Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras threatens to block all EU refugee decisions if Greece will be left to deal with the crisis alone. Commenting on Austria’s initiative to hold a West Balkan Conference on Migration, Tsipras described it as “unacceptable”.
PM Tsipras said he will block all decisions at an upcoming EU migration summit with Turkey on March 7th 2016, if his country has to deal with the refugee crisis alone.
Tsipras said that from now on Greece “will not assent to agreements” unless all its EU partners are forced to participate in the relocation and resettlement of refugees.
“Greece will not agree to deals if a mandatory allocation of burdens and responsibilities among member countries is not secured,” he added.
“We will not accept turning the country into a permanent warehouse of souls with Europe continuing to function as if nothing is happening,” Tsipras told the Greek parliament on Wednesday.
Tsipras said it was unfair that EU partners had dumped the burden of the migrants on Greece, a country already reeling from an economic crisis.
“We did and will continue to do everything we can to provide warmth, essential help and security to uprooted, hounded people,” he said, adding that Greece would not accept a situation where other EU member states could do as they pleased.
“We will not tolerate that a number of countries will be building fences and walls at the borders without accepting even a single refugee” Alexis Tsipras said, adding that Greece would demand the mandatory participation of EU countries in the relocation of refugees.
Migration Minister Yannis Mouzalas said this morning that Greece will not allow “unilateral actions” and that it will not “turn into …Lebanon.”
