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EU’s Tusk to economic migrants: Don’t even think of coming EU mulls ‘large-scale’ migrant deportation scheme
(about 5 hours later)
ATHENS, Greece — The European Union’s leader chose the continent’s main gateway for immigrants Thursday to bluntly warn economic migrants not to even think of coming to Europe, while promising to work for a solution to the more immediate problem of refugees. ATHENS, Greece — Turkey is under growing pressure to consider a major escalation in migrant deportations from Greece, a top European Union official said Thursday, amid preparations for a highly anticipated summit of EU and Turkish leaders next week.
“I want to appeal to all potential illegal economic migrants, wherever you are from: Do not come to Europe,” European Council President Donald Tusk said in Athens. “Do not risk your lives and your money. It is all for nothing. Greece, or any other European country, will no longer be a transit country.” European Council President Donald Tusk ended a six-nation tour of migration crisis countries in Turkey, where 850,000 migrants and refugees left last year for Greek islands.
While people seeking a better life are among the migrants building up in Greece, the majority of arrivals are refugees from war and persecution. They aim to leave financially wrecked Greece to seek asylum in a country that can offer them more, such as Germany or Sweden. “We agree that the refugee flows still remain far too high,” Tusk said after meeting Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
But a series of restrictions imposed by Austria and other countries — first on economic migrants but most recently on refugees — has created a huge bottleneck in Greece. While nearly 2,000 people arrive on Greek islands every day, Greece’s northern neighbor Macedonia only allows a few hundred through, on a good day, and only Syrian and Iraqi nationals. “To many in Europe, the most promising method seems to be a fast and large-scale mechanism to ship back irregular migrants arriving in Greece. It would effectively break the business model of the smugglers.”
Tusk, who is touring countries worst affected by the mass movement of people through Europe, said the situation along the Western Balkan migration route is “really dramatic, and so we must act with determination to improve it.” Tusk was careful to single out illegal economic migrants for possible deportation, not asylum-seekers. And he wasn’t clear who would actually carry out the expulsions: Greece itself, EU border agency Frontex or even other organizations like NATO.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called Thursday for sanctions on EU states that refuse to take in their share of the incoming refugees, and demanded that the practically dormant procedure for relocating refugees stranded in Greece to other members of the bloc should be drastically accelerated. Greek officials said Thursday that nearly 32,000 migrants were stranded in the country following a decision by Austria and four ex-Yugolsav countries to drastically reduce the number of transiting migrants.
After his meeting with Tusk, Tsipras promised “dignified” living conditions for the more than 25,000 people — mostly bona fide refugees — trapped in Greece. But he insisted that the solution can only be temporary, and Greece will accept no more than its fair share of permanently resident refugees. “We consider the (Macedonian) border to be closed ... Letting 80 through a day is not significant,” Migration Minister Ioannis Mouzals said.
At least 10,000 men, women and children have been camped for days in pathetic conditions at the Idomeni border crossing with Macedonia. Protests have been frequent, and this week Macedonian police used tear gas and stun grenades to repel hundreds of Syrians and Iraqis who had torn down a border gate. He said the army had built 10,000 additional places at temporary shelters since the border closures, with work underway on a further 15,000.
On Thursday, a group of frustrated migrants blocked a freight rail line at Idomeni in protest at Macedonia’s refusal to let them in. But a top U.N. official on migration warned that number of people stranded in Greece could quickly double.
Macedonian authorities have said they will only let in as many people as the next country on the route, Serbia, takes. Greek police said that in the 24 hours to 6 a.m. Thursday, 500 people were allowed to cross. Peter Sutherland said the “inevitable consequence” of closed borders throughout the Balkans “is that Greece increasingly becomes a camp for refugees and migrants.”
Some of those, however, were then turned back by Macedonian authorities who said their papers were not in order. One man fainted after he was told to go back. About a third of migrants trapped in Greece are at the village of Idomeni, on the border with Macedonia. Dwellers at a sprawling camp there hold out hope for crossing in increasingly difficult conditions.
The migrants said Macedonia did not accept computer-generated stamps issued by the Greek police, and therefore they could not prove their identity documents are genuine. Greek police said 130 people were allowed to cross the border Thursday.
Migrants said Macedonia didn’t accept computer-generated stamps issued by the Greek police, and therefore they couldn’t prove their identity documents were genuine.
Adnan Abdallah from Syria had waited to cross from Greece to Macedonia for three days, but when he finally was let through, he was turned back because the stamp on his refugee document is computer-generated.Adnan Abdallah from Syria had waited to cross from Greece to Macedonia for three days, but when he finally was let through, he was turned back because the stamp on his refugee document is computer-generated.
“They say here (in Greece) everything is OK, but on the other side this is not acceptable,” a frustrated Abdallah told The Associated Press. “They say here (in Greece) everything is OK, but on the other side this is not acceptable,” he told The Associated Press.
Macedonian authorities, who had been letting in small groups of migrants Thursday morning, closed the border again after the railway protest. The EU is struggling to hold its members to plans for a Europe-wide solution in dealing with the mass migration.
In Athens, Tusk indicated that without full respect of controls on the external borders of Europe’s passport-free Schengen area, Europe has no chance of resolving the crisis. Hungary has already called a referendum on EU plans for a mandatory quota system for settling migrants, and says it’s was considering action to bolster its border fences with additional police and military personnel, and extending the fence to the Romanian frontier.
Tusk spoke after talks with Tsipras. Later Thursday, he will travel to Turkey, from where most migrants enter Europe on dangerous smugglers’ boats. The EU is struggling to implement an agreement with Turkey that could reduce the flow. Earlier Thursday, Tusk told officials in Athens that Europe had little chance of resolving the crisis without full respect of controls on the external borders of Europe’s passport-free Schengen area — signaling pressure on Athens to do more to separate economic migrants from those fleeing war in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere.
“We must do everything we can for (the joint action plan) to succeed,” he said. “This ultimately means that the high numbers we are still witnessing have to go down, and quickly so.” He also had a direct message for them.
“I want to appeal to all potential illegal economic migrants, wherever you are from: Do not come to Europe,” Tusk said.
“Do not risk your lives and your money. It is all for nothing. Greece, or any other European country, will no longer be a transit country.”
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Becatoros reported from Idomeni, northern Greece. Elena Becatoros in Idomeni, Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, Raf Casert in Brussels, Jamie Keaten in Geneva, Switzerland, and Pablo Gorondi in Budapest, Hungary contributed.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.