Up to 70,000 migrants and refugees could soon be stranded in Greece, the leftist-led government said as it considered enlisting the help of the army to deal with the emergency.
The alarm was sounded as the EU’s top immigration policymaker warned the situation was at risk of becoming uncontrollable unless member states “assume their responsibilities”.
“In the next month 50,000-70,000 will come and then I believe [the flows] will stop there,” Athens’ migration minister, Yannis Mouzalas, said.
Admitting it would “be hard and very difficult” Mouzalas said it was also likely the Greek armed forces – recently brought in to build “hotspot” screening centres – would be deployed to tackle the crisis.
“Wherever the army is needed it will play a role just as it does in all western democracies,” he added. “Now we use it to build [camps and centres] and to distribute nutrition, tomorrow we don’t know, we may deploy trucks and use it in several other services.”
