Refugees protest as bottleneck builds

Stranded migrants lay with their children on rail tracks at Greece's northern border on Sunday, demanding to be allowed to continue their journey, as Germany warned that Europe cannot let the country "plunge into chaos".

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was speaking as Athens said that the number of migrants trapped in Greece could triple after Balkan countries announced a daily cap on migrant arrivals.

Tensions between European nations worst affected by the migrant crisis are running high, with Austria's Chancellor Werner Faymann accusing Greece of "behaving like a travel agency" for migrants hoping to start new lives elsewhere in Europe.

"We estimate that in our country the number of those trapped will be from 50,000 to 70,000 people next month," Greek Migration Minister Yiannis Mouzalas said in an interview with Mega TV, up from 22,000 at present.

Merkel said Europe could not allow debt-crippled Greece to plunge into chaos by shutting countries' borders to refugees, just months after Athens' third huge international bailout.

"Do you 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?" she said.

Some 6,500 migrants remained stuck in a camp at Idomeni on Greece's border with Macedonia, unable to move on after Macedonia and Serbia, as well as EU members Slovenia and Croatia, imposed a daily limit of 580 migrant entries.

Several hundred migrants staged a protest at the border on Sunday, sitting and lying with their children across the train tracks.

Some held up handwritten posters that read "Open the borders, no food" and "We are humans, not animals".

The buildup at the Idomeni camp, which can hold up to 1,500 people, began in earnest last week after Macedonia began refusing entry to Afghans and imposed stricter controls on Syrians and Iraqis.

The Balkan clampdowns come hot on the heels of a move by Austria, further up the migrant trail to Germany and Scandinavia, to introduce a daily cap of 80 asylum applications and a limit of just 3,200 migrants transiting through per day.

The controls have had a knock-on effect in Greece, where migrants have continued to arrive by boat from Turkey.

AFP - Reuters