Greece ‘seriously neglected’ border obligations: EU Commission

On Monday, EU interior ministers urged Greece – the main gateway to Europe for more than a million refugees – to do more to control the external border of the bloc.

Speaking to the Times, An EU official said: “If border controls were allowed to remain for two years, it is hard to see that they would ever be removed”.

An extension of border controls has also sparked concerns that Greece, the landing point for about 80% of all migrants arriving in Europe, could be effectively frozen out of Schengen.

But this is a serious warning to Greece to improve things, says the BBC’s Damian Grammaticas in Brussels.

“Our commitment now is to be ready by mid-to-late February”, he said.

The unease caused by the New Year’s Eve events has centered on reported sexual assaults on women. Anyone coming to the country with more than 10,000 kroner, or about $1,450, will have to help pay for their room and board while they are in Denmark. A smaller number crossed from North Africa to Italy. The system has allowed hundreds of thousands of people to make chaotic treks from Greece and Italy to Germany and Sweden over the past year. This poses a further challenge to already overstretched authorities. Critics have also repeatedly pointed out that refugees had to wait in the cold, because not enough indoor waiting rooms were provided.

In a draft report, the European Commission said Greece was “seriously neglecting its obligations”. “We want to be prepared for all eventualities but we are not at the activation stage yet”, Natasha Bertaud, the Commission’s spokeswoman on migration, told reporters in Brussels.

The European Commission has launched a rearguard defence of Europe’s passport-free Schengen area, even as it bowed to demands to start planning the reintroduction of border controls.

The migrants had earlier set off from the district Didim in Aydin province in an apparent bid to reach the Greek island of Farmakonisi.

Mouzalas conceded the government was experiencing delays with setting up the island screening centers – known as hotspots – but said Athens is seeking additional assistance with the project.

European Union countries have been increasingly critical of Athens’ handling of the continent’s worst migration crisis since World War Two, with more than a million migrants reaching Europe a year ago, mainly through Greece.

“They do not deserve to be lumped together with criminals”, he said. These include homicide, bodily harm, sexual assault, violent theft and serial shoplifting.

At least six people drowned on Wednesday off the shores of Kos island when a boat transferring refugees and migrants from Turkey to Greece sank in a choppy sea, the Greek Coast Guard said.

A coast guard patrol boat, a vessel from the European border control agency Frontex, a helicopter and a vessel from a Greek volunteer rescue group were searching the area for potential survivors.