Greek soldiers and riot police officers stand amid clouds of tear gas at the Greece-Turkey border during clashes between refugees and riot police in the village of Kastanies on March 7, 2020. (photo by AFP)

Teargas and smoke bombs were fired across Turkey’s border with Greece on Saturday in a fresh flare-up in tensions over the presence of refugees seeking access to European Union territory.

A Reuters correspondent in the area said the projectiles were coming from Turkish territory and being fired towards Greek police over a high border fence near the Kastanies crossing.

Greek soldiers and riot police have been manning the borderland, as thousands of refugees have made a rush for the frontier in the past days. Their Turkish counterparts have been stationed on the other side.

On Feb. 28, Turkey said it would let refugees cross its borders into Europe, saying it could no longer contain the hundreds of thousands and the prospect of a fresh influx because of intensified fighting in northwest Syria.

Turkey on Friday accused the European Union of using refugees as political tools and allowing international law to be trampled, after EU foreign ministers said they would work to stop illegal migration into the bloc.

On the same day, the EU pleaded with migrants on the Turkish border to stop trying to cross into Greece but dangled the prospect of more aid for Ankara as a standoff entered a second week.

Erdogan orders Turkish forces to halt refugees crossing Aegean

This is while officials in Turkey said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ordered Turkish coastguard to prevent refugees from crossing the Aegean sea due to the risks.

On the orders of the president... permission will not be given for migrants to cross the Aegean sea because it is dangerous, the coastguard tweeted on Friday.

The approach of not intervening against migrants wishing to leave Turkey remains in practice but this (new) approach covers sea crossings because of the dangers, it added in another tweet.

The coastguard said 97 asylum seekers were rescued on Thursday after the Greek side flattened three boats and left them in a half-sinking state in the middle of the sea.

The instruction comes after Erdogan said last week that refugees and migrants would not be prevented by Turkish authorities from leaving Turkey if that was their wish.

Thousands of refugees and asylum seekers have also gone to the land border between Turkey and Greece where clashes erupted again on Saturday between Greek police and refugees.

During a tense stand-off, Greek police fired tear gas at refugees who responded to the officers by throwing stones and shouted open the gates, journalists at the scene reported.

The Greek police also used water cannon to stop the refugees, a correspondent said, many of whom have been stranded for days at the Pazarkule border, known as Kastanies on the Greek side.

Greek border forces accused of stripping, beating refugees

Meanwhile, refugees attempting to enter Greece from Turkey have told reporters they were caught by Greek security forces and stripped of their clothes, documents and money, and sent back in their underwear.

Harrowing videos published by Turkish state broadcaster TRT showed groups of Syrian and Afghan refugees huddling around a fire in their underwear as they struggled to keep warm.

We entered Greece and were captured by Greek soldiers and commandos, a Syrian refugee said.

They stripped us naked and took our bags and money. They used plastic rods to beat Afghan women. Europeans always claimed they respect human rights. Where are the human rights here?

A second Syrian refugee accused Greek border guards of violence against both men, and women, saying they showed us no mercy.

They beat women and men and stripped them naked to search them. And they claim that Greece is a country that respects human rights.

One photo showed a male refugee lowering his jacket to expose injuries on his back.

More than 10,000 migrants mostly from Syria and Afghanistan have gathered at the Greek border hoping to get to western Europe.

Makeshift camps for thousands of asylum seekers have sprung up around the border since Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last week that his country would no longer stop them from trying to leave.

Turkey’s decision to open the border came after 34 Turkish soldiers were killed by Syrian forces in Idlib, northwestern Syria last week.

The Turkish soldiers were stationed there to purportedly protect local civilians under a 2018 deal with Russia which prohibits acts of aggression in the region.

Turkey already hosts nearly 4 million Syrian refugees, more than any country in the world. Officials say the country cannot handle another refugee wave.

Ankara has repeatedly complained that Europe has failed to keep its promises under the 2016 EU-Turkey refugee deal to help migrants and stem further migrant waves.

(Source: News agencies)