Greece closed the Kastanjes crossing on the border with Turkey today, after a large number of migrants tried to enter the country.
Greek police deployed reinforcements at border crossings with Turkey earlier today to prevent migrants from entering Greece.
Several dozen people gathered at the land border of the two countries, the Kastanjes crossing, in the north-east of Greece, and the police prevented their access.
"They will not enter the country. They are illegal migrants, we will not allow them to enter," said a government official, according to Reuters.
Groups of migrants in Turkey headed for the borders with Greece and Bulgaria today after a senior Turkish official said Ankara would no longer honor a 2016 EU deal to stop refugees on their way to Europe.
He said this after last night's killing of 33 Turkish soldiers in an airstrike by Syrian government forces in Idlib, reports Reuters.
Sources from the Greek government said that the country has tightened the control of sea and land borders with Turkey after last night's developments in the Idlib region, which Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on Thursday.
Mitsotakis said the measure was needed to prevent the coronavirus from reaching the Aegean islands, where thousands of migrants are living in squalid conditions while they wait for their asylum claims to be processed.
Turkey, which already hosts around 3,7 million Syrian refugees, has reiterated that it cannot accept more people.
Under the 2016 agreement, the European Union provided billions of euros in aid in exchange for Ankara's agreement to stem the flow of migrants to Europe.
Bonus video:
