Greece slows migrant transfers from islands to mainland

By Vasiliki Mitsiniotou and Magda Panoutsopoulou

ATHENS

Greece has cut back on bringing migrants and refugees from the Aegean islands to the mainland after neighboring Balkan countries closed their borders.

Police authorities from Slovenia, Austria, Macedonia, Serbia and Croatia said they have agreed to limit the flow of migrants to around 580 people a day in a joint statement Friday afternoon.

"We have taken some actions because of border closings, including an increase of temporary shelter spaces and a relative slowdown of the transport of migrants from the islands to the port of Piraeus [near Athens]," Shipping Minister Thodoris Dritsas said on public broadcaster ERT on Friday.

"It is a small-scale slowdown for two or three days" he added, referring to the docking of three ships that are chartered to move migrants to the Greek mainland.

Faced with an overwhelming flow of migrants, Greece faces increased sheltering and organizational demands as numerous migrants and refugees are spread in the country, taking the nation's highways to walk toward the northern border with former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).

''What can we do? We either die in Syria or in the sea - which we avoided - or we die trying to reach Germany,'' said Syrian Abeer. She arrived in Victoria Square, in central Athens on Friday with her 13-year-old son Kamel.

Next to her, another Syrian, 20-year-old Heba's only wish is to reach the borders and find her husband in Germany. She is eight months pregnant and is looking for a way to reach the transitional refugee center.

“We just arrived in the morning from Lemnos island, we are tired and it seems we will stay here till we find a solution,'' she told Anadolu Agency.

''Families are stuck here even overnight,” said Fred Perley, a volunteer with the Dutch organization Boat Refugee Foundation. “We tried to take them to some camps but they are all full; it’s hard to define worse but there is definitely more and more people coming.”

There about 1,200 people already in the transitional center in Athens and its 2,000-person shelter capacity is expected to be surpassed soon, said the Ministry of Interior on Friday.

In Thessaloniki, in northern Greece, the newly established 2,000-seat transitional center is already full while more refugees and migrants wait in buses outside.

At the Idomeni refugee camp opposite of FYROM, an estimated 2,500 people were amassed at the refugee camp and at the gas station 20 km away early Friday, with hundreds more on their way hoping to cross to the neighboring country.

Minister of Defense Pannos Kamenos in a press conference late Thursday announced the creation of a camp in northern Greece that will be able to host 20,000 people.

Overall, there are at least 20,000 refugees and migrants stranded in Greece, according to United Nations estimates, following border shutdowns through the Balkans route to central and northern Europe.

The recent border shutdowns have greatly shaken Greece’s relations with neighboring countries and European partners.

Athens has turned down a request by Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner to visit Greece next week on Friday, until Austria rolls back the unilateral measures agreed during a meeting with Balkan states in Vienna on Wednesday, according to an Athenian-Macedonian news agency.

On Thursday Greece recalled its ambassador to Vienna.

“There can be no united Europe without respecting common rules, common responsibility and common commitments,” said Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Friday.

“More than ever, Europe needs to change course”, the Greek premier said, noting that the conflict is not between nations, but between progressive and conservative forces.