Europe is on the cusp of "a largely self-induced humanitarian crisis" the United Nations refugee agency warned on Tuesday, as it called for EU member states to respond urgently to the build-up of refugees and migrants on the Greece-Macedonian border.
With 131,724 migrants arriving in Europe through the Mediterranean route in January and February – close to the total of 147,209 that arrived in the first six months of 2015 – the UNHCR warned that "Greece cannot manage this situation alone".
The Greek government has warned that up to 70,000 people could become trapped in the coming month in Greece, as Macedonia increases border control measures, curbing the entry of mainly Afghan migrants to the country.
Up to 8,500 people, many of whom are sleeping in the open, have gathered near the Greek-Macedonian border town of Idomeni, according to aid agencies in the area.
Macedonia's foreign minister, Nikola Poposki, defended the use of tear gas against migrants on Monday.
Forcibly enter
“What we have seen is some 400 young male people trying forcibly to enter Macedonian territory from Greece,” Mr Poposki told the BBC.
“If you are part of the security forces and you are faced with a situation where you have a violent attempt from several hundred young male people to enter territory, without willing[ness] to register or to go to reception centres, I don’t think that this is in line with what we have agreed at the European level,” he said.
Macedonia is not an EU country, but it has been an active participant in various EU-led initiatives to forge a cohesive response to the refugee crisis affecting countries along the western Balkans route.
In Athens, prime minister Alexis Tsipras warned again on Tuesday that his country was unable to cope with the number of refugees entering the EU through Greece. He strongly criticised Austria's decision to cap the number of asylum claims it is accepting.
Athens last week recalled its ambassador to Vienna amid increasing acrimony among the member states over the handling of the crisis.
The European Commission is expected to announce today a new humanitarian aid package for Greece.
Emergency help
Gianni Pitella
, the president of the main centre-left political group in the
European Parliament
, on Tuesday called on the EU to deploy emergency humanitarian assistance to help refugees residing in the bloc.
European Council president Donald Tusk, speaking following a meeting in Vienna on Tuesday with Austrian chancellor Werner Faymann, said the EU needed to do more to support Greece.
Mr Tusk said that a “test of our ‘Europeanness’ will be, on the one hand, going back to Schengen, and on the other, our readiness to stand by Athens during these hard times”.
This week Mr Tusk is due to visit other countries along the Balkan migrant route, including Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia and Greece. He travels to Turkey on Thursday ahead of an EU-Turkey summit next Monday in Brussels.
Meanwhile, in northern France, authorities in Tuesday continued to dismantle makeshift centres in the Jungle refugee camp for a second day.
The Calais camp is home to at least 4,000 people, many of whom hope to travel to Britain to seek asylum. Residents at the camp staged protests on Tuesday at the eviction, with a number of shelters set on fire.
The expulsion of refugees from the site has prompted neighbouring Belgium to impose border checks on the main northern routes linking the two countries, with the federal authorities deploying some 300 police personnel to the border.
Earlier this week the European Commission confirmed it had written to the Belgian government demanding clarification on the decision to impose checks.
