateral agreement which allows Italian vessels to turn back migrants' boats caught at sea.
Europe has a long-running problem of migrants from west Africa who have fled north, many of them because rapacious European fishing fleets have collapsed the fish stocks in their local waters.
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