GREECE was yesterday given three months to strengthen its “neglected” borders to stop refugees moving further into Europe on the same day the UN revealed one in three arrivals last month were children.
Two weeks ago, a draft report accused the island nation of having “seriously neglected” its obligations to control its part of the Schengen zone frontier.
Yesterday, the European Union formally gave the country three months to implement 50 recommendations to tighten security.
If standards are not met, EU member states may be allowed to use emergency measures to reintroduce border controls for up to two years.
The order came as the UN’s own refugee agency warned more women and children are arriving in Greece from conflict zones than ever before.
More than 80,000 people arrived in Europe by boat during the first six months of the year – more than the number for the first four months of 2015 – with in excess of 400 killed while attempting the crossing in rough winter seas.
The figure breaks down to more than 2,000 per day and almost 60 per cent are women and children, with youngsters making up one in three of those seeking sanctuary, up from one in ten in September.
As many as 56 per cent of January arrivals came from Syria, with majority of the others hailing from Afghanistan and Iraq.
When surveyed upon arrival, most said they had been forced from their homeland due to conflict.
Condemning the process of tightening borders, A UNHCR spokesperson said: “Despite repeated calls by UNHCR to expand legal pathways to allow refugees and asylum seekers to access asylum, many European member states are in fact reducing the legal avenues available.”
Schengen area countries have allowed passport-free movement across their borders since 1995.
However, In Brussels yesterday, member states acknowledged the overall functioning of Schengen “is at serious risk” and said Greece must make further efforts to deal with the refugee crisis.
Greece says it has already addressed many of the European concerns and has promised to complete new screening centres on four islands and build two new transit camps within the next week.
So far, six Schengen members, including France and Norway, have imposed border checks and many of those would be forcedhave to dismantle them starting in mid-May under Schengen rules. Germany has until May 13 and has made clear that it does not want to relinquish the checks.
Yesterday, Robina Qureshi of Scottish charity Positive Action in Housing, which is supporting relief efforts on the Greek island Lesbos, condemned the EU demand.
She told The National: “Europe telling Greece to control its borders and take action on refugees is basically a euphemism for ‘let them drown’.
“The countries bordering Syria are taking as much as or more than 25 per cent of their own population, whereas the hypocritical EU with its 500 million population won’t take even ten per cent or one per cent or even 0.1 per cent of their own population.
“It’s an inalienable human right to seek sanctuary.”
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