The Financial Times report, titled “0EU considers ringfencing Greece to stop flow of migrants”, states that EU leaders are weighting a drastic plan to staunch the inflow of asylum-seekers to Greece by blocking their passage into the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). Such a plan would leave tens of thousands of migrants stranded in Greece.

The European Commission and Berlin are on the verge of backing the proposal to aid the FYROM despite the fact that it is a non-EU country. This would isolate their fellow EU party-member despite the fact that it is already economically fragile and overwhelmed by migrants.

“The move to ring-fence Greece comes as fears grow that an EU scheme to get Turkey to block the flow of refugees entering the EU in exchange for 3-bn-euros in aid has failed to reduce the migrant flow,” reports the FT. This failure has turned the shift of migrant control from the Turkish coast to the northern border, increasing fears that Greece would be a “black box” for refugees.

The plan was first put on the table on Wednesday by EU ambassadors after Slovenia’s Prime Minister Miroslav Cerar sent a letter to his EU counterparts urging direct assistance to FYROM to prevent irregular migrants from crossing over from Greece.

He wrote: “All the EU countries should provide maximum assistance to the Macedonian (FYROM) authorities in controling the mentioned border through secondment of police officers, provision of equipment and by other appropriate means.”

EU has given Skopje assistance in the past, but the new plan would go over and beyond the previous aid.