Authorities warn hundreds of people trying to reach Europe by land they will be forcibly removed in three days if they refuse to leave

Turkish authorities have announced that hundreds of refugees who have set up camp on a main road at Edirne near the Greek border will be forcibly removed in three days if they refuse to leave.

Many others are holding out at Istanbul’s main bus station in the hope of reaching northern Europe by land rather than risk the perilous sea journey.



Bus services from the main terminal in Istanbul to cities on the Greek and Bulgarian borders were suspended last week, prompting several hundred refugees, most of them Syrians, to take to the road in an attempt to reach the European Union on foot.

In the small green spaces around the bus terminal, some refugees have set up camp, with families trying to shelter smaller children against the sun with blankets and jackets.

Renas, 25, a Syrian-Kurdish construction worker from Qamishli, said he had no other hope than trying to reach Europe to claim asylum. “We are running away from a war and from the oppression of [Syrian president] Bashar [al-Assad]. There is nothing in Syria anymore, no jobs, no life, no future. In Turkey life is very difficult, because we are not allowed to work and there are no jobs here.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Refugees camp outside at Istanbul’s Esenler bus terminal for buses after authorities withheld tickets to Turkish border towns. Photograph: Yasin Akgul/AFP/Getty

Turkey is hosting approximately 2 million refugees, the largest such population in the world. But increasingly difficult living and working conditions, as well as the impossibility of claiming asylum in the country, has led a growing number of people to try to reach Europe via smugglers’ routes.



Renas said he did not want to risk the dangerous journey by sea. “I have several relatives who drowned on their way to Greece,” Renas said. “These boats are nothing but floating death traps, they are not safe at all.” On Tuesday at least 22 people drowned off the Turkish coast after their boat capsized.

Most refugees have resorted to paying smugglers to take them from the Turkish coast to Greek islands after authorities cracked down on the routes from Turkey to Greece and Bulgaria via the land borders.



Five other men, former soldiers who defected from the Iraqi army in Mosul, hope to go on to Germany. “At home Isis wants to kill us because we were soldiers. We cannot go back. Don’t we have the right to protection anywhere?” one of them said.

One of the bus drivers working for a Turkish company, who has driven on the route to the Greek border for more than 30 years, said he felt sorry for the refugees stranded at the terminal, but he was not allowed to take them on board.

“I have been called to the police several times. A prosecutor threatened me with jail for human trafficking for driving Syrians to the Greek and Bulgarian borders. What can I do? And they haul them off the buses before we reach the city anyway,” he said. “It would be wrong to sell them tickets and take their money for a journey they will not be allowed to complete anyway.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A Syrian man waits with his children as they attempt to reach mainland Europe. Photograph: Bülent Kiliç/AFP/Getty

Turkish gendarmerie briefly set up barricades near Edirne, a city close to the Greek and Bulgarian borders, to stop hundreds of people from reaching either country. Turkish media reported that hundreds of refugees set up a camp on the main road in the hope to be let through, while others were relocated to an Edirne city park.



The Edirne governor, Dursun Ali Şahin, announced that the refugees had three days to leave before he would resort to “forcible measures”. “Around 8,000 refugees came here since last Thursday,” he told the Turkish press, adding that the majority of them who were turned away and had left. “The remaining group of 2,000 people insists on staying here … I told them that we would host them for two to three days before they would be forced to leave.”

Şahin said he expected a delegation from Ankara on Thursday to discuss further steps. “We want to send them either to their home countries or to camps,” he said. “They will certainly not stay here. They will also not be allowed to approach the Greek and Bulgarian borders. The 15km zone before the border is a zone from which refugees are banned.”

Some of the refugees camping at the Istanbul bus terminal said they would not give up hope. “We want to believe that Europe will do the right thing and that they will offer us the protection we need,” one said.