Greece braces for growing number of stranded migrants

Some 5,000 people were stuck on the border and another 4,000 arrived at Greece’s Piraeus port, as Macedonia said only Syrians and Iraqis would be let in, according to the BBC.

Hungary today also reported a sharp rise in the numbers of migrants breaching its southern borders in February, the first significant surge since the frontiers were sealed past year.

New regulations have been set for refugees on the route through the Balkans to western Europe. “I lost everything in the war, I have no documents”, he said, declining to give his name. He said he had obtained Greek registration papers at the island of Lesbos.

Serbian and Macedonian moves to block passage of Afghans have resulted in a build-up of refugees in Greece.

Greek migration minister Yannis Mouzalas criticised his neighbours for shirking their responsibilities amid the crisis. “They told us there are new rules but they do not explain the problem so that we can have an answer”, 26-year-old Obaid from Afghanistan said after the protest.

Greece thought it had secured an open-borders pledge from fellow European Union members at a summit in Brussels on Friday. Austria announced last week it plans to extend border controls to Italy as it braces for possible shifts in migrant flows.

On Monday afternoon, Macedonia suspended all migrant crossings as tensions rose at the border, where hundreds of Afghans staged a sit-down protest in an area of no-man s land and occupied the railway line connecting the two countries.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban has boosted his public support with a tough stance on migration. Many were economic migrants from Morocco, Iran and Pakistan, the police said.

Hundreds of Afghans protested outside the Idomeni border crossing, holding signs with messages like “We don’t need food”.

“We don’t find a job”, said a man who said he was Moroccan. He added that “the Serbian state does not decide who can pass through its territory without consulting the states up the migrant route”. Those who are caught cutting the fence go to court and are expelled.

In an effort to better manage the bloc’s external borders, the Dutch presidency of the EU will push the proposal for a European Border and Coast Guard, to be discussed on Thursday, so it can be operational during the summer, officials said.

“We are making preparations so that even if the problem is not resolved, if there is a violation of European decisions by Serbia and Skopje, to be able to manage the problem that will be created in Greece”, Mouzalas added. “The Turks confiscated them and, without them, the Macedonian authorities will not accept us”.

But since the six migrants – four Afghans, one Syrian and one Sudanese – have been in prison for a month awaiting their trial, they were freed Monday, prosecutor Jean-Pierre Valensi told The Associated Press by phone after the trial in Boulogne-Sur-Mer.

Germany is under pressure as others, including Austria, take an increasingly restrictive approach to letting in asylum-seekers. Two 20-year-olds were temporarily detained.

“They need to know who we are”. Video footage posted online shows the crowd surrounding the bus with the refugees inside, yelling slurs and hindering the refugees from getting off.

Greek authorities said the mostly Afghan migrants were being put on buses bound for Athens, in the south of the country, after the police operation started early Tuesday.

An EU official said ministers were due to ask the Turkish interior minister: “What can you do, and how can we assist”.

Berndt Koerner, deputy executive director of Europe’s border agency Frontex, said he was confronted with an “anachronism” in the sharing of migrant data.

“We can not go back”.