European Union warns Greece over border controls

European Commission (EC) vice president Valdis Dombrovskis said: “Greece seriously neglected its obligations and that there are serious deficiencies in the carrying out of external border control that must be overcome…by the Greek authorities”.

“Fingerprints are not being entered into the sytem and travel documents are not being systematically checked for identity purposes or against crucial security databases like the Schengen Information System, Interpol and national databases”.

Athens will be given three months to ensure that the situation at its borders improve.

Athens is likely to be given three months to improve, after which neighbouring Schengen states could be advised to reintroduce temporary border controls.

Several EU states, including Austria and Hungary, have already introduced temporary border controls to reduce the number of arrivals.

Greece has been warned that it could be expelled from Europe’s passport-free Schengen zone if it does not manage its borders better and slow the current wave of refugees.

“The draft Schengen evaluation report on Greece looks at the management of the external border during an evaluation visit of Member States and Commission experts in Greece in November”, Migration and Home Affairs Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said in a statement on Wednesday.

He was speaking after the Commission, the EU’s executive body, accepted a report saying cash-strapped Athens had “seriously neglected” its obligations to fellow Schengen states.

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.

The Greek official added that on Monday the EU’s Interior ministers reached a decision for a European solution to the problem, which concluded that the key to managing the refugee crisis lies in Turkey and its implementation of what has been agreed in late 2015.

Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel told an audience on Tuesday “we must find a level of balance and we should not become pessimistic too quickly”.

To prolong the controls, governments will need an official assessment by the European Commission that Greece is still failing. “Important work has been carried out since then”, the Greek Migration Minister Yiannis Mouzalas said.

Meanwhile the European Union is said to be considering helping Macedonia, which is not a member of the European Union or Schengen, to tighten security at its border with Greece.

Figures released by the International Organisation for Migration show that more than 45,000 people – an average of 1,730 a day – have made the perilous journey so far this month, despite the harsh winter weather and unsafe conditions.

Greece is not the only country under fire over its handling of the migrant crisis, with Denmark facing criticism Wednesday after its lawmakers passed a bill allowing authorities to seize valuables from refugees. It leaves them with the option of toughening Europe’s welcome and hardening Europe’s borders to migrants and refugees.

This could prevent migrants arriving in Greece from travelling north.

“If the necessary action is not being taken and deficiencies persist, there is a possibility to… allow member states to temporarily close their borders”, Dombrovskis said.

A note on terminology: The BBC uses the term migrant to refer to all people on the move who have yet to complete the legal process of claiming asylum.

Greece has been the gateway into Europe for many migrants fleeing Syria and other countries.