Europe braces for major 'humanitarian crisis' in Greece after row over refugees

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Europe braces for major 'humanitarian crisis' in Greece after row over refugees

EU ministers struggle to reach collective agreement on crisis as Austria and
Macedonia press for reintroduction of national border controls

Ian Traynor in Brussels
Thursday 25 February 2016 18.34 GMT

European governments are bracing for a major humanitarian emergency in Greece amid rising panic that the EU’s fragmented efforts to cope with its migration crisis are nearing breakdown.

EU interior ministers met in Brussels on Thursday in their latest attempt to forge a common response, but the meeting was clouded by a ferocious row between Greece and Austria, which is spearheading a campaign to quarantine Greece and throttle the flow of migrants up the Balkans by partially sealing the Greek border with Macedonia.

If Greece is cut off from the rest of Europe’s free-travel Schengen area, Berlin predicts a humanitarian and security emergency within days.

Dimitris Avramopoulos, the EU commissioner in charge of migration, said contingency planning for a major aid operation was highly advanced and would be finalised within days. “The possibility of a humanitarian crisis of a large scale is there and very real,” he said.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/25/europe-braces-major-humanitarian-crisis-greece-row-refugees

[randys1]

1. May George W Bush and Richard Cheney never be able to sleep a minute.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. So, Europe returns to the city/state model,

with countries guarding their borders against invasion.