EU to hold emergency meeting to discuss risk of new refugee crisis

The European Union called an emergency meeting of foreign ministers as the Turkey - Syria conflict heightened the risk of a new refugee crisis.

Turkey’s escalating conflict with the Syrian regime represented an increasing and “serious threat to international peace and security” said Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs.

He added that the EU should “redouble efforts to address this terrible human crisis with all the means at its disposal”.

The meeting, which was called “in particular at the request of the Greek government”, will take place during the coming week. Greece’s refugee camps and reception facilities are already under heavy strain, reported the Financial Times.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s president, declared on Saturday that his country had “opened the gates” to the EU for the 4.0m refugees currently living in Turkey to pressure Europe into providing help to support his safe zone in Idlib.

Turkish officials signalled on Thursday that if no support was received then they would no longer stop refugees from reaching Europe.

Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis tweeted on Sunday that his government had decided to “increase the level of deterrence at our borders to the maximum.”

"As of now we will not be accepting any new asylum applications for one month. The borders of Greece are the external borders of Europe. We will protect them."