As fears grow of mass stormings of borders by desperate, angry people, the authorities are taking ever-harsher measures. The Macedonian police now allow through only a trickle from Greece: all but Syrians and Iraqis are barred. The Greek police are intercepting buses heading for the northern border. Arrivals from the islands are being taken to overcrowded reception centres around Athens. The situation is about to get worse: Austria’s interior minister demands a “complete stop” to refugee inflows from the western Balkans; Hungary has called a referendum against the European Union’s planned migrant quotas. Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister, telephoned the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, to ask for support: he wants NATO warships heading towards the eastern Aegean to scare away people-traffickers who bring people from Turkey to the Greek islands. But with mainland arrivals reaching more than 2,000 daily, Greece will soon be overwhelmed.