WSJ — Greece was moving Friday to convert military facilities and ferries into temporary housing for the thousands of migrants who continue to pour into the country even as exit routes to the north are closing.
Greek officials estimated the number of migrants stranded in the country has doubled in the past few days to around 20,000, after Austria and several Balkan countries coordinated a tightening of their borders and started to send back Afghan migrants.
The bottleneck has stoked fears in Greece—currently the main gateway to Europe for people fleeing violence in Middle East—that it will become a giant holding pen.
Shelters on the mainland have been filled to capacity, forcing thousands of new arrivals to sleep in parks and along highways. Hundreds have camped out at Victoria Square in central Athens, raising health-and-safety concerns among local residents and businesses.
Families with young children can be seen sleeping outdoors on cardboard boxes, often crammed up against each other. Volunteers have been handing out sandwiches and other food.
“We must all remain calm” as the “country does its duty to those coming to Europe to seek asylum,” Athens Mayor Giorgos Kaminis said after meeting Public Order Minister Nikos Toskas.
Authorities on islands close to Turkey, where most of the new arrivals set sail from, were told to reduce the number of migrants traveling from there to the mainland.
At the same time, the country is scrambling to set up more shelters.
The Defense Ministry said it would use some of its military facilities to help house the migrants. It aims to create five more temporary camps in northern Greece to accommodate up to 20,000 people, officials said.
The Merchant Marine Ministry said on Friday that it would accommodate people aboard three chartered ferries that will be anchored at the islands of Lesvos, Chios and Samos until Sunday.
“The monitoring of flows will be continual and all necessary initiatives will be taken to prevent and avoid the creation of situations difficult to manage,” said Shipping Minister Theodore Dritsas.
Other migrants in Athens and the northern city of Thessaloniki have abandoned the shelters to continue their journey to Idomeni on the border with Macedonia. Greek authorities say that some 3,000 people are waiting at Idomeni and that 150 migrants had been allowed by Macedonian authorities to cross over in the last two days.
Some European officials are now looking to a March 7 summit of European Union and Turkish leaders as a deadline for an agreement with Turkey to stop migrants from leaving—and new NATO sea patrols—to bear fruit.
Dimitris Avramopoulos, EU commissioner for migration and home affairs, told a conference in the Greek village of Delphi on Friday that if there is no convergence and agreement at the summit, “we will be led to disaster,” as Greece becomes increasingly ringfenced by its northern neighbors.
“If we believe that unilateral action is more effective than European action, then we are demolishing our common home,” he said.
Relations between Greece and Austria have increasingly soured this past week over the migrant issue. On Thursday Greece recalled its ambassador to Austria.
Greek officials said they also turned down a request Thursday by Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner to visit Greece, telling her that it wasn’t possible while Austria’s border restrictions remained in place.
