KASTANIES/LESBOS, Greece- Greece placed its borders on maximum security footing on Sunday after hundreds of migrants used porous crossing points to enter the country from Turkey, with thousands behind them seeking entry after Ankara relaxed curbs on their movement.
At least 500 people had arrived by sea on three Greek islands close to the Turkish coast within a few hours on Sunday morning, police said.
On the mainland further north, migrants waded across a river to the Greek side at Kastanies. Reuters reporters saw groups of up to 30, including an Afghan mother with a five-day old infant, on the side of a road, having forded the river hours earlier.
Turkey said on Thursday it would no longer restrain hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers in its territory from reaching Europe despite a deal to do so reached with the EU in 2016.
Turkey's turnabout came after an air strike killed 33 Turkish soldiers in neighbouring northwest Syria where Ankara has deployed forces to help secure its border against a new influx of refugees from the Syrian civil war.
Turkey has said funds promised by the EU to help it deal with 3.7 million Syrian refugees already in the country has been slow to arrive; Ankara had threatened several times in the past to open the floodgates if it did not receive more support.
Its announcement that it had stopped containing migrants within the country triggered an almost instant rush to the borders it shares with European Union member Greece.
The crisis poses the toughest test for Greece since a 2015 financial crisis that saw it edge precariously close to bailing out of the euro zone, and, more ominously, brings into sharper focus long-standing tensions with Turkey.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was to chair a meeting of the national security council later on Sunday. An automated text message sent to mobile phones in the northern border areas of Greece said the country had increased its security to a maximum, urging people not to attempt to enter.
Greece's Skai TV said Greeks had taken to using loudspeakers in the Kastanies border area to tell migrants, in English and Arabic: "The Borders are Shut".
BORDER TENSIONS
Tensions rose at Kastanies, on northeast Greece's mainland border with Turkey, on Saturday after riot police used tear gas to repel hundreds of migrants on the Turkish side seeking entry.
A Greek government source put the number of people gathered on the border on Sunday at 3,000, while the International Organization for Migration estimated the number at 13,000.
Some migrants threw stones and metal bars towards the Greek side as well as hand-held tear gas canisters, the Greek government source said.
"Yesterday there were 9,600 attempts to violate our borders, and all were dealt with successfully," deputy defence minister Alkiviadis Stefanis told Greece's Skai TV.
Greece has said there was an orchestrated attempt on its borders, and has accused Turkey of actively guiding migrants.
"Not only are they not stopping them, but they are helping them," Stefanis told Skai.
The European Union said it was supporting Greece and its neighbour Bulgaria, which also has a border with Turkey - in protecting the 27-nation bloc's outer frontiers.
It also gave condolences to Turkey over the deadly air strike and said it was ready to step up humanitarian support.
No migrants had so far tried to cross into Bulgaria from Turkey, but tensions were escalating at Turkish-Greek crossing points "very close" to Bulgarian territory, therefore Sofia had bolstered its own frontier patrols against any illegal entry, Defence Minister Krasimir Karakachanov told national radio.
Greece was the main gateway for hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers into Europe in 2015 and 2016. There are already more than 40,000 migrants on the Aegean islands, living in severely overcrowded camps and filthy conditions.
Last week, clashes broke out on Lesbos between riot police and locals protesting over a plan to create closed detention centres to house the migrant population. Locals say the islands are suffering a disproportionate burden.
Greece has vowed to prevent another mass influx of migrants. "This country is not a free-for-all," Migration Minister Notis Mittarachi told Greece's Ant1 TV.
Reuters witnesses saw small groups of people making their way across fields outside the Greek town of Orestiada, close to the mainland frontier, over the weekend. Four young Afghans, looking exhausted, sat around a small campfire.
Further along, Najibe Rezayi, 26, also from Afghanistan, cradled her seven-month daughter in her arms. "We want a place to stay, food, warmth," she said through an interpreter as they walked through mist in frost-covered fields.
Greek police and the army have been arresting people who attempt to cross into the country. "They are all Afghans, no Syrians," one army officer said. "Are these the Syrians (Turkish President Tayyip) Erdogan was talking about"
(Reporting by Alkis Konstantinidis on Lesbos, Lefteris Papadimas in Kastanies, Renee Maltezou in Athens; Ali Kucukgocmen in Turkey and Tsvetelia Tsolova in Bulgaria Writing by Michele Kambas Editing by Mark Heinrich) ((michele.kambas@thomsonreuters.com;))
