Baku. 23 January. REPORT.AZ/ Greece faced fresh pressure on its handling of the migrant crisis after Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner warned that Athens faced “temporary exclusion” from the EU’s passport-free Schengen zone.
Report informs citing the foreign media, in midweek, Greece’s top migration official slammed a report in the Financial Times alleging several European ministers and senior EU officials believe threatening suspension from Schengen could persuade Greece to protect its borders more effectively.
Junior interior minister for migration Yiannis Mouzalas said the report contained “falsehoods and distortions” but Mikl-Leitner said temporary exclusion was a real possibility.
“If the Athens government does not finally do more to secure the (EU’s) external borders then one must openly discuss Greece’s temporary exclusion from the Schengen zone,” Mikl-Leitner said in an interview with German daily Die Welt.
“It is a myth that the Greco-Turkish border cannot be controlled,” Mikl-Leitner insisted.
“When a Schengen signatory does not permanently fulfil its obligations and only hesitatingly accepts aid then we should not rule out that possibility,” she added.