Populist Sweden Democrat (SD) leader Jimmie Åkesson appeared along the Turkish border with Greece this week to hand out flyers to migrants stating “Sweden is full”.
Åkesson, alongside his Chief of Staff Mikael Eriksson, met with migrants on the Turkish side of the border and travelled to the town of Edirne to get their own first-hand view of the situation following Turkey’s opening of the border last week.
Both men proceeded to hand out English-language flyers to the migrants that stated: “Sweden is full. Don’t come to us! We can’t give you more money or provide housing. Sorry about this message.” It was signed by “the people of Sweden, Sweden Democrats”.
“Above all, the visit is about forming your own picture of what the situation is,” Åkesson said in comments reported by Nyheter Idag. He added: “Both by looking with our own eyes and by talking to migrants and police. We also handed out flyers with the message that Sweden is full.”
Just nu befinner sig @jimmieakesson vid den turkiska gränsen mot Grekland och möter migranter på väg in i Europa. Vi minns alla migrationskaoset 2015 och vi måste göra allt vi kan för att det aldrig någonsin ska upprepas igen. pic.twitter.com/9xKNWXC6B9
— Sverigedemokraterna (@sdriks) March 4, 2020
The SD leader went on to say that he observed a “constant flow” of migrants and that they told him Sweden, Germany, and France were most mentioned as the target countries for the migrants.
“The EU’s external border was tested in 2015 and collapsed. We can’t just rely on it,” he said and called for Sweden to also increase support for controlling its own border.
Following the order from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to open the gates to Europe for migrants last week, Turkey’s interior minister has claimed that as many as 100,000 migrants have travelled to the border with Grece in recent days.
European leaders like Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz have made it clear they do not want a repeat of the 2015 migrant crisis, while tensions remain high on the Greco-Turkish border with violent clashes taking place between Greek authorities and migrants.
Earlier this week, Greek armed forces conducted live-fire drills at the Evros land border with Turkey as conservative Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he would not be “blackmailed” by the Turkish government.
Migrant Crisis 2.0: Greek Army Conducts Live Ammunition Drills on Turkish Border https://t.co/kN9Islh1me
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) March 4, 2020
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