NEWS

Police to beef up presence in Evros border

Police to beef up presence in Evros border

Greek Police (ELAS) has decided to send an additional 14 riot police units at the country’s northeastern border with Turkey, to assist the existing police force and army, Kathimerini understands.

The units will be dispatched from Athens, Thessaloniki, the regional unit of Thessaly and other regions and sent to Kastanies and Feres, the border areas where the bulk of the clashes between border forces and migrants took place last March.

The aim is to increase the number of border protection forces to the levels seen in March.

Sources from the Citizen Protection Ministry clarified that the move of police forces became necessary due to the delay in the recruitment of 400 border guards because of the pandemic and is not related to recent developments at the border between Greece and Turkey.

The same view was echoed by ELAS officials who said that this is a precautionary move to prevent a possible surprise and is not related to any information about a new wave of migrants.

ELAS is also calling for the dispatching of an additional 125 police officers from various services across the country to strengthen the local border police departments, by participating in patrols along the Evros River. These officers are expected to stay in the police departments for a month.

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