Migrant boat sinks off Greek island; 7 bodies recovered

But as of mid-May, the European Union is in uncharted waters.

The prospect of many thousands more refugees and migrants coming this summer is what’s worrying the countries they head for, primarily Austria, Germany and Sweden.

But a surge of migrants in Europe has lead six countries to impose temporary border controls.

Athens had “started to work toward complying with the Schengen rules”, he said, “but more needs to be done”.

Most EU nations blame Greece for this.

Greek authorities were alerted by a survivor who made it to the island’s shore in the Aegean Sea. A man had swum ashore to raise the alarm.

“Greece has not been able to secure the protection [of the Schengen border] yet”.

With Schengen under threat, few palatable options are available and time is running out.

The report could pave the way for Brussels to authorise other member states to exceptionally extend border controls within the EU’s cherished Schengen area, including with Greece, for up to two years, instead of the normal six months.

In a desperate bid to halt the influx of refugees from the islands of the Aegean to the heartland of the European continent, EU leaders are now debating plans to help Macedonia shut its southern border to new arrivals.

The Commission, the European Union executive, is already reviewing whether Greece’s difficulty in processing constitutes “persistent serious deficiencies” on the external European Union frontier.

The report’s conclusions allow the European Commission to propose “remedial action” and certain recommendations for Greece to improve how it manages its borders. “Frontex is ready to provide experts and technical assistance to help Greece to process the requests for returns and to increase the numbers of effectively returned persons from Greece”, says Juncker.

“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. For member-states that have temporarily reintroduced controls at their internal border in compliance with the Schengen Border Codes, these member-states should also refuse entry at the internal border to third-country nationals who do not satisfy entry conditions, including third-country nationals who have not made an asylum application despite having had the opportunity to do so.

However, Juncker adds, the increasingly demanding scale of the problem of irregular migrant flows reaching Greece and entering the Western Balkans route requires even greater efforts.

European Commission (EC) President Jean-Claude Juncker has warned a Schengen zone collapse could have serious implications for businesses and the transport industry.

“After 12 o’clock today, the Serbian Macedonia border was closed and the refugees are not being allowed through the Serbian side”, he said.

Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD) at the same time announced that he would convoke an extraordinary summit of the Visegrad Four Group (V4), comprised of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, for February 15 to deal with the refugee issues.

Ioannis Mouzalas said that EU-supervised screening centres set up on the Greeks islands could be used to send back ineligible migrants to Turkey “the next morning”.

The Greek coast guard a year ago rescued over 100,000 people crossing over the sea by boat from Turkey.

“An unbelievable minister proposed setting up a camp for 400,000 refugees in Athens and offered the possibility of leaving the Schengen zone and pushing [refugees] back into the sea”.

Turkey has taken little action to stop the activities of people smugglers on its coasts whilst also placing obstacles to repatriation of economic migrants.