EU Might Impose Border Control if Greece Fails to Resolve Lax Acceptance of Migrants
Greece has not been pleased with what the EU is saying about their mandate on the border protecting the Schengen area. According to BBC, the European Commission has implied that Greece has been lax on securing the border by failing to follow basic procedures when entering the passport-free Schengen zone.
The influx of migrant people entering the zone has been apparently monitored by the EU and has since alleged Greece of passing over basic protocols, especially in the process of checking their documents, properly registering those who arrive at the border as well as fingerprinting.
In a press release by the European Commission, it said that in the event a member fails to control and secure the border, the EU can either send its own force to guard and implement strict rules within the border or they can release a memorandum that tells the member exactly how they will deploy their own force along the border.
In the event that such actions still fail after three a three-month probationary period, the EU can assign another member to add more force to the border. The issue on Greece's inability to protect the Schengen zone came out after officials made an unannounced trip to the Greek-Turkish border.
Dimitris Avramopoulos, EU Commissioner for Migration, said, "The report shows that there are serious deficiencies in the management of the external border in Greece. We know that in the meantime Greece has started undertaking efforts towards rectifying and complying with the Schengen rules."
According to The Guardian, Greece retaliated against the three-month probation, where they country is supposed to remedy the said neglect on the border. Although Greece cited Turkey's failure to follow the deal with EU, government spokesperson Olga Gerovasili said, "Greece has surpassed itself in order to keep its obligations. We expect everyone else to do the same."
Valdis Dombrovskis, a commission vice-president, detailed how the border control is bound to fail. He said,"There is no effective identification and registration of irregular immigrants. Fingerprints are not being entered systematically into the system, travel documents are not being systematically checked for authenticity or against crucial security databases."
Greece is at the receiving end of Europe and Turkey's main gateway. And with a record of at least 35,000 people especially from the Middle East making their way to the Greek Islands within the last month, the influx sees a bleak slowdown.
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