European Council head Donald Tusk has ramped up the rhetoric on the EU's borders by urging economic migrants to stay at home rather than risk the perilous, potentially fruitless and often fatal journey to Europe.
With 10,000 people stuck on the border between Greece and Macedonia, and 2,000 more arriving daily into Greece, Mr Tusk vowed that the EU would not leave Greece alone as it finds itself on the front lines of a deteriorating humanitarian situation.
Before an emergency migration summit in Brussels on Monday, in a drastic change of tone from a senior EU official, Mr Tusk warned "potential illegal economic migrants, wherever you are from" that they were not welcome in Europe.
"Do not come to Europe. Do not believe the smugglers. Do not risk your lives and your money. It is all for nothing," said Mr Tusk in Athens after meeting Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras.
While Mr Tusk called for an end to the “wave-through” practice for asylum seekers, contravening EU migration laws, Mr Tsipras called for the EU to expedite its refugee relocation programme and for sanctions against EU countries that refuse to take their share of refugees.
At the end of a three-day visit to the region, Mr Tusk continued to Ankara yesterday for a meeting with Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today.
Ahead of Monday's summit, Mr Tusk said Turkey would be a key partner in helping the EU "break the business model of smugglers" through a "fast and large-scale mechanism to ship back irregular migrants".
On Wednesday, Mr Tusk visited the Dobova refugee camp in Slovenia as the European Commission presented plans for an emergency fund which Greece and other crisis-hit EU members could tap, worth €700 million over three years.
International law obliges Geneva Convention signatories to accept asylum seekers fleeing war zones. But pressure is building on EU leaders to reduce radically the numbers of economic migrants – who have no automatic right to remain – entering the bloc.
Monday's meeting is particularly crucial for German chancellor Angela Merkel who faces three state elections in two weeks. After accepting more than a million asylum seekers last year, and now facing growing domestic resistance, she is determined to make progress with Turkey on a joint initiative to keep refugees in camps there.
Turkey has already accepted €3 billion in EU funds to assist the 2.5 million refugees it is hosting from Syria and other countries. Turkish officials however say they will require at least €10 billion and have expressed impatience with the length of time it has taken EU officials to come up with promised funds.
EU officials, meanwhile, are frustrated that Turkey is not doing enough to interrupt the flow of refugee traffic on the Aegean Sea.
