Tehran, November 29
By Mehdi Sepahvand -- Trend:
Greece has said that it is not the responsible side for problems that have afflicted Iranian asylum seekers that have faced closed doors and stopped at the European country's borders.
The problem was caused by some regional countries which were forced to follow the policies of other EU members, closing their borders to people from places other than Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias said here in a press conference with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif, Trend correspondent reported from Tehran November 29.
"We did not cause the problem. But we are planning to do whatever we can in coming days to raise the humanitarian needs of the asylum seekers," he added.
A group of Iranian refugees sewed their mouths shut and went on hunger strike at the border between Greece and Macedonia as hundreds of asylum seekers continue to be trapped, a November 3 report said.
It is the fourth straight day of protests near the village of Idomeni, where controversial new immigration policies brought in after the Paris attacks are blocking migrants all countries apart from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, the report added.
Iranians, Moroccans and Pakistanis were among hundreds of refugees sitting in front of border police and trying to block train lines between Greece and Macedonia.
"Let me tell you one thing. There is no country powerful enough to stop people that have set for moving," Kotzias stressed.
"I tell my friends at the EU that we got no country more powerful than the US in technological terms. In the Mexican refugees case, they set up barriers with barbed wires and stuff at the border. What's more, there was all desert beyond the border. But at the end of the day, 38 million Hispanics had moved to the other side. There was no sea nor islands, nor was (the US) in any crisis like Greece. One who wants to migrate is like a lover who seeks his beloved."