The European Union slapped Greece with an ultimatum on Friday: Fix “serious deficiencies” in its facilities to deal with the wave of refugees, or be kicked out of the Schengen passport-free travel zone.
E.U. member states adopted a decision demanding 50 measures to be taken by Athens in order to continue being part of Schengen.
Among the requirements are increasing fingerprinting, identification and registration of migrants; “establishing a comprehensive and effective coastal surveillance system”; improving document checks and improving conditions in migrant detention centres with the view to reinstating the Dublin Agreement .
Greece has been temporarily exempted from the Dublin Agreement (the first country that logs a refugee’s fingerprint and asylum claim is responsible for them ) due to its poor infrastructure to process asylum seekers. Greece has been buckling under the pressure to cope with the 5,000 arrivals each day.
Germany has scrapped the Dublin Agreement altogether, and is not deporting refugees to their point of entry, while other countries are calling for its reinstatement.
But if the Dublin Regulation is restored, and Greece begins to process refugees more effectively, it could be liable to receive millions of people deported from other member states.
According to the document issued by the E.U., Greece has one month to “establish an action plan to remedy the deficiencies.”
Two months later, it must report back on how the program is going. If it is deemed to have failed, Brussels can allow member states to extend border controls within the Schengen area, including with Greece, for up to two years.
In further signs that the crisis has reached new levels, NATO sent three warships backed with fighter jets to intercept boats carrying refugees from Turkey to Greece, with the aim of sending the asylum seekers back to Turkey.
The German-led patrol mission to the Aegean Sea was approved by the alliance within 24 hours, an unprecedented move by NATO which can often take months to approve such decisions.
Greece finds itself in a precarious position as critical bailout talks with the E.U. approach. The international body is capable of exacerbating Greece’s debt crisis further should it not comply with the migration demands.
Where Europe is failing
