Migrants stuck at closed borders; others seek new routes

IDOMENI, Greece -- Desperate migrants and refugees piled up Thursday in fetid fields of mud at a closed border crossing as officials warned a well-trodden route to Europe used by hundreds of thousands in the past year was no longer available.

With the closure of the migrant trail through the Balkans from Greece to more prosperous countries, concern also mounted that people desperate for sanctuary or jobs in Europe already are turning to smugglers to find other pathways.

Government ministers and experts said Albania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania could become alternate tracks, and officials in Spain are in contact with Algeria and Morocco to try to stop new routes from opening there.

At the same time, the flow continued to the Greek islands by boat from Turkey, either by those who have not heard the Greece-Macedonia crossings are no longer open, or by others who hope the closure is temporary.

Some didn't make it.

Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency said five people, including a 3-month-old, drowned when their speedboat sank Thursday off Turkey's western coast en route to the Greek island of Lesbos.

Nine people were rescued from the boat, which was carrying Afghans and Iranians, the agency said.

NATO stepped up its operations to try to stop the smugglers, deploying five ships in the Aegean Sea, with plans to send more in the coming days to monitor the area near the Greek island of Lesbos and areas farther south, said Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary-general of the alliance.

Meanwhile, Greek police said 81 economic migrants from Pakistan and north Africa who had entered the country illegally were deported back to Turkey.

Nearly 42,000 people are stranded in Greece, including 14,000 camped in the mud near the Idomeni crossing with Macedonia.