European Union threat to expel Greece from Schengen

Hours before EU interior ministers are to meet on Friday to consider what to do about Greece’s inability to stem the flow of refugees and others streaming toward Europe’s rich north, the Athens government finally heeded calls from Brussels and agreed to accept European aid and foreign border guards.

Greece’s financially-strapped government says it has spent about 1 billion euros ($1.12 billion) addressing the migrant crisis and only received 30 million euros in European Union aid.

As a result of restrictions imposed by the authorities along the Western Balkans route, tensions have been rising at the border between Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, prompting the United Nations refugee agency to call on the authorities of both countries to manage the border in a manner consistent with human rights and refugee-protection principles.

Groups of people from other countries have set up makeshift roadblocks in retaliation.

According to the agency, a group of Moroccan men then “advanced towards the border crossing with cries of “Allahu akbar”, but were pushed back by Greek police who fired tear gas.

According to BBC, Greece has admitted feeling pressured over the migration issue, but has vehemently denied that there are attempts meant to suspend the country from the Schengen passport-free zone or open border travel pact because of its failure to control the surge of migrants entering Europe.

Mouzalas said that as long as Turkey did not shut down people smugglers operating on its coastline, Athens could not stop frail boats packed with refugees from landing on Greek islands in the Aegean Sea.

Greek Migration Minister Yannis Mouzalas said the government was trying to get the estimated 1,500 migrants put at the edge to come to Athens and apply for asylum in Greece, saying there was lodging available for them.

There is also anger that Greece has been slow to let in European Union experts and improve its registration of refugees.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has pushed for Greece’s expulsion from Schengen, arguing that the move has widespread but behind-the-scenes support in the EU. “If we go back home we will be killed”.

Reports had suggested that some European Union states had asked for Greece to be suspended from the Schengen passport-free zone for not doing enough to secure its external borders and allegedly rejecting European Union help.

Macedonia has erected a metal fence to keep others out and plans to extend it to cover more than 40 km (25 miles) of the border, an intelligence source who described the area as “high risk”, said on condition of anonymity.

A young Moroccan migrant was electrocuted amid clashes near Idomeni.

“Some countries want to defend themselves against their bad migration policy by reinstating border controls”, Hungary’s prime minster Viktor Orban commented on Friday morning on state radio.

“Migrants at Greece’s northern border will be checked and those found not properly identified will be registered”, Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri said in the statement.