Greece’s President Prokopis Pavlopoulos has accused Turkish border authorities of facilitating people smuggling by turning a blind eye to the trafficking of thousands of migrants to Europe.
“I have a strong fear that Turkish smugglers have the support of the authorities, in particular, border authorities who act like they have seen nothing,” he told German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
“There are even cases where the smugglers are helped. We have evidence. It’s a type of slave trade,” he said
Pavlopoulus stressed however that he was not speaking of Turkish leaders.
Human rights and aid organisations have on several occasions raised similar concerns about the alleged complicity of Turkey’s border guards.
Pavlopoulos, who was on a visit to Berlin where he met German President Joachim Gauck, also accused Ankara of allowing thousands of migrants to head to Greece even though they were not bona fide refugees fleeing conflict.
“We will respond in an appropriate manner to the refugee question but Turkey must also fulfil its engagements,” he said following talks with Gauck. “These illegal economic migrants, who arrive in Greece because Turkish authorities are not doing their work, should be sent back to Turkey under the accords in force.”
A senior Turkish official strongly denied the allegations, saying that Ankara was determinedly fighting irregular migration.
“Allegations that Turkish authorities have closed their eyes to human trafficking and helped smugglers are baseless and slander,” the official told Reuters.
He said that statistics showed Turkey had prevented the passage of nearly 200,000 irregular migrants and caught more than 3,800 people smugglers in 2015.
“In an environment where bilateral cooperation in the fight against irregular migration has intensified so much, the Greek president’s comments were met with astonishment,” the official added.
Greece and Turkey, which have a historically difficult relationship, are both on the frontlines of Europe’s biggest migrant crisis since World War II.
Greek islands in the Aegean Sea saw more than 800,000 migrants – many of them refugees fleeing war-torn Syria – land on their shores from Turkey in 2015, their first EU stop on a journey to new lives in Germany, Sweden and elsewhere.
Turkey itself has taken in 2.2mn refugees from neighbouring war-ravaged Syria.
More than 3,700 migrants died or were reported missing in the Mediterranean last year while making the dangerous crossing to Europe, 800 of them while trying to make it to Greece and the rest heading towards Italy.
Greek, Turkish and German leaders are due to hold a mini-summit in Greece in February, with the Europeans expected to make a push for Ankara to take stronger action in stemming the flow of migrants into Europe.
Pavlopoulos said Greece was still prepared to contribute towards the €3bn ($3.3bn) pledged by the EU to Turkey to help care for Syrian refugees as long as Ankara fulfilled its obligations.
“Up to now Turkey has not delivered,” Pavlopoulos, who is due to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel later, told the paper.
The European Commission said earlier this month it was far from satisfied with Turkey’s containment of migrants as the number of new arrivals to Europe remained far too high.