To cope with the migration crisis, the European Union interior ministers asked the commission to consider the extension of border checks at a meeting Monday in Amsterdam.
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The EU executive concluded on Wednesday that Greece could face more border controls with other states of the free-travel Schengen zone in May if it does not fix “serious deficiencies” in its management of the area’s external frontier.
“If we do not manage to secure the European external border – i.e., the Turkish-Greek border – then the external border of Schengen will move towards Central Europe”, Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said – apparently mooting expelling Greece from the free-movement zone.
It is “inevitable” the unprecedented measures will be required when the current six-month period of temporary border checks imposed by Germany and five other states expires in May, the Dutch government said. Poland is considering similar measures.
Some European politicians, meanwhile, are calling for the exclusion of Greece from the Schengen area, if the country does not better protect its maritime border with Turkey.
In this Friday, Jan. 15, 2016 photo, refugees wait their turn at the Tabakika registration center, Chios island, Greece.
Turkey, which is home to at least 2.2 million refugees from Syria’s civil war, has become a hub for migrants seeking to reach Europe, many of whom pay people smugglers thousands of dollars for the risky crossing.
Germany, Austria and The Netherlands have recently strongly criticized Greece for not preventing the flow of migrants and have threatened to exclude Athens from the passport-free Schengen zone if it fails to do more to control its borders.
“The International Law that applies in this instance about granting access to the territory or not stems from the Geneva Convention, which says that a third country national when presenting themselves at the border of a Member State should be granted access if they wish to apply for asylum in that country, otherwise they have no valid goal for travel within the European Union”. “We must find an effective border protection”, Fico said.
The European Commission confirmed on Monday that it had sent a mission to non-EU Macedonia to discuss how it could help staunch the large numbers passing over the border from Greece.
“The Commission is now examining possible incentives – positive and negative – so that this accord is applied properly”.
“So member states invited the [European] Commission to prepare the legal and practical basis for the continuance of temporary border measures through Article 26 of the Schengen border code”, he concluded.
Greece will have its borders effectively sealed off from the rest of the continent under plans to tackle the migrant crisis, proposed by European leaders on Tuesday.
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Migrants and refugees line up to receive food as they wait to cross the border from Greece to Macedo …
