Greece’s neighborly relations strained as refugees wait

More than 1 million people reached Europe previous year – more than 80 percent of them landing in Greece first.

Austria has mainly served as a conduit into Germany for migrants but has absorbed a similar number of asylum seekers relative to its much smaller population.

Balkan states straddling the migrant route to western and northern Europe have begun denying passage to individuals not coming from the conflict regions of Syria and Iraq.

Greece, a main entry point for migrants and where thousands of Afghans have been held up at the border with Macedonia, angrily protested at being excluded from the ministerial meeting, underscoring the deep rifts within the EU.

At the border with Macedonia on Monday, witnesses said Syrian refugees who did not have all travel documents, including passports, were turned back.

The EU’s executive Commission also said Thursday that it fails to understand how Hungary’s call for a national referendum on the EU’s plan for each member to get a mandatory quota of refugees from Greece and Italy could affect a decision that has already been legally made by all EU nations.

The move came after Austria hosted a meeting with Balkan states on the migrant issue, to which Greece was not invited.

Austria, the last country on the overland route to Germany, said last week it had imposed a daily limit of 3,000 migrants passing through.

Such countries say they have no choice, citing a building resentment against asylum seekers at home, overburdened refugee systems and heightened concerns that militant extremists are blending in with migrants. Instead, he said, they “are only interested in transporting the refugees as fast as possible to central Europe”.

Greece was highly critical of Wednesday’s meeting in Vienna, which was attended by the interior and foreign ministers of European Union members Slovenia, Croatia and Bulgaria, as well officials from Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.

He said it was unacceptable for European Union partners to dump the burden of the crisis on Greece, forcing it to shoulder a weight way disproportionate to its size.

“We are concerned about the developments along the Balkan route and the humanitarian crisis that might unfold in certain countries especially in Greece”, EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos and Dutch Migration Minister Klaas Dijkhoff said in a statement. “The question is when”, Mikl-Leitner told a news conference.

Frustrated by the slow pace of progress, Greece’s Southern Aegean prefecture signed a bilateral agreement Tuesday with Spain’s regional authority of Valencia for the transfer of at least 1,000 refugees from Aegean islands.

“I’m checking the news on Facebook, and I know the Macedonians are not letting people through”.

“We’re going to see the backlog of people grow exponentially now, and you’ll have upward of 20,000 to 40,000 people getting stuck over the next few days”, said Kirk Day, Europe representative of the International Rescue Committee.

Elena Becatoros, Derek Gatopoulos and Nicholas Paphitis in Athens, Pablo Gorondi in Budapest and AP video journalist Philipp Jenne in Vienna contributed.