Violent clashes between migrants and police at Greece-Macedonia border

Frontex is also set to expand the scale of its work to Greece’s border with the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, where it will help with the migrants’ registration.

Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald said she believed it was a possibility that Schengen countries would take the step towards closing their borders on a more permanent basis, but this would require member states to ask the commission to examine the matter and come up with a proposal.

With a string of EU countries tightened frontier controls in the face of the unprecedented human influx, the cherished principle of free movement across borders – a pillar of the European project – seemed in grave jeopardy.

Nikos Xydakis stated on Friday that Greece had been “persistently” asking for technical help and manpower since May to tackle the arrival of more than 700,000 people who have passed through the country since January.

Library File: Macedonian police officers stand guard after clashing with migrants on the Greece-Macedonia border near Gevgelija.

Since November 27, the IOM indicated that Greek authorities have been shuttling between 50-100 stranded migrants every day to a reception facility which can host up to 350 people in the Elliniko area of Athens.

Greece has requested items such as tents, generators, beds, sanitary equipment and emergency first aid kits. Arriving from Turkey on the Greek Aegean islands, the people try to reach countries in northern and western Europe by travelling through mainland Greece and the Western Balkan countries. Some EU governments, notably in Eastern Europe, have suggested Greece could be suspended from the Schengen area if it fails to do more to control immigration.

Greece appealed late Thurs. for the EU’s Frontex agency to send border guards to Greek islands within the Aegean, the 1st European Union stopping-off point for refugees fleeing from Syria by means of Turkey.

Calling for the reinforcement of the EU’s Frontex border agency, whose help Greece called for on Thursday after coming under intense pressure from other EU states, de Maiziere said he expected an enhanced role for Frontex in proposals the European Commission is due to make on borders on December 15.

“One option could be not to seek the member state’s approval for deploying Frontex but activating it by a majority vote among all 28 members”, an European Union official said.

 Asked by The World Weekly about the likelihood of suspension, EU Commission spokeswoman Tove Ernst said: “The Commission is not in the habit of commenting on rumours”.