Greece maintains threat to act alone on migrants

Speaking ahead of a crucial meeting in Brussels, Greek migration minister Yannis Mouzalas criticised other countries for “unilateral” actions that affect Greece.

As well as triggering a domino effect of national border controls limiting the flow of people northwards, their decision has left thousands stranded in Greece, the main gateway for those fleeing upheaval in the Middle East and beyond.

“Unilateral initiatives to solve the refugee (crisis)”, the statement stressed, “would undermine the very foundations of European unification”.

The shift in focus from taking in refugees to dealing with the consequences of keeping a lot of them out amounts to an admission of abject failure in developing coherent European Union policies on the crisis.

This week the Belgian authorities introduced checks on the western border with France amid concerns that migrants evicted from the “Jungle” camp in Calais may try to cross to ports in neighbouring Belgium.

Last September, EU ministers finalized plans to relocate 120,000 migrants from Italy, Greece and Hungary to other EU countries, but the decision was opposed by Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.

An official from the current Dutch presidency of the European Union told the AFP news agency that the goal of Thursday’s meetings would be “to allow us to avoid surprises – we have to avoid that one country is surprised by the measures taken by another”.

Some 400 migrants from Syria and Iraq demanded to leave a transit camp in northern Greece Thursday and have begun a 70-kilometer (45-mile) trek walking to the country’s border with Macedonia.

It was yet another sign of trouble in Greece as it scrambles to cope with border restrictions imposed recently by Austria and Balkan countries – while some 4,000 migrants and refugees continue to arrive on Greek territory daily.

Its immigration problems are minor, however, compared to those of Greece, which has seen more than 102,500 people cross the sea to its islands so far this year.

Many of these migrants enter through Greece as they make the trek toward Germany.

An eviction deadline Tuesday for the camp’s southern sector came and went, with migrants and humanitarian groups trying to stave off bulldozers via a legal complaint, a letter to the interior minister and public pleas.

The border closures are squeezing Greece between the Balkan nations to the north and Turkey, where most of the refugees are coming from.

Meanwhile in Germany – the destination for numerous migrants – lawmakers on Thursday approved a package of measures meant to speed up migrant processing and cut the number of newcomers.

Lawmakers also approved plans to amend laws so even a suspended prison sentence would be grounds for deportation if someone is found guilty of certain crimes including bodily harm, sexual assault or violent theft.

Reuters journalists saw hundreds of others gathered at petrol stations and motels along the 530-km route from Athens to Macedonia, where guards periodically opened the border on Wednesday morning, letting 100 people through at a time. If northern nations did fully close their borders, Greece’s refugee reception capacity could become overwhelmed within days.

Austria, Serbia and Macedonia have taken their own steps to limit entry to migrants, angering Greece, which fears the controls will cause a bottleneck.