New refugee burden must be shared, EU is told

Europe must prepare for the prospect of a huge new wave of refugees crossing its borders if the US leads a war against Iraq, the new president of the EU, Greece, has warned.

The government in Athens, which would be in the frontline of any new mass immigration, wants other EU countries to agree to a "burden-sharing" plan whereby each state would accept a proportion of any refugee influx.

"If there is a war in the region we have to take into account what happened in previous cases," said Michalis Chryssochoidis, the Greek Public Order Minister. "Every time there is instability in a particular area there is a wave of immigration in the form of refugees or clandestine immigrants towards the EU countries. There has to be a humanitarian preparation to deal with this problem."

Greece has no estimates of the numbers of possible new immigrants but is already accommodating thousands who have fled from Iraq. Because Baghdad has not agreed to take back unsuccessful applicants for asylum, many are housed in seven camps run by non-government organisations.

During the Kosovo crisis in 1999, an estimated 755,900 people left the province for some period of time, of whom 76,475 were evacuated from the Balkans – 13,697 to Germany, 2,459 to the UK, 5,581 to Turkey and 5,370 to the US. The European countries eventually bowed to pressure from Germany for "burden-sharing", under which even those nations far away from the war took in a proportion of the refugees created by ethnic cleansing and the Nato bombing campaign.

With public opinion in Greece solidly opposed to a conflict with Iraq, the issue dominates Greek politics. Greece is also fearful that it will end up footing the bill for accommodating the refugees.

George Papandreou, the Greek Foreign Minister, argued: "We have to be ready for every scenario. We don't want to be caught unawares. We have to see issues such as refugee policies and the possible radicalisation of populations in other countries."

Mr Chryssochoidis said: "It is not a matter for the Greek nation but for the EU and the world at large. We need to set down criteria in terms of burden-sharing and to proceed to distributing funds."

With some 3,000km (1,800 miles) of maritime borders, Greece is a prime target for immigrants into the EU. Around two-thirds of those entering Europe from Asia, Africa and the Middle East do so through the Aegean and the Mediterranean. The government in Athens says that almost 5,000 immigrants, mostly from Iraq and Pakistan, arrived recently on the Turkish-Greek border within one week.

Romano Prodi, the European Commission president, said last week that the EU has contingency plans to fund wartime humanitarian relief.

Athens also wants the EU to help support non-EU nations likely to be affected, including Turkey. Greece wants to start a dialogue with Turkey on the issue to try to persuade it to make contingency plans to deal with an influx of immigrants. That could entail financial support to help Turkey control the situation.