Amid border closures, Athens attempts to stop flow of migrants from its islands

[rooster59]

Amid border closures, Athens attempts to stop flow of migrants from its islands

By Seamus Kearney

Some 25,000 refugees and migrants are now thought to be stranded in Greece, with the closure of borders along the route that migrants take through the Balkans to get to Europe.

Because of the backlog, Athens has started trying to reduce the flow of migrants from its islands to the mainland.

For hundreds of migrants in numerous locations, they can only wait.

One man told euronews: “We should wait until they open the border and Europe should decide to do something for us … if they don’t, we will not back, we should stay here, we will die here.”

For local Greeks, it is difficult; many want to be sympathetic and human, but what they are seeing is too much to deal with.

Athens resident Charalambos Grapsas told euronews: “For many years, I come here and drink my coffee. I can not do that anymore. I’m really annoyed.

“Someone cries, another one is starving. These people are so miserable. What can you do?”

Another resident, Soultanaki Mirsini, said: “They come and come and come. Where they will go? We have become foreigners in our own country. That’s the truth.

“The Greeks abandon their country and become immigrants. Look around you, all the shops have closed. Foreigners have reopened them. We leave and they come and live in Athens, in Greece.”

An untold number of children are caught up in the crisis, and there’s now diplomatic tension between Greece and Austria over the border limits.

Euronews correspondent in Athens, Apostolos Staikos, reported:
“The closing of the Macedonian border has not discouraged thousands of refugees who continue to arrive at the port of Piraeus.

“Greece is afraid that it’s slowly turning into a camp of lost souls. Hopes for a solution now rest on the crucial EU summit on the 7th of March.”

-- (c) Copyright Euronews 2016-02-28

[giddyup]

Conquer from within.

[Usernames]

Greeks! It's easy. Kick them out and return them whence they came.

[Steely Dan]

It's like playing pass the parcel with a timebomb.

[giddyup]

Greeks! It's easy. Kick them out and return them whence they came.

Not easy when they've thrown their passport away and you don't know (and they won't tell you) where they came from.

[Usernames]

Greeks! It's easy. Kick them out and return them whence they came.

Not easy when they've thrown their passport away and you don't know (and they won't tell you) where they came from.

They are coming from Turkey. Send them back there.

[NeilSA1]

It seems that there are only 2 types of photos of migrants. Innocent children, or threatening males with mouths open and shouting, waving their fists in the air.

[geriatrickid]

The Europeans are hypocrites. They condemn the Americans for the US position on illegal migrants from. Well, the USA has absorbed millions of those illegal migrants without the bigotry and violence one has seen in the EU. The numbers the EU faces are nothing compared to what the USA has taken in over the years. Good work Europe, and of course a big thumbs up to the TVF left wing hero states of China and Russia for helping take care of the economic migrants.

[Ulic]

Just wait for the one year waiting period to pass when those that have been given refugee

status can apply for family reunification. You can expect at least a 10-1 ratio. The UK used

to allow 17 -1. Not sure what it is now. Millions more on the way now as everyone is trying

to get in and on a list before common sense prevails and the boarders are closed. Send

them all to Germany I say, this is a crisis of Merkel's making.

[tartempion]

One thing is sure: these people are not European.

[farcanell]

Greeks! It's easy. Kick them out and return them whence they came.

Not easy when they've thrown their passport away and you don't know (and they won't tell you) where they came from.

They are coming from Turkey. Send them back there.

Some may be boat people from Syria or Lebanon.... As islands are mentioned

Also to be considered... Will turkey take them back?

That gate may be one way only, to get the refugees out of turkey and make it someone else's problem.

[mopar71]

Germany says uncertain where 130,000 registered migrants are

Out of some 1.1 million asylum seekers registered in 2015, "about 13 percent did not turn up at the reception centres to which they had been directed," the government said in a written reply to a question from a lawmaker of the Left Party.

http://news.yahoo.com/germany-says-uncertain-where-130-000-registered-migrants-111229486.html?soc_src=mediacontentsharebuttons&soc_trk=fb

[F4UCorsair]

This is why Australia MUST continue their line. Australia is blessed geographically, but the hard line and vigilance will only bear fruit if rigidly enforced.