Greece Recalls Austria Ambassador Amid Rift Over Migrant Crisis

The statement noted in particular the new restrictions in Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia.

Refugees and migrants arriving at the main port of Piraeus would usually take buses or trains straight to Idomeni on the northern border. “We expect Serbia will do something similar”.

Migrant support associations willing to assist the evacuation would gather in the coming hours, he said, adding that 500 beds in reception centers were still available.

The bottleneck came after Macedonia severely restricted the number and nationalities of people it is allowing to travel across its territory and continue north toward more prosperous European countries.

A migrant plays with his baby as they wait to enter Macedonia from Greece near Gevgelija, Macedonia, …

Afghanistan and other countries shows results soon. And we can not put caps on how many asylum seekers we receive. Interior Ministry spokesman Johannes Dimroth noted that a so-called “arrival ID” now being introduced aims to prevent such issues in future.

Earlier this week, the Austrian government held a meeting with Balkan countries but chose not to invite Greece, which is another first landing spot for the asylum-seekers.

“We confirm the report”, the source told AFP.

“We don’t know what kind of consequences that will have”, Croatian police spokeswoman Jelena Bikic said by phone on Friday.

“The Commissioner also found that “the time is more uncoordinated actions”: “.

Greece ordered its islands near Turkey and ferry companies to restrict the number of migrants travelling to the mainland, as Athens scrambled to set up temporary accommodation.

Greece said on Thursday it was recalling its ambassador in Vienna for consultations, in an ongoing spat with Austria over the handling of Europe’s refugee crisis.

The meeting drew an angry response from Greece, with the foreign ministry warning that “responsibility for dealing with the migration and refugee crisis can not burden one country”.

“NATO ships will not do the job of national coastguards in the Aegean. Their mission is not to stop or turn back those trying to cross into Europe”.

Greece recalled its ambassador to Austria Thursday and rejected a request to visit Athens by Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner, government officials said. He told her that he’d pass on her message but said that a meeting would be hard while the borders are shut, the official said. Germany, which took in more than 1 million migrants in 2015 alone, is sending mixed messages on Austria’s actions and how the European Union should proceed.

Another 110,000 people have arrived on the continent so far this year, mostly from Turkey via Greece, after more than a million arrived last year.

Nebojsa Stefanovic said Friday that an official note from Croatia arrived the day before, and that Croatia had previously been informed of a change by Slovenia.

Both ruling parties have been spooked by the rise of the far-right Freedom Party, led by anti-immigrant nationalist Heinz-Christian Strache.

In a series of provincial elections past year in which migration was the dominant issue, the Freedom Party made large gains while the Social Democrats and the People’s Party lost ground, including in traditionally left-wing Vienna in October.

A French court has upheld a decision to demolish the southern half of the “Jungle” migrant camp, near the northern French city of Calais, and relocate the migrants living there.

“We will not tolerate that a number of countries will be building fences and walls at the borders without accepting even a single refugee”, Tsipras said.

“It took me 20 hours to get here”.

He said three chartered ferries – with a combined capacity of about 4,000 places – would be used on islands to provide temporary shelter over the next three days.