Migration Crisis Complicates Greece’s Efforts to Finish Bailout Negotiations

Struggle on two sides risks fragile government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras

By NEKTARIA STAMOULI and  MARCUS WALKER
Feb. 26, 2016 5:26 a.m. ET
The Wall Street Journal

ATHENS—A new deadlock over Greece’s finances is complicating last year’s brittle bailout deal, just as the country nears a showdown with the rest of Europe over efforts that would keep migrants stuck within its borders.

The struggle on two fronts risks overwhelming the fragile government under Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his ruling left-wing Syriza party, which barely managed to keep Greece in the euro last summer, even before the migration crisis deepened the strains between Greece and the rest of Europe.

The International Monetary Fund says it can’t lend to Greece without radical spending cuts by Athens or costly debt forgiveness by Berlin. Greece’s key European interlocutor, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, is under such political pressure at home over barely controlled migration inflows that she’s less able than before to take an unpopular stand over Greece’s debt woes.

Greece Scrambles to House Stranded Migrants as Numbers Grow

Greek officials are looking to convert military sites, ferries into shelters

The Wall Street Journal

By STELIOS BOURAS and  NEKTARIA STAMOULI
Feb. 26, 2016 10:53 a.m. ET

ATHENS—Greece was moving Friday to convert military facilities and ferries into temporary housing for the thousands of migrants who continue to pour into the country even as exit routes to the north are closing.

Greek officials estimated the number of migrants stranded in the country has doubled in the past few days to around 20,000, after Austria and several Balkan countries coordinated a tightening of their borders and started to send back Afghan migrants.

Austria hosts Balkan refugee conference without Greece

Austria has defended holding a refugee summit with West Balkan states without inviting Greece. Athens, however, has filed an official complaint with Austria, calling the meeting "non-friendly" and anti-European.

Deutsche Welle

Tensions are running high between Austria and Greece ahead of a conference in Vienna on Wednesday to discuss strategies to reduce migrant flows. Leaders from nine west Balkan states along the so-called Balkan route will attend the summit, but refugee-clogged Greece was not invited.
"These meetings (with the western Balkan states) take place within a format and with fixed participants," interior ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundboeck told news agency AFP.
Wednesday's conference, entitled "Managing Migration Together" will include foreign and interior ministers from Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia.
The ministers are set to discuss issues like border management and how to combat human smugglers, as well as improving the flow of information concerning their country's policies.
The Vienna conference will also attempt to create unified positions ahead of Thursday's EU interior ministers meeting, an official close to the talks said to news agency DPA.

Refugee arrivals in Greece exceed 100,000 in less than two months

Figure was not reached until end of June last year, and rate of arrivals this year expected to climb further as weather improves
The Guardian
23-2-2016

More than 100,000 refugees and migrants have arrived in Europe so far this year, at triple the rate of arrivals over the first half of 2015.

At least 102,500 have arrived on the Greek islands of Samos, Kos and Lesbos, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). Another 7,500 have reached Italy, and in the first six weeks of the year 411 people are known to have died attempting to make the journey.

In 2015 the threshold of 100,000 arrivals was not reached until the end of June. As spring approaches and the weather improves, the rate of arrivals this year is expected to climb further.

Clashes Erupt in Greece as Macedonia Bars Afghan Asylum Seekers

By LIZ ALDERMANFEB. 23, 2016
The New York Times
PARIS — A decision by the Macedonian authorities to block thousands of Afghan asylum seekers from crossing into the country from Greece set off clashes between migrants and the police on Tuesday, highlighting the challenges facing European nations as they seek to check the flow of people to the Continent.

Greek riot police officers forcibly removed groups of Afghan protesters from train tracks at a migrant camp in Idomeni, Greece, a crossing point to Macedonia and a gateway toward Northern Europe, after Macedonia abruptly announced that Afghans would be classified as economic migrants, disqualifying them from political asylum.

Greek police remove people from border with Macedonia

Operation follows Macedonia’s decision to close frontier, leaving thousands of migrants and refugees stranded in Greece

Guardian

Greek police have started removing people from the country’s border with Macedonia after a snap decision to tighten border controls by the Balkan state left thousands stranded.

Authorities said the mostly Afghan migrants and refugees were being put on buses bound for Athens, in the south of the country, after the police operation started early on Tuesday. Journalists were not allowed to approach the area.

