The Greek Police repatriated 1,604 migrants in November.
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(AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu). CORRECTS MONTH IN DATE.
Many migrants try to travel onwards to northern Europe through the Balkans, where countries have put up fences and reinstated border controls.
Earlier Thursday clashes broke out between refugees, those allowed to cross the border, and the blocked migrants, each group throwing stones at the other.
Additionally, UNHCR said transportation has been facilitated for the refugees and migrants who have been refused admission into Macedonia to return to Athens, where reception facilities and assistance are available and UNHCR staff is present to offer individual advice and legal counselling on a case-by-case basis. But almost all those entering Greece from Turkey want to live in wealthy European countries such as Germany or Sweden.
Serbia’s prime minister has urged a joint worldwide effort to solve the migrant crisis, warning that xenophobia and fear of extremists have been on the rise since the Paris attacks that killed 130 people.
Warning of security threats and saying most migrants were not fleeing war, Tusk said: “It’s too easy to get into Europe…” An alleged accomplice has also been detained in Britain.
Later this month, EU officials will discuss a new proposal that would allow Frontex to be deployed without the consent of the host country, as long as the majority of European states vote for it.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry made the announcement as he visited Athens on Friday.
Thousands of refugees and migrants were stuck at the border between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on Friday following tense protests which prevented anyone from crossing for more than 24 hours.
An estimated 3,000 Pakistani, Moroccan and Iranian migrants have been trapped in no-man’s land between the two countries for several weeks, after non-EU Balkan countries began restricting entry to certain nationalities.
“Since May Greece has persistently been asking for technical, technological and staffing help, and what it has received from Europe is far less than what was asked for”, Xydakis told The Associated Press in an interview. “There is an inability of the member states and the European mechanisms to respond to the needs of this storm”, Xydakis stated.
Greece has appealed for the European Union to urgently send border guards to help control its maritime frontier with Turkey as well as tents, generators and first aid for arriving refugees.
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A day ago, Mouzalas said some in the European Union “mistakenly believe that the refugee flow can be controlled from Greece”.
