Greece rejects Schengen threats as 'blame game'

Greek officials on Monday (25 January) rejected criticism from fellow EU member states over Athen's inability to protect the bloc's external borders and said threats to suspend the country from the passport-free travel zone, Schengen, are "punishment."

"There is no reason for that [suspending Greece from Schengen]," migration minister Yannis Mouzalas told reporters in Amsterdam on the sidelines of an informal meeting of EU interior ministers.

"Schengen is part of the blame game: 'If you don’t do this or that, we do this to you.' It is a punishment," Mouzalas said.

"We know where we are delayed ... If there is a problem, we have to resolve this together," he added.

He noted that European countries have agreed to curb illegal migration, but there is still no proposal on legal ways to enter the bloc and seek asylum.

EU interioir ministers are dicussing on Monday the possiblity under Article 26 of the EU treaty to temporarily seal off Greece from the border-free Schengen area and to prolong border controls elsewhere for up to two years.

Macedonian border

Over the last weeks, pressure has mounted on the Greeks to better control the external border of the EU.

Last week in a letter Slovenian prime minister Miro Cerar suggested to dispatch joint police forces along Macedonia’s border with Greece.

The European Commission is said to be backing the plan, in an idea which gained momentum over the weekend.

But for Frontex, the EU's border agency, to be able to make a move, Greece would have to agree to more Frontex officers on its territory.

Greek officials said they are not ready to do that, and also rejected the idea of other European countries moving bilaterlally to boost border protection at the Macedonian-Greek border.

The Greek officials said they are against "unilateral decisions" by other member states.

"Countries under panic want to close borders, but that means that an EU crisis will become a humanitarian crisis in Greece with thousands of trapped immigrants," Mouzalas said.

"More than ever, we need more Europe - unilateral acts means less Europe," he added.

He called for member states to implement earlier decisions on EU relocation and on Turkey resettlement, as well as measures to helping Turkey stop the flow of migrants.

Nikos Toskas, Greece's "alternate minister" of public order and citizen protection told reporters that boosting Frontex in other countries before Greece "is not a good idea."

"If we have it in Greece, we can [also] discuss about the others [other member states] - otherwise it is not legal."

Blame Europe?

Mouzalas said Greece's perceived inablity to act is, in many cases, a failure of European policy.

He noted that, despite the winter weather, still 3,000 to 4,000 people are still arriving daily to Greek islands from Turkey.

He said that Greece has no option under international, European, and Greek law, but to rescue people trying to navigate the relatively short distance from Turkey to the islands.

Mouzalas pledged Greece will ready hotspots - migrant-registeration centres - by the end of February and that they will be operational in the early days of March in the "worst scenario".

He blamed slow help for the delays.

Greece earlier asked for money to buy 100 Eurodac machines - equipment used to fingerprint and register migrants in Europe's biometric database of asylum seekers, the Eurodac system - but it got the funds only last week, he said.

He noted that despite the problems, Greece now fingerprints 80-90 percent of people, compared to 50 percent not long ago.

Greece also blamed fellow member states for dragging their heels on relocation of asylum seekers.

Mouzalas said just 13 member states have indicated they're willing to take in people, he said 930 people are ready to be moved from Greece, but just 200 or so have actually been moved.

He said readmission is also slow, while the influx from Turkey remains huge.

"In the last 20 days, we sent 130 readmissions to Turkey, and in those 20 days, 60,000 persons arrived from Turkey. Do you think it's fair, do you think it is a Greek responsibility?," he said.