Migrant crisis: Thousands stranded at Greece-Macedonia border

The Greek government’s response to the refugee crisis has come under criticism from some European Union officials.

Greece “is getting pressure from some European states, which wrongly think it is feasible to control inflows at the sea borders”, Migration Policy Minister Ioannis Mouzalas told reporters in Athens on Wednesday, responding to press reports that the country has been threatened with expulsion from Schengen.

“These are very common lies for Greece… this blame game towards our country is unfair”, he said.

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. “That’s something we must avoid at all costs”. We are calling on the Greek authorities to restore security as a matter of priority in order to ensure the protection of those in need and the safety of humanitarian workers and volunteers.

A migrant has been electrocuted to death at the Greek-Macedonian border during a second successive day of clashes between police and migrants stranded for weeks on the Greek side.

One officer fired warning shots in the air and Macedonian police fired tear gas to push back the bunch, a Reuters witness said.

The arrival via Turkey of hundreds of thousands of Syrian war refugees and others on Greek islands since Asselborn took over the chair of the council in July has poisoned relations among European Union leaders as migrants have moved across their borders and prompted new frontier controls that are jeopardising Schengen’s survival. They also stressed that only Greek forces would physically patrol and guard the border. Police stood guard. Buses full of people who have landed elsewhere in Greece kept arriving.

“We have to make sure that people aren’t talking in Brussels about Schengen and Greece, of pushing Greece out of Schengen”, said Asselborn, referring to weekend comments by the Slovak prime minister and burgeoning discussion among European Union diplomats in Brussels on suspending Athens’ from Schengen. Accidents are frequent and hundreds of people have drowned this year in the Aegean Sea.

Several European sources in Brussels also denied that Athens had received any Schengen threats from the EU institutions, while admitting that some capitals were less than happy.

“We’ll do it quickly, not with flowers or violence, but with management”, he said.

Greek Migration Minister Yannis Mouzalas said the government planned to resolve the situation at the border within the next 10 days.

In March, the Greek defense minister threatened to give all immigrants travel papers to go to Berlin unless Germany agreed to a more lenient bailout agreement.

Stranded migrants, await entry into Macedonia on the Greek side of…

A suspension, which would mean travelers from Greece would pass through passport control on arrival in other Schengen countries, would have little practical effect on the migrant flow as Greece does not share any borders with other Schengen nations.