The new Greek government has found a novel way to secure concessions form hard-nosed German negotiators in their discussions over the debt crisis talks, by threatening them with refugees if they don’t play ball.

Panos Kammenos, the Greek defence minister said his nation would “dump” refugees on Germany, saying some of them could even be terrorist members of the Islamic State. Speaking on Sunday, Kammenos said: “If they deal a blow to Greece, then they should know the the migrants will get papers to go to Berlin”.

He is not the first member of the Greek government to make such a threat, though he is the most direct. Last week the foreign minister made a veiled threat at a meeting of EU leaders, remarking that if the Greek government were to fail because of heavy-handed German efforts to rebalance the nations enormous debt, it would become an express route into Europe for “millions of immigrants and thousands of jihadists”.

Germany has recently seen waves of large-scale protests aimed at perceived injustices stemming from the high number of refugees settling there in comparison to other European nations, which the protesters claim are shirking their responsibilities. Germany is now the largest importer of humans in Europe and one of the largest in the world, a point of contention for the PEGIDA movement, who campaign against the Islamification of Europe, war with Russia, and unlimited welcome to migrants.

Italy has become a major place of ingress for migrants and refugees, both legal and illegal, to Europe as the Italian Navy has created a safety net for those attempting to cross the Mediterranean by rescuing migrant boats. The emergence of a failed state in South East Europe could exacerbate the problem and create a new headache for FRONTEX – the European Union’s own borders agency.

Reacting to the threat by Greece, the German police union has already suggested Greece should be kicked out of the Schengen border-less area, which allows people already inside the EU to travel freely without a passport.