A Syrian refugee child is seen at a makeshift camp by the Greek-Macedonian border near the Greek vil … Journalists were refused access to the area.
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Fear was also mounting that more migrants may switch back to the treacherous route to Europe that runs through violent Libya and across a far greater expanse of sea to Italy.
At the Greek border with Macedonia, Afghan families boarded almost a dozen buses for the long trip back to the capital, where they will be temporarily housed in relocation camps, local police said.
The decision to close the borders to Afghans attempting to make their way across Europe to seek asylum in countries further along the route has left thousands stranded in Greece as more continue to arrive. The EU’s executive arm said Tuesday that it “has concerns about this approach and will raise the matter with the relevant countries”. Afghan migrants, who have been blocked by authorities in neighboring Macedonia, are being taken to Athens, in the south of the country. “And I will stand by it”, Faymann said. And in yet another blow to the cherished ideal of free movement in Europe, Belgium on Tuesday said it would set up border controls on its frontier with France to block migrants recently cleared from a sprawling camp in Calais from entering its territory.
In Calais, authorities maintained the sprawling shantytown, which cropped up years ago but mushroomed last year in the midst of the migrant crisis, is a sanitation risk.
Officials estimate 800 to 1,000 people live on the muddy, makeshift site, but humanitarian groups contend the figure is more than 3,000.
Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said in a statement the migrants’ return was important for the reconstruction of Afghanistan. She told reporters Austria is still in favor of a common European Union solution to the migrant problem but the European Union needs short-term “national measures” in the interim to stanch the flow. “We want to discuss with Turkey what they are doing, what can they do and how can we help them do it”. More than 1 million people reached Europe past year – more than 80 percent of them landing in Greece first. Greece, with its extensive coastline and its islands’ proximity to Turkey, is by far the favored route. Some 309 Afghans returned a year ago to their homeland after their asylum pleas had been rejected. Here is what we know: – Countries along a route that migrants take through the Balkans to try to reach countries like Germany and Sweden have closed their borders to certain nationalities.
The result is that thousands of Afghans are now trapped at the Idomeni crossing between Greece and Macedonia while others are stuck at borders within the Balkans, unable to move on into Europe.
Frontex chief Fabrice Leggeri said in Berlin Tuesday that newcomers who don’t meet requirements for protection and are considered economic migrants are supposed to leave Greece within a month.
But the court said a decision was not possible before Wednesday or Thursday as it began hearing testimony from 250 migrants and 10 NGOs.
Vienna announced last week that it would cap the daily number of asylum applications and migrants allowed to cross the country.
With the pace of arrivals showing no sign of abating – a record 11,000 people were registered on Aegean islands in the space of three days last week – Athens has been in a race against the clock to improve hosting facilities including “hot spot” screening centres and camps.
But Greece, which already complained of lacking solidarity in Europe, lashed out with a threat that it may use a veto to block certain countries making European Union membership bids over their migration policies.
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Shortly before, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had expressed Athens’ discontent during a telephone conversation with his Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte over the EU’s “weakness to ensure the implementation of the unanimous decision regarding the refugee issue that was reached at the recent European Council meeting (Friday)”, according to an e-mailed press release from his office.
