Children caught in the middle of Erdogan’s blackmail of Europe

Sharif Abdelzaher

Refugee children are dying on the border between Turkey and Greece because of the insistence of the Turkish government to use them as a pressure card against Europe.

The conditions of the refugees in tents along the shared border between the two countries are getting worse day after day.

According to SOS Children’s Villages, which provides humanitarian assistance to children in need, around 13,000 children arrived in the Greek islands this year. These children, it said, suffer very tough conditions.

It added that the children suffer a lot on the road to Europe due to the difficult experiences they pass through.

Thousands of refugees are congregated at the Greek-Turkish border, after Ankara gave them the green light to try to cross to Europe.

Almost one quarter of the refugees who crossed the Mediterranean into Europe in 2019 were children. Most of these children travelled to Europe without their elderly relatives.

Director of the European office of the UNHCR, Pascal Moro, said these children had escaped violence and lost most of their family members.

She referred to violations committed against the children on the road to safety in Europe.

Turkey tries to use the refugees as a card to force Europe to assist in its military adventures in Syria.

However, this attempt is backfiring, especially after the European Union pledged to take decisive action against Ankara.

Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said his country had deployed army units along the border with Turkey to prevent the refugees from entering it illegally.

He added that his country would not succumb to Turkish blackmail.