Tighter Borders in Europe Create Migrant Bottleneck in Greece

Athens struggles to cope with thousands of new arrivals blocked from moving north

The Wall Street Journal

By NEKTARIA STAMOULI and  STELIOS BOURAS

Dec. 22, 2015 4:04 p.m. ET

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ATHENS—Greece is steadily shifting from being the main gateway for migrants into Europe to becoming the continent’s bottleneck, as new arrivals run up against tightened borders to the north.

Already struggling with its long debt crisis and economic depression, Greece risks finding itself unable to cope with the tens of thousands of migrants at risk of being marooned here this winter. Some are staying in temporary government shelters, others are sleeping rough.

“There is indeed a danger that the country will turn into a warehouse if these flows continue,” Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told parliament on Dec. 11. He pledged to prevent that from happening, although Greece has few ways to stop people landing on its shores.

More than 1 million migrants have crossed the Mediterranean into Europe this year, about half of them from Syria, the International Organization for Migration said Tuesday. Just over 800,000 entered the European Union via Greece, risking a dangerous sea crossing that has led to almost-daily drownings.

Greece has so far largely been a conveyor belt in the migration crisis: Syrian refugees and other migrants set off from Turkey and landed on Greece’s Aegean islands. They quickly made their way to the mainland, then headed north into the Balkans en route to Germany and other wealthier countries in northern Europe.

That is changing as a result of a growing political backlash against uncontrolled migration around Europe. Germany and European Union authorities are trying to cajole countries along the migration route, from Turkey to the Balkans, to significantly slow the largest movement of people Europe has witnessed since the aftermath of World War II.

Several Balkan countries including Macedonia, Greece’s northern neighbor, have built border fences and are no longer letting all migrants pass through their territory.

People from war-torn Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan are still allowed through, but people from countries such as Pakistan, Morocco or Iran, who are considered less likely to win asylum claims, are being turned back.

Thousands of migrants have been denied entry to Macedonia in recent weeks. Many have retreated back to Athens. So far, neither Greece nor the EU has laid out a plan for dealing with them.

Meanwhile thousands more migrants are landing every week on Greek islands such as Lesbos.

The mantra in Brussels, the EU’s headquarters, is that Greece must police its sea border better, with help from other EU nations if needed. “We Europeans no longer have many borders. We have one and we have a shared responsibility to protect it,” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on Dec. 16.

In practice, however, Greece’s sea border is difficult to police. “It’s hard to build a fence on the sea,” says a senior German official. Islands such as Lesbos are so close to Turkey that small boats can evade the coast guard.

Greece is under growing EU pressure to act as Europe’s filter for migrants: Processing centers on Greek islands, known as “hot spots,” are supposed to sort out refugees who have a reasonable claim to asylum in Europe from economic migrants who don’t. The latter are to be prevented from continuing their trek into Europe. But no detailed plan exists for what to do with them. Often, their countries of origin won’t cooperate in taking people back.

So far, relatively small numbers of migrants have found themselves stuck in Greece. But even providing housing for a few thousand is stretching the resources and capability of Greece’s cash-strapped government, and officials fear the problem will only grow.

“We are doing whatever we can, but the European Union and the other European countries must accept their share of responsibility,” Public Order Minister Nikos Toskas said recently while visiting a shelter for migrants.

Europe has been torn between the humanitarian case for offering asylum to those fleeing war, championed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and the misgivings of many voters and governments about uncontrolled large-scale migration from the Middle East and South Asia.

Ms. Merkel’s preferred solutions include pressing Greece to use the new “hot spots,” but Greek authorities are implementing the plan slowly.

On some of the tourism-dependent islands, opposition is mounting against the construction of large, potentially long-lived camps for migrants. German officials have become increasingly impatient with what they see as foot-dragging by Athens.

This month EU officials, encouraged by Germany, threatened to suspend Greece from Europe’s easy-travel Schengen zone unless it steps up efforts to build hot spots and accepts EU help in patrolling its borders.

Greek officials have accused the EU of being slow to deliver on promised financial aid, equipment and manpower to help police its borders. Athens also says other EU countries have been slow to accept even Syrian and Iraqi refugees from Greece under the EU’s new relocation program.

Out of a total of 66,000 refugees in Greece whom the EU wants to offer new homes around Europe, fewer than 100 have been moved.

Write to Nektaria Stamouli at nektaria.stamouli@wsj.com and Stelios Bouras at stelios.bouras@wsj.com