Donald Tusk yesterday urged economic migrants to abandon their plans to travel to Europe, saying their trek would be “all for nothing”.
The European Council president issued the appeal after meeting Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister, who is struggling to find a way to cope with at least 30,000 migrants who have become trapped on Greek soil after other EU countries closed their borders to the new arrivals.
“I want to appeal to all potential illegal economic migrants wherever you are from: do not come to Europe,” Mr Tusk said. “Do not believe the smugglers. Do not risk your lives and your money. It is all for nothing. Greece and any other European country will no longer be a transit country.”
His words revealed the rising sense of panic felt in Brussels and Athens as 2,000 people continue to cross the Aegean sea each day in the hope of finding a better life in the West, stoking fears of a humanitarian crisis. Analysts believe the number of people stranded in Greece could reach 200,000 within months.
Mr Tusk was due to visit Ankara last night for talks with Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish prime minister. An EU summit in Brussels on Monday will aim to find a common European approach to the crisis.
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Mr Tusk condemned unilateral actions by EU members as “detrimental to the European spirit of solidarity” — comments that were directed at Macedonia and the other Balkan states which have followed Austria’s lead in restricting migrant entries.
Mr Tsipras said he wanted to see sanctions imposed on EU states that undermined joint decisions by the 28-member group. The EU decided last year to set up a system of “hot spot” reception centres in Greece and other border areas so that migrants could be assessed, and 160,000 asylum seekers shared around the member states.
“Greece will demand sanctions to those who do not respect [European solidarity],” Mr Tsipras said at a joint press conference with Mr Tusk. “This is a critical moment for Europe. Bold decisions need to be taken collectively.”
He added: “If the EU cannot rise to this challenge, then it faces a unity crisis on top of a refugee crisis.”
The EU unveiled a €700 million emergency aid plan on Wednesday to help Greece and other countries struggling to cope with the influx — the first time that humanitarian aid will be used within the EU rather than abroad.
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The United Nations has warned of a looming humanitarian crisis on the Greek-Macedonia border, where aid agencies have reported a lack of food and tents, with the wintry weather taking a heavy toll on the health of migrants caught without adequate shelter.
No more than 500 Syrian and Iraqi refugees have been allowed to cross into Macedonia since Tuesday, Greek police said yesterday.
Sebastian Kurz, Austria’s foreign minister, urged Greece to stop migrants continuing their journey to northern Europe. It was “absurd”, he said, that refugees at Greece’s northern border had chosen to demonstrate to be let into Macedonia, and showed that “it is not about the search for protection, but about the search for a better economic future.
“That is understandable in human terms, but we cannot offer this,” he said.
The crisis has raised fears for the future of the 26-nation Schengen passport-free travel zone, with many states restoring frontier controls. Sources in Brussels said that a plan would be unveiled today to restore the Schengen zone by November, with an EU coastguard system and a significant strengthening of Greece’s external borders.
Hundreds of lone child refugees stranded on borders of Greece
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Criminal gangs are preying on hundreds of lone migrant children trapped by Macedonia’s border blockade at the Idomeni crossing in northern Greece (writes Anthee Carassava.)
Aid workers from Arsis, a Greek youth support organisation, and Save the Children have documented about 200 unaccompanied minors, either travelling alone or separated from their families during the perilous journey from the war-ravaged Middle East.
“The figure is alarming if you consider that this is just one of about a dozen refugee camps in all of Greece,” Miltos Stabliakos, of Arsis, said.
Some migrant children had refused to disclose their ages. Ahmad, a 15-year-old Syrian boy, told Greek authorities on the island of Lesbos last month that he was 19 to avoid being put into protective custody. “I had no travel documents,” he said. “I did not want to stop my journey. I wanted to move on and get to Germany as quickly as possible.”
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Stranded in Idomeni, he now helps to gather youngsters in a squalid white tent, organising games to keep them safe from wandering smugglers.
Natassa Anastasiadi, an aid worker, said criminals were “crawling” all over the camp. One in four migrants seeking passage to Europe is a child. At least 10,000 unaccompanied children have disappeared since their arrival to the Continent in the past year, according to the EU’s criminal intelligence agency.
In Idomeni, harrowing tales abound of smugglers luring young children to steal their travel documents. The papers are sold on to Turkish smugglers who supply the next wave of refugees.