Volunteers help around 150 refugees and migrants, mostly from Syria and Iraq, to disembark from a vessel after their arrival from the Turkish coast to the northeastern Greek island of Lesbos, on Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2015.
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Chris Morris reports from Idomeni.
He said work was moving ahead on building screening centers on its Aegean Sea islands.
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. More than 3000 people have drowned trying to reach Europe on packed, flimsy boats this year.
The man, believed to be from Morocco, died after touching a high-power wire among overhead railway cables while climbing on top of a train carriage.
“The moment of truth will be the December European Council”, the official said, referring to the next meeting of EU leaders in Brussels in two weeks’ time.
Pressure is mounting on Greece to ensure better control of its borders and register arriving migrants or face the prospect that passport checks could be reintroduced for Greek citizens in Europe. Violent scuffles have since broken out between the two groups and food from a refugee camp was looted. Macedonian police also fired tear gas at protesting migrants who were pelting them with stones.
Overwhelmed by hundreds of thousands of people coming into Europe this year, Balkan states began blocking passage last month to all but Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans, who are regarded as refugees because they are fleeing conflict. “Why is there this discrimination going on?”
Mouzalas said Greece had spent €1bn in additional unbudgeted funds from its strained budget this year on coping with the refugee influx, and had received a mere €30mn so far in European Union assistance due to bureaucracy on both sides. Eli would not give his surname for fear of reprisals for manning a roadblock.
The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, voiced “deep concern” about the tensions, urging Greece and Macedonia to manage the border “in a manner consistent with human rights and refugee-protection principles”.
In recent days Macedonia has stopped allowing anyone except those from countries at war such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, who are considered refugees, to cross into the country from Greece.
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About the electrocuted asylum seeker, the socialist party PASOK warned the Greek government that “If you do not take action now, unfortunately, the crisis in Idomeni [at the north Greek border] will be transferred to large urban centers very quickly”.
