Greece calls on Europe to ease migrant pressure

(Vatican Radio)  Greece's government has called on East European countries to ease their restrictions on Middle Eastern migrants, saying it cannot keep operating its holding camps indefinitely.

Listen to John Carr's report:

The Greek minister for migrant issues, Yannis Mouzalas, aimed the call at the Visegrad group, consisting of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, all of which have virtually closed their borders. 

The group influences other countries bordering Greece, such as Macedonia and Bulgaria, whose borders remain sealed.

Mouzalas denied claims by the Visegrad group that about 700 migrants manage to sneak into Macedonian and Bulgarian territory each day.  That figure, he said, was highly exaggerated. 

More than 58,000 migrants are penned up in Greek holding camps.  About half of them are eligible to pass on to other countries, but, of course, are unable to do so.

Mouzalas also said that if had not been for the present EU-Turkey agreement on limiting the migrant flow, Greece could well have been swamped with up to 180,000 by now – three times the present number.

A report by the International Organization for Migration recently said 2,901 people died or went missing crossing the Mediterranean in the first six months of 2016.