ISTANBUL, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Greek security forces have been seen on Tuesday putting a new barbed-wire fence along a stretch of a river, naturally separating Turkey and Greece, to prevent illegal border crossings of migrants, said eyewitnesses.
A local journalist told Xinhua that Greek soldiers enclosed a large part of the Evros River coast on the opposite shore of the Doyran village in Turkey's northwestern border province of Edirne with wires.
Doyran has recently become one of the hot spots for illegal migrants who have flooded the area 12 days ago to sneak into Greece by crossing the river.
Press reports said Greek authorities have also dug trenches along the borderline at the Pazarkule border gate to block refugees from entering into the Greek territory from the land.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday urged Greece to open its border gate for the passage of migrants, noting that they would transit to another European country and not to stay in Greece.
Turkish authorities claimed that so far, over 150,000 migrants have crossed the border to the Greek side after Turkey announced on Feb. 28 that it would no longer stop them from going to Europe.
Turkey is hosting over 3.7 million Syrian refugees in its territory, while more than 1.5 million others waiting at the border with Syria. Currently, Turkish authorities are not allowing them to enter the country.
The Turkish government earlier said that it could no longer cope with the burden of refugees alone.
