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Migrants should no longer be able to get to Germany and Europe via the Balkan route, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said on Friday, adding that was concerned refugee numbers would rise with people now coming via Libya and Italy.
"It's clear that the Balkan route is a thing of the past and no longer will or should be a place again from where people will be waved through to Germany and Austria and to the center of Europe," he said at a news conference in Potsdam.
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"Now the issue is alternative routes - on the Balkan route and also we are of course concerned that we'll get rising refugee numbers again as they come via Libya and Italy," he added.
The comments come after Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said last week that refugee flows to Greece have decreased markedly in recent months, defending his government's support of a deal between the European Union and Turkey to tackle the migrant crisis.
"A few months ago we had flows of 3,000 to 4,000 daily to our islands ... Today, the flows are about 50 to 60 (migrants and refugees) daily," Tsipras told parliament during a debate on security.
Greece's Defence Minister Panos Kammenos met his German counterpart Ursula von der Leyen in Athens a day earlier and said that NATO's naval back-up in the Aegean Sea to help stop people smugglers had also contributed to the reduced flows.
Turkey and the EU last month sealed an accord which aims to end the chaotic arrival of migrants and refugees, most fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, after more than a million reached Europe last year.
Hundreds have died making the short but precarious crossing from Turkey to the shores of Greek islands in inflatable dinghies as well as on the route across the Mediterranean. The island of Lesbos is full of unmarked graves.
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