Police and empty buses had entered the Idomeni area before dawn. In one area seen from the Macedonian side of the border, about 600 people had been surrounded by Greek police, a witness told Reuters.

Crowd cheer fire at hotel being converted into refugee shelter in Saxony.

The Guardian
22-2-2016
Suspected arson comes three days after protesters blocked bus carrying asylum seekers in east German state


A fire that destroyed a hotel being converted into a shelter for refugees in Saxony was cheered and celebrated by onlookers, German police have said.

The blaze at the building in Bautzen, eastern Saxony, began in the early hours of Sunday morning. Police are treating the incident as suspected arson. No one was injured.

Locals had cheered as the building caught fire, police said. “Some people reacted to the arson with derogatory comments and undisguised joy.”

These 5 Facts Explain Why Turkey Is in Deep Trouble

Ian Bremmer @ianbremmer  Feb. 19, 2016

TIME

As Turkey ramps up its involvement in the war in Syria, it risks being hit by serious international blowback
It’s been a bad week for Turkey. As the country intensifies its military campaign in Syria, a bomb ripped through Ankara in apparent retaliation on Feb. 17, killing 28 people and injuring 61 others. Sadly, it’s an all too familiar sight. These five facts explain the mounting threats Turkey faces from Syria’s war next door.

Greece threatens to veto Britain-EU deal if states close borders to refugees

Europe’s negotiations about the UK’s membership and about the refugee crisis become entangled at Brussels summit

The Guardian

Greece is threatening to veto a new deal for Britain in the European Union if other member states close their borders to refugees.

The future of Britain’s EU membership has become entangled with the refugee crisis at a summit in Brussels, where the bloc’s leaders had been meeting to discuss the two issues separately.

EU leaders are grappling with how to deal with the biggest influx of refugees since the second world war, after more than one million people arrived in Europe in 2015. The movement of people has called into question the EU’s border-free Schengen zone and has thrown EU asylum rules into chaos. On Friday, Austria introduced daily limits on the number of migrants entering the country, triggering fears of further border closures.

EU Quarrels Over Refugees, With Greece, Austria in Crossfire

 James G Neuger

 John Follain

Bloomberg

European leaders quarreled again over the refugee influx, with fingers pointed at Greece for doing too little to seal its border and at Austria and Slovenia for doing too much.
Conflicting national responses to the expected 1 million new arrivals in 2016 on top of a similar number last year left Germany with the heaviest burden and Chancellor Angela Merkel facing untold political costs.
“We must first avoid a battle among plans A, B and C: It makes no sense at all because it creates divisions within the European Union,” EU President Donald Tusk told reporters after meetings ended in pre-dawn hours on Friday.

Hundreds of armed rebels cross from Turkey into Syria, says monitor

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports 500 insurgents and Islamist fighters headed for town of Azaz where anti-Assad forces have lost ground

The Guardian

At least 500 rebels on Wednesday crossed the Turkish border, a monitor said, and headed for the Syrian town of Azaz in northern Aleppo province where opposition forces have suffered setbacks at the hands of Kurdish fighters.

“At least 500 rebels have crossed the Bab al-Salam border crossing on their way to the town of Azaz, from which they want to help the insurgents in the face of gains made by Kurdish forces in the north of the province,” the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel, told Agence France-Presse.

Migrant crisis: Greece ready to house more on islands

9 hours ago

 From the section Europe

BBC

Greece is starting to register migrants at four new reception centres on islands near Turkey, in line with a demand from the EU.

Five were supposed to have been completed by the end of last year. The fifth - on Kos - is not yet ready.

Merkel unmoved by refugee crisis criticism

Deutsche Welle

Germany will stick to its multifaceted response to Europe's refugee crisis, including aid delivered via Turkey, Chancellor Angela Merkel has told parliament. She's also backed the idea of a no-fly zone in northern Syria.

Merkel, in an address to Germany's Bundestag on the eve of a two-day Brussels summit, said Europe should work to improve the lives of refugees in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan as the way to meet "our goal" of reducing migrant flows into Europe.

She described as "intolerable" the situation for besieged civilians in and around northern Syria's war-torn hub of Aleppo, saying "nothing should be left undone" in trying to establish a no-fly zone to save "many human lives."

