Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned that “millions” of migrants and refugees will soon head towards Europe.
Erdogan was speaking after announcing Turkey could no longer enforce a 2016 deal with the EU to prevent migrants entering Europe.
Erdogan said Turkey could not cope with a new wave of refugees after an escalation of the Syrian conflict.
A young boy died when a boat capsized off the Greek island of Lesbos yesterday, Greek police said.
It was the first reported fatality since Turkey opened its border last week.
Meanwhile, a Turkish official accused the Greek authorities of killing a Syrian man who was trying to breach the border yesterday. Athens denied the allegation.
An unverified video showed a man on the ground with blood on his neck.
Nearly a million Syrians have fled to the Syrian-Turkish border since December, amid heavy fighting in the Idlib region between Turkish-backed rebels and Syrian government forces.
Turkey is already hosting 3.7 million Syrian refugees, as well as migrants from other countries such as Afghanistan – but previously stopped them from leaving for Europe.
In a televised speech, Mr Erdogan said the EU had provided no help for resettling Syrian refugees in “safe zones” inside Syria.
After Turkey opened its doors for migrants to leave its territory for Europe last week, he said, “hundreds of thousands have crossed, soon it will reach millions”.
The Turkish leader gave no evidence for his figures, while Greece said about 1,000 migrants had reached its eastern Aegean islands from Turkey since Sunday morning.
In addition, Greece said it had stopped almost 10,000 migrants from crossing its land border in 24 hours. Some migrants tossed stones and metal bars when stopped, and Greek border guards fired tear gas.
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