Reuters — The president of Latvia has urged Greece to demonstrate a “changed attitude” on border security to stem a flow of migrants, but sees no need to re-erect Europe’s internal frontiers in response to the refugee crisis or Paris attacks.
President Raimonds Vejonis told Reuters he also backed European support to help Turkey deal with over 2 million refugees from Syria, while expressing concern about Russia’s growing involvement in Syria’s civil war.
Hundreds of thousands of migrants fleeing conflict have poured into Europe from the Middle East and Africa this year, straining external borders along Europe’s southern flank.
“This is the reason why we really need a changed attitude of Greece on border security. They need stronger control and checks of documents on their border because they are the first country that asylum seekers are reaching,” Vejonis said.
Amid deep divisions over Europe’s worst refugee crisis since World War Two, officials from Baltic states have voiced similar concerns about Italy, whose islands have also faced an influx.
Hundreds of Latvians protested in August against a government decision to accept 250 asylum seekers over two years as part of a European Union plan to deal with the migrants.
Vejonis dismissed calls for the Schengen agreement, a free border zone of 26 nations including 22 from the EU, to be frozen in light of the refugee crisis or the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris, conducted partly by militants who traveled freely from Belgium.
“I don’t believe that we need to close borders because in reality these people who are involved in terrorism are already mainly European citizens. It means our security institutions need to work more carefully and intensively to recognize such individuals and detain them if necessary,” he said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said the open border system would only endure if EU member states accepted a permanent, mandatory quota system for sharing out refugees.
But Vejonis said the EU must first shore up its external frontiers, especially in the south, establish effective ways of returning non-war refugees and combat human trafficking.
“If the EU does not solve all these key issues, it will be very difficult in the future to discuss new decisions on reallocation and resettlement. It will be a very hot topic for us and if there are no solutions on these three points, it will be very difficult to continue.”
