Migrants and refugees who were stopped from reaching Turkey’s northern border with Greece on Tuesday, have not yet left the Turkish city of Edirne, the AFP reports.
Turkish authorities had blocked the group from moving further west from Edirne, which lies 17 kilometres away from the Greek border. Around 1,000 refugees and migrants were still in Edirne on Wednesday, according to the AFP.
This gateway to Greece through Northwestern Turkey, around the area of the Evros river, although a popular route in the past and present, has become a secondary point of interest in the face of the massive influx of migrants and refugees in the Greek Aegean islands.
Edirne Governor Dursun Ali Sahin said that the local authorities that are supervising the emigrants and refugees have given them water, food and blankets, while he noted that the city could possibly host them for two or three more days but not beyond that duration, the AFP writes.
Sahin claimed that authorities had managed to persuade 7,500 migrants and refugees who had come to Edirne with the intention to reach the border to turn around and desert their mission. According to Sahin, 50,000 migrants and refugees have come to the city in 2015
Turkish authorities had also imposed a stoppage on bus services to Edirne on Tuesday and the AFP reports that migrants and refugees who intend on heading to the Northwestern Turkish city have been camping for two nights in a row outside a bus station in Istanbul.
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