Greece finds itself in an even more precarious position on the refugee crisis. After the de facto sealing off of the western Balkan route, Austria has called for the closing of the Mediterranean sea route. A total of 9,000 refugees and immigrants on the islands of Greece ready to cross over into the mainland and continue their journey to the north of Europe. Meanwhile, there a 3 million more refugees and illegal immigrants stranded in mainland Turkey who are see their hope for a better life in Europe via Greece. Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz made a formal statement regarding the blocking of the Mediterranean route. Speaking to newspaper ‘Bild am Sontag’ he said that something should be done with the Mediterranean route to stop the human traffickers. According to Turkish newspaper ‘Hurriyet’ there are about 2.5 million refugees and illegal immigrants from Syria, Pakistan and Afghanistan in Turkey trying to come into contact with human traffickers to make the journey into Europe. Already tens of thousands of refugees and illegal immigrants have amassed on the Turkish peninsula of Erythrea hoping to take a boat across to the eastern Aegean islands of Greece.