Greece must comply with the rules of the Schengen zone, the Dublin Treaty and the agreements it has signed during EU summits, was the message sent after the informal council of justice and interior ministers in Amsterdam.
The European Commission discussed how to prevent migrants getting from Greece to Germany through the Balkans. There were calls for Greece to set up holding camps for 300,000 refugees to stem the flow of migrants from Syria and other Middle Eastern and African nations.
According to some European officials, Greece should have its borders sealed off from the rest of Europe with passport-free travel within the Schengen zone for two years in a bid to tackle the migrant influx.
The plan proposed would effectively see the passport-free zone in Europe moved north to exclude Greece and would include passport checks on the continent.
European officials expressed the concern that Greece is sending refugees and migrants indiscriminately in the next nearest border, that of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, says a real.gr report.
Athens has two options within the framework of the Schengen and Dublin treaties: To examine the applications for asylum of those who land in Greece and host them temporarily, or redirect to Turkey those who do not wish to apply for asylum, according to the report.
In no case, however, is it allowed by international or Greek law to have migrants roaming loose across the country searching for illegal ways to cross to northern Europe. Greece’s international obligations, in this phase, is the hospitality, the return, or detention of migrants.
The European Commission will record the extraordinary circumstances on the issue and draft a compliance report for Greece within the next 15 days. The compliance report will outline Greece’s international obligations and the agreements it has signed.
If Greece does not fulfill its obligations and continues to send migrants to the FYROM border indiscriminately, it will be given three months to comply to its obligations, the report says. If not, Schengen member-states have the right to impose border controls on Greek ships and planes.
Athens has criticized the idea of exclusion from Schengen with Yiannis Mouzalas, the deputy migration minister, denouncing the threat as a “blame game.”
Furthermore Nikos Toskas, Greece’s public order minister, said criticisms of Greece were unfair. “It is very difficult to stop small boats coming [from Turkey]… except sinking or shooting them, which is against our European values and Greek values and we will not do that.”
According to a London Times report, one EU official said: “If border controls were allowed to remain for two years, it is difficult to see that they would ever be removed,” stating that passport-free travel is considered a key achievement of the EU.
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