ATHENS: A fire broke out at a refugee centre on the Greek island of Lesbos, Greece’s firefighting service said on Sunday, causing considerable damage to a warehouse but no injuries.

It was the second fire at a facility built for migrants, after a reception centre was burned down by unknown perpetrators last Monday. The warehouse, which contained furniture and electrical appliances, was completely destroyed, a spokesman for the firefighting service said.

The blaze at the refugee centre came amid a tense standoff between Turkey and the European Union over who is responsible for the millions of migrants and refugees on Turkish territory and the thousands who have massed recently at the Greek border.

Thousands of migrants headed for Turkey’s land border with EU member Greece after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government announced earlier this month that it would no longer prevent migrants and refugees from crossing over into EU countries.

Greece has deployed riot police and border guards to repel people trying to enter the country and the Greek border area has since seen violent confrontations between them and the migrants. On Saturday, youths threw rocks at Greek police and tried to break down a border fence.

In Istanbul on Sunday, Erdogan called on Greece to open its borders and allow the migrants to move on to other European countries.

“These people won’t stay (in your country), they will move to other European countries,” Erdogan said. “Why don’t you open your gates too, let them go to other countries, and rid yourself of this burden.”

Meanwhile, Cyprus announced it would send security forces to the Greek-Turkish land border to help protect it.

Greek government spokesman Kyriakos Kousios said in a statement that the decision to send the force was announced by Cypriot President Nicos Anastassiades to Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis during a telephone conversation the two had on Sunday morning.

“The president’s proposal was gratefully accepted by Greece’s prime minister and, therefore, a force from Cyprus’ security forces will travel to Greece immediately to defend and guard Greece’s, and Europe’s, borders,” the Cyprus spokesman’s statement said.

The Greek government released a video purporting to show a Turkish armoured vehicle trying to pull down part of border fence with a rope.

It claimed the vehicle was partly purchased with EU border funds.

The Associated Press could not verify the authenticity of the video. There was no immediate comment from Turkish officials.

Greece also arrested five migrants overnight. Turkey is accusing Greece of mistreating the migrants. Many migrants have reported crossing into Greece, being beaten by Greek authorities and summarily forced back into Turkey.

Erdogan will travel to Brussels on Monday (today) to meet European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen about a 2016 Turkey-EU agreement on containing the refugee flows to Europe that has now collapsed.

Each side has blamed the other. An EU spokesman said the crisis in Syria and security and stability in the region would also be discussed.

Published in Dawn, March 9th, 2020