Fortress Europe: EU border guards will be sent to the Greek frontier for the first time in a desperate bid to stop a flood of migrants
EU ministers met today in a bid to get a grip on the migrant crisis
Commission boss Juncker backed a new ‘second line of defence’ for EU
Czech president has called for troops from every country to patrol borders
Greece is set to be threatened with ‘quarantine’ if it fails to secure borders
By JOHN STEVENS
DailyMail.com
25 January 2016
Teams of border guards will be deployed to stop migrants leaving Greece for the rest of the EU under a radical plan to halt the invasion of people into Europe.
European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker today backed a proposal to strengthen security on the Macedonian border to create a ‘second line of defence’ against migration.
The controversial move will heap pressure on Greece to finally control the number of people landing on its shores as it will no longer be able to simply wave them onwards.
Guards from across Europe will be sent to patrol Macedonian soil under the plan first proposed by Slovenian prime minister Miro Cerar.
Britain has resisted involvement and is not expected to send troops or border guards – despite calls from the Czech president Milos Zeman for Britain to send 500.
Greece has long been criticised for doing too little to control the flow of people into Europe by allowing hundreds of thousands of arrivals to pass freely through its country.
Despite promises to help control the influx it has been registering less than a quarter of the up to 4,000 people a day landing on its shores.
Mr Juncker today endorsed the plan, which was greeted with howls of protest from Greece.
In a letter to Mr Cerar, he wrote: ‘I welcome your suggestion that all EU Member States should provide assistance to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia authorities to support controls on the border with Greece through the secondment of police/law enforcement officers, and the provision of equipment.’
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