Greece Accepts EU Border Controls, Defusing Free-Travel Threats

More than 3,000 people have drowned trying to reach Europe on packed, flimsy boats this year.

Greece’s financially-strapped government says it has spent about 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) addressing the migrant crisis and only received 30 million euros in European Union aid. This voluntary delivery of aid is coordinated by the European Commission’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) which is working closely with the Greek authorities and the other participating states in the mechanism for a swift response to the request, the EC said.

He insisted Greece is meeting its obligations and adhering to all agreements made on the issue, saying small delays were “completely explainable” by the sheer volume of arrivals.

They are gathering to discuss an initiative by Germany to launch a large scale resettlement programme of Syrian refugees from Turkey. Suggestions have surfaced in recent media reports that Greece could be suspended from the EU’s borderless Schengen area unless it improves its border policing. A suspension, which might imply travelers from Greece would pass by means of passport control on arrival in different Schengen countries, would have little sensible impact on the migrant flow as Greece doesn’t share any borders with different Schengen nations. But it would be a humiliating blow.

In a separate request, Greece invoked EU provisions normally used for natural disasters, calling for European assistance in providing food, shelter and medical care for refugees, the EU said.

The move would see the widespread reintroduction of passport controls on borders inside the Schengen Zone.

“There are a certain number of improvements that need to be done”, European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said Thursday.

A 22-year-old Moroccan asylum seeker was electrocuted to death by accident when he touched a power cable after jumping off a train Thursday at the neutral zone between Greece and Macedonia. It is created to crackdown on people smuggling and to encourage refugees not to cross the Mediterranean into Greece.

Dozens of migrants continued to block the crossing for refugees for a second day on Thursday, pelting Macedonian riot police with stones.

Meanwhile, noting that as a result of restrictions imposed by the authorities along the Western Balkans route, tensions have been rising at the border between Greece and the Republic of Macedonia, the United Nations refugee agency has called on the authorities of both countries to manage the border in a manner consistent with human rights and refugee-protection principles.

Since November 1, 50,000 people have arrived in Greece.

Xydakis said the challenge that faces the European Union is whether it can “adhere to its founding conventions, that you… don’t beat (people) at the borders as Hungary did two months ago, and that the era of the Iron Curtain has ended in Europe”.