“So that’s a very tragic incident that occurred today”, said Frank Laczko, the IOM’s head of the global migration data analysis center.
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Luxembourg, whose own minister Jean Asselborn spoke out on Wednesday against expelling Greece or paring back the Schengen area to a hard core of richer states, proposed four topics for debate, according to a document seen by Reuters.
Greece is not only struggling to cope with the numbers of people arriving on the islands closest to Turkey such as Lesbos, but thousands of people are camped on the northern border with Macedonia, which has erected a fence to stop people crossing.
In recent days, non-EU Macedonia has tightened its border and let through only Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans – seen as more likely to be granted asylum in the EU.
Mouzalas added that a so-called “hot spot” would soon be ready on Lesvos and that the Greek army would undertake the construction of two more on Leros and Kos. Accidents are frequent and hundreds of people have drowned this year in the Aegean Sea.
He said that he had taken European Union ambassadors out to sea to watch arrivals and asked what Athens should do.
“We hope our partners will offer generously, given the present grumbling” directed against Greece, Mouzalas said.
Parliament last month approved legislation obliging the government to challenge the EU quotas, while Orban has repeatedly said that Brussels overstepped its authority when it approved the scheme despite opposition from a handful of mainly Eastern European countries.
European Union diplomats said suspending Greece from the open-border rules – activating Article 26 of the Schengen treaty so that people arriving at ports and airports from Greece were treated as coming from outside the Schengen zone – could be discussed at a meeting of European Union interior ministers tomorrow. Police distributed fliers warning the economic migrants that they must leave the border area within three days, and the government implied it would take more drastic action if necessary.
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 former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, prompting the United Nations refugee agency to call on the authorities of both countries to manage the border in a manner consistent with human rights and refugee-protection principles.
Greek government spokesperson Olga Gerovassili stressed that “the question of Greece withdrawing from the Schengen accords has never been posed” at an European Union level.
“Migrants at Greece’s northern border will be checked and those found not properly identified will be registered”, said Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri.
Aris Hatzis, an Athens university professor, says, “Tsipras saw the refugee issue as a bargaining chip, but it’s going to backfire disastrously if the threat of Schengen suspension becomes a public issue”.
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Mouzalas a day earlier had denied suggestions that its place in the EU’s passport-free Schengen zone was in jeopardy because of failings in its handling of the migrant crisis.
