Explosion of migrant violence predicted as countries crack down on routes into Europe
SECURITY officials have warned a growing bottleneck of migrants could trigger an unprecedented wave of violent riots as tension surrounding the closure of key routes into Europe builds.
By OLI SMITH
Express.co.uk
Sat, Mar 26, 2016
Tens of thousands of refugees are currently stranded in squalid makeshift refugee camps along the Greek-Macedonian border after the closure of the popular Balkan route into the continent.
Bursts of violence have aready broken out between migrants and Macedonian police along the border – but police now warn this could soon rupture into all-out migrant-led riots across Europe.
German Federal Police have offered the grave warnings about potential violent uprisings among migrants as popular routes to the “safe haven” of Germany have also been slammed shut.
In a leaked internal report, the police said a swelling bottleneck of migrants was about to take a turn for the worse – with “hardly any attempts to swerve around the Greek-Macedonian border”.
The report added that “refugees still rely on the Balkan route” which could mean “violent riots are more and more likely in this context.”
Around 13,000 are stuck in camps at the border in Idomeni with a further 12,000 just a few hundred metres nearby in Thessaloniki.
Eva Cosse, Greece specialist at Human Rights Watch, said: “Trapping asylum seekers in Greece is an unconscionable and short-sighted non-solution that is causing suffering and violence.”
European officials have warned these numbers could grow as the spring and summer seasons provide safer sea conditions to travel across the Aegean Sea from Turkey.
The German report itself confirmed “more stable weather conditions in the Aegean Sea from the end of March will favour sea smuggling”.
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