NATO and Europe’s Refugee Crisis

By THE EDITORIAL BOARDFEB. 16, 2016

The New York Times

The announcement last Thursday that NATO would send ships to patrol the Aegean in an effort to break up the smuggling rings ferrying desperate refugees and migrants from Turkey to Greece is, at this point, more a symbolic show of solidarity than anything else. Even so, it reflects a heightened sense of urgency about the refugee crisis and sends a strong signal that the Western alliance stands ready to help Europe cope with it.

Migration crisis: Plan for reinforced border north of Greece

15/02 23:52 CET   | updated 02:10 mn ago  

Euronews

Members of the so-called Visegrad group which is celebrating its 25th anniversary, are calling for a reinforced border north of Greece to help stop the flood of migrants into Europe.

Leaders from Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia are proposing to create a second fence along FYROM’s and Bulgaria’s borders with Greece. (Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia FYROM).

Britons held in Greece over large guns stash

14 February 2016

BBC

Three men have been arrested in north-eastern Greece on suspicion of trying to smuggle weapons and ammunition into Turkey, Greek police say.

Two are British citizens - the third a UK resident. At least one of them is reported to be of Iraqi Kurdish origin.

The men were in possession of 22 firearms and more than 200,000 rounds of ammunition, police say.

They are suspected of being part of a "criminal gang". They are due to be charged on Tuesday.

They have reportedly asked to speak in court in Kurdish.

The UK Foreign Office says it is "urgently looking into the reports".

Visegrad Group opposes Germany's refugee policy

Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic - known as the Visegrad Group - are set to discuss border protection and the refugee crisis. They might help Macedonia close its Greek border to migrants.

Deutsche Welle

The four Eastern European countries known for their restrictive asylum policy are set to call for the closure of the so-called Balkan route to migrants traveling to Western Europe, German weekly magazine Der Spiegel reported.

The Visegrad countries - Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic - invited representatives of Bulgaria and Macedonia to their summit in Prague on Monday. Leaders of the Visegrad states are expected to agree on helping Macedonia to block the migrants' path at its border with Greece, according to diplomats quoted by Der Spiegel.

"As long as a coherent European strategy is lacking, it is legitimate for the countries along the Balkan route to protect their borders," Slovakian Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak told the German magazine. "We will help them with that."

Πρόσφυγες ή εισβολή;

Του Α Ανδριανόπουλου

Ισλαμ σε μια χωρα επιδρα στις εξελιξεις ευθεως αναλογα με τους αριθμους των μουσουλμανων που βρισκονται εκει. Αν οι αφοσιωμενοι οπαδοι του Μωαμεθ δεν ξεπερνουν το 1% του πληθυσμου τοτε οι μουσουλμανοι ειναι φιλησυχοι, αγαπουν την ειρηνη και δειχνουν ετοιμοι να ασχοληθουν αποκλειστικα με την καθημερινοτητα τους. Αυτο ισχυει απολυτα σε χωρες οπως οι Ηνωμενες Πολιτειες η Αυστραλία η ο Καναδάς με ποσοστο μουσουλμανων απο 0,08 έως 1,8% .

NATO Sends Warships to Aegean Sea to Stymie Smuggling, Help With Refugee Crisis

by ALEXANDER SMITH

CNBC

NATO is deploying three warships to the Aegean Sea to help stem Europe's spiraling migrant crisis, the alliance's chief said Thursday.

Jens Stoltenberg, NATO's secretary general, said the three ships currently under German command had been ordered to move to the area "without delay" to stymie deadly smuggling works.

The vessels — from Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 — will be deployed to a section of the Mediterranean called the Aegean Sea, a body of water separating Greece and Turkey that serves as one of the main arteries for refugees and migrants trying to enter Europe.

EU executive to push Greece, Italy more on migration

Tue Feb 9, 2016 2:47pm EST

BRUSSELS | BY GABRIELA BACZYNSKA

The EU executive will push Greece and Italy on Wednesday to do more to control migrants arriving across the Mediterranean, as time runs out for Athens to fix frontier chaos or be suspended from Europe's free travel zone.

EU leaders will meet next week under growing pressure to get the migration crisis under control before warmer spring weather encourages a surge of new arrivals.

More than a million people reached Europe last year, putting pressure on security and social systems in some EU states and exposing deep rifts within the 28-nation bloc.