Stelios Petsas

Greek police fired tear gas to repel hundreds of stone-throwing migrants who tried to force their way across the border from Turkey on March 1, with thousands more behind them after Ankara relaxed curbs on their movement.

Greece will not accept for a month, beginning Sunday, any asylum applications from migrants entering the country illegally and, where possible, will immediately return them to the country they entered from, Greece's government spokesman Stelios Petsas announced Sunday.

The announcement was made at the conclusion of a cabinet meeting on national security.

Greece will not accept for a month, beginning Sunday, any asylum applications from migrants entering the country illegally and, where possible, will immediately return them to the country they entered from, Greece's government spokesman Stelios Petsas announced Sunday.

The announcement was made at the conclusion of a cabinet meeting on national security.

More than 4,000 migrants have been prevented from crossing into Greece from Turkey and there have been 66 arrests, Greek government spokesman Stelios Petsas said Saturday.

"Greece was the target of an organized. mass, illegal attempt to violate its borders and has withstood it," Petsas told reprters after an emergency meeting of ministers at the Prime Minister's office.

After extensive clashes between officers and islanders that left 62 people injured on the eastern Aegean islands of Lesvos and Chios, the government announced on Wednesday that it is withdrawing most of the riot police units that were stationed there to counter fierce reaction to the creation of new, closed migrant camps.

Police in riot gear threw teargas and fired water cannon at Greek islanders as they tried to prevent access to construction sites for new migrant detention centers by setting fires, hurling flares and blockading the gates.

Locals on Lesvos and Chios are worried that the centers, which would replace temporary camps with open access, will leave the islands permanently overcrowded.

Within the framework of the plan to deal with a possible outbreak of the new coronavirus in Greece, the government will issue a legislative act which will include measures to prevent it from appearing and spreading in the country.

According to government spokesman Stelios Petsas, the legislative act consists of five key articles.

The Greek government is poised to issue a Legislative Act that will give authorities emergency powers to confront a possible epidemic of the coronavirus.

Police in riot gear threw teargas and fired water cannon at Greek islanders as they tried to prevent access to construction sites for new migrant detention centres by setting fires, hurling flares and blockading the gates.

Locals on Lesvos and Chios are worried that the centres, which would replace temporary camps with open access, will leave the islands permanently overcrowded.

As doctors in western port city of Patra on Tuesday cleared a man suspected of bringing the highly contagious new coronavirus into Greece from Italy, the government unveiled a series of emergency measures to contain the disease in the case of an outbreak.