European refugee crisis escalates as Balkan countries close borders

Europe's refugee crisis keeps simmering as clashes erupted in the northern Greek town of Idomeni Monday between the police and hundreds of migrants trying to break through the fence into the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).

The FYROM security forces fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the crowd that was pelting rocks. No serious injury was reported from the clashes.

Meanwhile in France, police started to bulldoze a migrant camp and clear the site in the northern port city of Calais, where about 3,000 migrants were staying, leading to an angry backlash as pro-migrant activists threw projectiles at the police and the latter used tear gas.

Local authorities said they intended to handle the operation "smoothly," proposing to relocate the migrants to a state-run container shelter nearby or other refugee centers across France.

POTENTIAL HUMANITARIAN CRISIS

According to official statistics, the number of refugees and migrants stuck in Greece has increased to more than 20,000 as Balkan countries have stepped up border restrictions in the past week.

Humanitarian organizations have warned of more incidents along the Greek border due to the swelling migrant population stranded in the area.

"Since border closures were put in place, there has been no clear information of what is going to happen within a week, or a month. This makes it extremely difficult for humanitarian operators to assess the situation and plan their activity according to the people's needs," Louise Roland-Gosselin of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) told Xinhua on Monday.

"Furthermore, if people continue to arrive but cannot pass legally, they will increasingly resort to smugglers. This also raises the risks for them," she added.

Several MSF teams deployed along the Balkan route are trying to provide healthcare assistance, food and shelter for the migrants, according to the humanitarian organization.

DIVIDED EU

The European refugee crisis, which broke out last year as a result of wars and chaos in the Middle East and North Africa, has shown signs of deterioration after Austria started to impose daily caps on the admission of refugees earlier this year, causing a wave of border closures by the Balkan states over the past few weeks.

This new development may disrupt the European Union's ongoing efforts to work out an emergency plan to tackle the surging refugee influx and avert a humanitarian crisis.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel reproached Austria and the Balkan states for introducing the cap on migrant entries. "We can't do this in such a way that we simply abandon Greece," she said in an interview with the public ARD television.

Merkel stressed that Germany opposes unilateral border restrictions and will continue to back the EU solutions for the migrant crisis.

The European Commission has also criticized Austria's move as "incompatible with European and international law."

The Greek government has built temporary shelters in north Greece over the weekend to deal with the refugee emergency.

Greek Deputy Migration Minister Yannis Mouzalas said on Sunday that the country would activate a Plan B "if borders have closed for good."

"We have submitted an emergency plan to the EU requesting an extra 450 million euros (490 million U.S. dollars) for setting up more temporary camps for the refugees that will be trapped in Greece," the official told the local Mega television channel.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said in an interview with Star television that Greece will do what it can to help the stranded migrants and refugees, but "it must be made clear that the burden of this crisis must be distributed in Europe."

Despite all the criticism, the Austrian government said it will stick to the decision. "It is unthinkable that Austria receives all asylum seekers for all of Europe," Chancellor Werner Faymann said recently in Brussels.

European Council President Donald Tusk begins his tour of Austria and several Balkan countries Tuesday, in a bid to mend the deep rift within the regional bloc over how to deal with the migrant inflow.

Source: Xinhua