Greece is now securing the European Union's external borders and is not sending on those arriving as in 2015, the German magazine "Der Spiegel" noted in an article referring to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's decision to open the "gates" of the European Union to refugees. The article asked whether there will be a repetition of the "refugee summer" of 2015, with the magazine replying that the 2015 scenario "must on no account be repeated."

In 2015, people from many countries flocked to Turkey in order to travel from there to the EU - for example Syrians who had previously been living in Lebanon and Jordan. However, Turkey has since closed its borders with Syria and those currently at the Greek-Turkish border are mainly those who have been living in Turkey for several years, according to Spiegel.