News / EU

EU planning more troop deployments to stop refugee flow

Sunday, 07 February 2016 10:10 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 07 February 2016 10:24 PM ]

Cops walk on February 4, 2016 outside a refugee shelter in Attendorn, Germany, after a raid during which a suspect was arrested. (photos by AFP)

The European Union is planning tougher measures to stop the refugee flow towards the rest of Europe.

Proposed by Slovenia, the new plan is aimed at deploying more soldiers to the Macedonia-Greece border in southern Europe to tackle Europe’s refugee crisis.

Based on the plan, incoming asylum seekers will have to reside in Greece until they can be moved to a country willing to take them in.

The idea is causing tension as it is pitting non-EU member Macedonia against its historic enemy, EU-member Greece.

Athens has showed discontent with the idea arguing that if the migrants stay there permanently the tourism industry will be undermined.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras pleaded with other EU leaders that his country should not be turned into a “black box” for refugees.

But northern Europe states want Greece to become a de facto refugee camp for the rest of the bloc, with arrivals then distributed among other member states.

‘Uncontrollable’ protests

On Sunday, the mayor of the southern Greek island of Kos called on the government to abandon any demands by the EU to build a registration center for asylum seekers, warning that local opposition could lead to "uncontrollable" protests.

"There is a present danger that we will mourn victims and be led to uncontrollable situations," Kos mayor Yiorgos Kyritsis said in a letter to Tsipras, made public by the state agency ANA.

*A man and a child make a fire as they wait with other refugees at a gas station on their way to cross the Greek-Macedonian border on February 5, 2016.*

Athens reacted to a recent scuffle by sending extra forces to the island, which Kyritsis said was a mistake.

"I call on the prime minister to order to withdraw the riot police units to de-escalate tension."

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) announced earlier this month that over 62,000 asylum seekers entered Europe via Greece in January alone.

Meanwhile, thousands of those displaced by foreign-backed militancy in parts of the Middle East continue to make a dangerous sea journey from Turkey to Greece to seek asylum in northern Europe.

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