Greece recalls its Austrian envoy in immigration spat
BERLIN - Greece on Thursday recalled its ambassador to Austria for consultations, escalating a diplomatic war in Europe over how to handle a record influx of migrants from the war-torn Middle East and beyond.
BERLIN - Greece on Thursday recalled its ambassador to Austria for consultations, escalating a diplomatic war in Europe over how to handle a record influx of migrants from the war-torn Middle East and beyond.
The move underscored how European unity over the refugee crisis is quickly breaking down, leaving an every-nation-for-itself approach that threatens to escalate the scale of the humanitarian emergency confronting the continent.
In recent days, a group of nations led by Austria have upended attempts to forge a regional response by taking unilateral steps aimed at sharply limiting the number and type of migrants allowed to cross their borders.
Those moves, however, have left a growing bottleneck of thousands of would-be refugees trapped at their European entry point: near-bankrupt Greece. And on Thursday, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias blasted what he suggested was a new nationalism spreading across the continent, a mentality reminiscent of the 19th-century divisions that led to decades of instability in Europe.
"It is clear that the big problems of the European Union cannot be dealt with through mentalities and extra-institutional initiatives that have their roots in the 19th century," Kotzias said in a statement. "Responsibility for the handling of the immigration and refugee crisis cannot fall on one country alone. Common sense requires that the principles of solidarity and equal distribution of the weight is the effective way to resolve this complex problem."
Tensions between Greece and Austria have been escalating since last Friday, when Vienna announced a strict limit of 80 migrants a day allowed to apply for asylum on its territory. That sparked a chain reaction of nations eager to avoid logjams.
Key transit nations Macedonia and Serbia on Sunday moved to bar from entry virtually all Afghans, who make up about one-third of all migrants. They are allowing Syrians and Iraqis to cross. But even migrants from those war-torn nations are now being asked to produce more paperwork and identification, which many of them do not have.
The diplomatic crisis deepened Wednesday, after 10 nations held a meeting in Vienna to uphold their new policies limiting migrants. Greece lodged a formal protest after not receiving an invitation and then followed up Thursday by recalling its ambassador to Vienna.
