Protesters march against Greece-Turkey border fence

Hundreds of people protested in northeast Greece on Sunday against a security fence along the Turkish border, demanding the opening of safe routes for migrants, two days after 45 died while trying to cross the Aegean Sea.

Demonstrators, some wearing life jackets as symbols of the flow of thousands of people making the perilous sea journey from Turkey to Greece, marched from the village of Kastanies, which lies close to the frontier.

Police stopped the marchers a few hundred metres away from the border fence which is located in a restricted-access military zone.

The protesters waved placards demanding the opening of borders and a group of Pakistani migrants carried a picture of drowned Syrian toddler Alan Kurdi. A picture of his body lying on a beach became a global symbol of Europe's refugee crisis.

Europe is struggling to deal with its biggest migration crisis since World War II, but member states are split on what to do and despite deteriorating winter weather, thousands are attempting the risky sea passage every day.

In the latest tragedy, on Friday coast guards pulled 45 bodies including 20 children from the cold waters of the Aegean after their boats capsized on the way to Greece.

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias asked for more help from EU border agency Frontex to send migrants rejected for asylum in Europe back to Turkey. 

Kotzias said Frontex should deploy about 100 boats in the narrow stretch of water separating Greece from Turkey, the main launching pad for 850,000 refugees and migrants who reached Greece's shores last year.

Long a hotspot for clandestine migration, the Greece-Turkey land border was secured in 2012 with a 12.5-kilometre fence despite concerns from the European Commission.

Some campaigners have argued a corridor should be opened for migrants to enter Greece, but authorities have rejected the idea, with other EU countries putting pressure on Athens to do more to stem the flow of people.

“It is not a bad thing that this fence exists ... Greece cannot take any more people than it is at the moment,” Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias said on Saturday at the end of a trip to Berlin, according to Greek news agency Ana.

Turkey reached an agreement with the EU in November to stem the flow of refugees heading to Europe in return for financial assistance of $3.2bn in cash.

After talks with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Berlin on Friday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said both sides signed an agreement to “do everything to reduce the number of refugees” crossing into the EU.

Sunday’s protests came on the eve of a meeting in Ankara between senior EU officials and the Turkish government on further implementation of the November agreement.