Edirne

Thousands of migrants have set off on foot to the border with Greece after spending the past three days in makeshift camps in the fileds near the Turkish city of Edirne, Bulgaria's bTV station reported on Friday.

Police and gendarmerie forces later halted their advance. The migrants are now closer to Pazarkuke border crossing with Greece.

Turkey, which hosts the world's largest refugee population, has so far spent $7.6 billion caring for 2.2 million Syrians who have fled strife in the Arab republic, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmu? said Sept. 18.

Hundreds of refugees hoping to cross the Turkish border into Greece or Bulgaria would have to return to refugee camps in southern Turkey, the governor of Turkey's Edirne province has said.

"They have to leave here tomorrow and the day after tomorrow,"  Anadolu Agency quoted Governor Dursun Ali Sahin as saying on Thursday.

Erdine province is bordering both Greece and Bulgaria.

Around 150 Syrian migrants have returned to Istanbul after authorities blocked their way to Greece in the border province of Edirne, but a similar number have arrived at the highway waiting to enter the province.

Defense Minister Nikolay Nenchev said on Wednesday that Bulgaria might move to sent up to 1000 people to patrol along the border with Turkey, amid expectations of renewed migratory pressure.

By the end of Wednesday, the number of people to be deployed will be somewhere between 50 and 160, the Bulgarian National Radio quotes him as saying.

Edirne?s governor has given a large number of refugees three days to leave his border province following the beginning of a march by Syrian refugees to the Thracian region in an effort to cross by land into Greece en route to Germany.

Hundreds of Syrian migrants have flocked to Istanbul's largest bus station to board a bus to northwestern Edirne province near the Greek border in an attempt to cross into Europe.

Migrants began arriving at the station in Istanbul's Bayrampa?a district on Sept.15 and have been waiting since as bus companies departing for Thrace refuse to transport them. 

Turkish authorities intercepted on Wednesday 712 refugees headed for the EU in the northwestern province of Edirne near the border with Bulgaria.

The usual number of refugees intercepted in Edirne on a daily basis is 100-150, but the recent surge in their number was due to the announced plans of EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to relocate 160 000 people.

Migrants in Turkey have been denied access to provinces which are not listed on their identity cards, according to a notice issued by the Interior Ministry.

A fire broke out Aug. 25 in a forested area inside a military zone in the Tuzla district of Istanbul, with flames spreading to a wider area due to windy conditions, according to witnesses.

The D-100 motorway towards Edirne way has reportedly been blocked to traffic.

The military zone is close to residential areas in the Tuzla district.