Merkel to EU: Don’t let Greece plunge into refugee chaos

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said the European Union (EU) cannot allow Greece, a country bailed out from its huge debt crisis, to plunge into “chaos” by shutting European borders to refugees.

“Do you seriously believe that all the euro states that last year fought all the way to keep Greece in the eurozone - and we were the strictest - can one year later allow Greece to, in a way, plunge into chaos?” Merkel said on the migrant crisis with public broadcaster ARD on Sunday.

She criticised the move by Austria and several Balkan countries to introduce border controls or cap daily migrant arrivals, creating a bottleneck in Greece as refugee boats continue to arrive from Turkey.

“What has happened is exactly what we feared, that a country is now left alone with its problems, and we can’t allow that,” Merkel said.

Merkel - who had long sparred with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, demanding strict austerity in return for billions in EU-IMF bailouts - said she was now in close contact with the leftist leader on the refugee influx.

Anger has been building in Greece, the European gateway for hundreds of thousands of migrants, after Vienna introduced a daily cap on asylum applications and four Balkan countries tightened entry conditions.