A European official, under conditions of anonymity, said that Greece is to become an Ellis Island, the anteroom for entry into the presumed economic paradise Europe is to the eyes of the hapless migrants landing on Aegean islands after the perilous journey from the Turkish coast on rickety boats.
Yet, so far Greece lacks the organization Ellis Island had in the days of mass migration to the United States. More importantly, it lacks the willingness to keep all the refugees and economic migrants who would choose to stay after they realize that they cannot make it further into prosperous Europe.
On Friday, the European Union leaders and Turkey agreed that the neighboring country would stop people smugglers operating across its shores, thereby stopping an average of 2,000 arriving illegally to Greece on a daily basis. At the same time, Ankara agreed to take back all migrants who don’t qualify for asylum.
All that sounded too good to be true on Friday night, when the deal was announced amid fanfare. The deal was to go in effect on Sunday. Yet, Sunday was business as usual for smugglers as 1,650 new migrants landed on Lesbos. On Monday, there were less migrants, but hundreds landed on Lesbos nevertheless.
It is obvious that Turkey doesn’t seem too hot on the agreement. The migrant crisis is a perfect opportunity for Ankara to squeeze out as much as it can from Europe on the subject of its accession in the EU and abolition of visa requirements for Turkish citizens who want to travel to Europe. Also, Turkey wants to get as much as it can on the Cyprus issue. Furthermore, the migrant crisis gives Ankara the opportunity for further territorial claims on the Aegean.
All that means that the refugee flows from Greece’s neighbor will continue unabated. Now that the Balkan Route is officially shut down, it is very likely that the refugees and migrants who are stranded in Greece, might as well start applying for residency. Also, Tuesday’s terrorist attacks by the Islamic State in Belgium will force all European countries to tighten border controls even more. Therefore, it seems that the refugees are here to stay.
The Greek government is caught between its inadequacy to actually provide decent living conditions for the refugees and the effort to take advantage of the migrant crisis by asking Europe for a state debt haircut.
At the moment, the cabinet is in confusion over the refugee crisis. The mix of anti-Europe propaganda and pseudo-humanism cabinet members use sends the wrong signals in all directions. When one minister calls the Idomeni tent city a “modern-day Dachau” and another minister states that the picture of Idomeni is an honor for Greece(!), it is easy to understand that the government not only lacks a plan to handle the dozens of thousands of migrants, but is also completely overwhelmed by the situation and ready to throw in the towel. It is also plainly evident that the cabinet is still disengaged from the real problems of the country and the real world in general. The policy of “ignore them and they’ll go away” implemented on migrants by previous migration deputy minister Tasia Christodoulopoulou seems to continue, even at zero hour.
So far, the government has relied on non government organizations and volunteers to tend to the refugees. But as the numbers of migrants increase, the handouts Greek people are able to offer will inevitably decrease. It is true that Greeks showed amazing reserves of solidarity and they practically handled the situation alone in absence of a serious infrastructure. But for how much longer?
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his cabinet so far have used more wishful thinking and bleeding-heart rhetoric instead of hard work to build the infrastructure to accommodate under healthy conditions the 50,000 refugees already on its soil. If Turkey continues to ignore the agreement and people smugglers continue to flood Greece with migrants, then the country will truly become the “warehouse of souls” Tsipras pledged not to allow it to become.
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