The European Union and each member state support and stand in solidarity with Greece, which is facing a wave of illegal migrants, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said in the Greek town of Kastanies near the Greek-Turkish border on Tuesday.

As chairman of the Council of the EU – a post he automatically holds as Croatia is currently holding EU’s six-month rotating presidency – Plenkovic visited the border together with Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and President of the European Parliament, Davide Sassoli.

The five of them arrived to the Greek-Turkish border on Tuesday in a show of support for Greece which has to cope with a buildup of refugees and migrants on its border, which is also the EU’s external border.

“We have sent the message that the EU and all member states will support and stand in solidarity with Greece,” Plenkovic said.

European leaders were taken on a helicopter ride to survey the situation on the ground in the border area. They were also joined by Croatia’s Interior Minister, Davor Bozinovic, who will chair an emergency meeting of EU interior ministers on Wednesday in Brussels.

Officials from the Greek army and Greek police, along with Prime Minister Mitsotakis, briefed them on what is being done to protect the border from illegal migration.

“It’s important that Greece, with its security forces, prevents a possible new illegal migration wave,” said Plenkovic, after him and other EU officials visited Greek police barricades on the border with Turkey. He said Greece would get support from EU’s external border agency Frontex in extra funding and personnel.

Plenkovic added the situation looked similar to the migrant crisis of 2015-16, but with a key difference in the attitude of the Greek government.

“This Greek government, unlike the previous one (led by Alexis Tsipras), is controlling its border… After today’s briefing, I believe Prime Minister Mitsotakis and the Greek authorities will guard their border,” Plenkovic said.

EU leaders visited the Greek border town of Kastanies on Tuesday amid growing concerns about the arrival of thousands of refugees and migrants to the Greek border, after Turkey said last week it would let them travel on towards Europe, saying that Turkey had “reached its capacity”.

Turkey’s decision to grant free passage to refugees ends a hastily struck 2016 deal with the European Union to stem the flow of refugees and migrants from the Middle East towards Europe by keeping them in Turkey.

The deal was made after more than a million refugees and migrants had travelled to Europe via the so-called Balkan route in 2015-16, which took them from Turkey and Greece across the Balkans, towards Hungary and Slovenia, in order to reach wealthier countries in Western Europe.

Although the deal had effectively shut down the flow of people, a new route through Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia became popular in recent years for thousands of migrants from the Middle East travelling westward.

But Turkey’s decision came after renewed fighting in the Syrian city of Idlib, located less than 30 kilometres from the Turkish border, escalated, and after an airstrike by Russian-backed Syrian forces had killed more than 30 Turkish soldiers.

Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said on Monday that he had refused an offer of €1 billion in European funding to keep holding refugees and migrants in Turkey.

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