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Balkan Countries Completely Seal Off Migrant Trail

Blocking of path comes as Turkey and European Union work to finish deal to stem crisis

ATHENS—The Balkan trail taken by migrants on their way from Greece was completely shut down Wednesday, officials from several countries said, adding to pressure on Europe to complete a deal with Turkey to stem the flow of people.
In recent weeks, Austria and Balkan countries to its south have coordinated a tightening of their borders, moves that have effectively limited the number of people able to continue north from Greece to fewer than a hundred a day. The restrictions have left tens of thousands of migrants stranded inside Greece after crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey.
By Tuesday, Macedonia said it had completely closed its borders to migrants crossing from northern Greece—part of a chain reaction after further border restrictions in Slovenia prompted Serbia to effectively shut down its southern and eastern borders to anyone without a proper visa or passport. While Slovenia and Greece are part of the EU, Serbia and Macedonia, which lie between them, aren’t.
“Bearing in mind that the new regime is implemented by a member of the European Union (Slovenia), Serbia cannot afford to become a collection center for refugees,” Serbia’s Interior Ministry said late Tuesday.
Some 8,500 people are currently stranded in the Greek village of Idomeni, on the northern border with Macedonia, according to Greek officials, out of a total of some 36,500 migrants in the country.
A Macedonian government official said that its border checkpoint with Greece has been off limits to migrants since Tuesday, while Greek police said no refugee had left the country via Idomeni since Monday morning. EU leaders had anticipated the full closure of the Balkan trail at a summit in Brussels on Monday, saying that the illegal flow of migrants through southeastern Europe was coming to an end.
The leaders of the EU and Turkey agreed at the meeting on the outlines of a deal in which Ankara would take back migrants who arrive in Greece from Turkish shores, including Syrian refugees. But they cautioned they wouldn’t hammer out some important aspects of the accord until late next week.
The deal would operate under a one-for-one principle in which EU countries would take Syrian refugees from camps in Turkey for every Syrian refugee Turkey takes back from Greece.
In return, the EU agreed to speed up its work on Turkey’s EU membership application and Ankara’s bid for visa-free access for its citizens to the bloc. The EU is also set to increase the €3 billion ($3.3 billion) it had already committed to help Turkey cope.
Also on Wednesday, European governments approved a new emergency fund for humanitarian crises, which is most immediately aimed at helping Greece cope with the migrants stuck on its territory. The €700 million fund would be disbursed over the next three years, with €300 million for the first year potentially being sent in the coming days following European Parliament approval.
A spokeswoman for the European Commission, the bloc’s executive, said the Balkan border measures were in line with EU agreements to stop waving migrants through from one country to another. She said the commission was aware of the risk that new routes could open up and was in permanent consultations with countries in the region, including Albania, Bulgaria and Romania.
In response to the moves, Hungary extended a declaration of a crisis situation already in place in several border counties, increasing the number of police patrols and giving authorities more leeway to act.
The closure of the Balkan corridor “means for Hungary that we don’t know what reaction this will prompt from the illegal migrants already there,” Hungarian Interior Minister Sandor Pinter said at a news conference, expressing concern that migrants could try to travel through Hungary.
Hungary has had one of the most hawkish responses to the crisis. The route through Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia had become the main thoroughfare for migrants since Hungary closed off its borders with Serbia and Croatia last year with a razor-wire fence.
Hungary also plans to ensure nighttime lighting along its borders in the south and is ready to extend its razor-wire fence along its border with Romania within 10 days if needed, Mr. Pinter said.