By ASSOCIATED PRESS
ALEXANDROUPOLIS, Greece (AP) — A day after 46 migrants drowned in a choppy Aegean Sea, protesters demonstrated Saturday at a Greek border town to demand that Greece ease transit restrictions at its heavily militarized border with Turkey.
ALEXANDROUPOLIS, Greece (AP) — A day after 46 migrants drowned in a choppy Aegean Sea, protesters demonstrated Saturday at a Greek border town to demand that Greece ease transit restrictions at its heavily militarized border with Turkey.
Most of the 200-kilometer (124-mile) land border between Greece and Turkey is separated by the Evros River — known as the Meric River in Turkey. But a 12.5-kilometer (nearly 8-mile) stretch of land separating the two countries was previously lined with minefields and is now separated by a fence.
The area is guarded with police and military patrols on land and on the river, a network of cameras and a few officers from the European border protection agency, Frontex.
Protesters shout slogans during a solidarity rally for the refugees and migrants at the border town of Alexandroupolis, northeastern Greece, on Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016. About 1,000 people took part as human rights groups and local campaigners are calling on Greece¿s government to ease transit restrictions at the country¿s heavily militarized border with Turkey, in the wake of two deadly boat sinkings that left at least 46 migrants and refugees dead. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Wearing life vests and foil blankets, the demonstrators chanted "This fence means refugees drown!" as they kicked off two days of protests in the area. They are planning a march Sunday toward the border fence.
"It's vital that the fence is removed. It's because of the fence that refugee families are forced to travel across the Aegean, and people are drowning on a daily basis," said protester Michalis Sopatzoglou, who travelled from the Greek island of Lesbos to join Saturday's rally.
At least 60 people have died in Greek waters this month while trying to cross from Turkey to the Greek islands in poor weather, using unseaworthy boats provided by Turkish smuggling gangs.
High winds on Saturday disrupted plans by Greek Coast Guard divers to search for bodies off the island of Kalymnos, where most of the people in Friday's accidents died.
Marie Elisabeth Ingres, Greek mission chief for the charity Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, said creating a "safe point of passage" at the Greek-Turkish border should be a priority.
"Since the beginning of this crisis, MSF has been calling for legal and safe reception to be made available at the land border between Turkey and Greece," she told The Associated Press. "At present ... people are effectively blocked from crossing it and have no other option but to turn to illegal means to reach the continent, risking their lives and often the lives of their families at sea."
